At 16:34 5/20/03, Jan Steinman wrote:
>From: "Daniel Mitchell" <danmitchell@xxxxxxxx>
>
>> So maybe 1 lens, and 1 camera, and 1 film, = more freedom to express
>> yourself..
>
> Well, that points at a TLR as a way to start experimenting. I love the old
>Rolleiflex I picked up...
A nice Rolli is considered a collector's item, and can be expensive!
If you really want to experiment "on-the-cheap," look for a Cirroflex.
It's a US-made Rolli knock-off. I got one for $10. The big used places
like KEH have them for only a bit more.
It's spelled "Ciro-flex" [ :-) in the event one does a search] and they
were made by Ciro in Deleware, Ohio, IIRC during the heyday of the TLR in
the 1940's. Taking lens is a Wollensak f/3.5 85mm, just a tad longer than
the common 80mm, and it gets reasonable marks for performance. Highest
shutter speed is 1/200th. Not bad in its day for a relatively inexpensive
camera (compared to Zeiss Ikon and Rollei). Even one in supreme condition
should be under $50. OTOH, you can save your nickels and dimes for a
Rolleicord (one tier down from a Rolleiflex) which tend to be "user"
cameras with the Rolleiflex's being pursued by high end users and collectors.
TLR's, other than the beastly Mamiya's with interchangeable lens board
(viewing and taking both) TLR's tend to be fairly light with smaller
leaf-shutter lenses compared to an SLR with prism finder (the massive prism
for the larger ground screen).
One lens, camera and film only goes so far in freedom of expression. When
one envisions a finished print at the outset, before constraining it with
anything, it eventually builds into detailed decisions about everything,
including film selection and print materials. That said, I do have
mainstay "general purpose" films (Kodachrome, Portra, Plus-X and Tri-X) but
do not hesitate to use something else if it is a better match to the "vision."
-- John
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