What’s the Cheapest Way to Get Into Medium Format?

The Camera Collector

Editor’s note: due to fluctuations in the used camera market, prices quoted in this article may have changed. Please visit the Adorama Used Camera mini-site for up-to-date pricing.

OK. I’ll admit it. There’s an even cheaper way to get into medium format.

That’s to buy a cheap, plastic Holga or Diana box camera beloved by the artsy set, but these things are so poorly constructed that they often have light leaks, and their lenses are just plain lousy. Bad, you say? Nope, these failings are considered estimable virtues by those who use ‘em to take dreamily unsharp pictures! Anyway, I assume you want to take reasonably sharp pictures on occasion, and that’s why I recommend a used twin-lens reflex (TLR) camera.

Before I launch into the four specific cameras I’ve chosen from Adorama’s extensive and diverse collection of used TLRs, there are a few things good and bad you should know about the breed. Basically a TLR has its viewing lens mounted above the picture-taking lens on the same lensboard, so both lenses move in and out simultaneously as you focus.

Behind the viewing lens is a reflex mirror set at a 45-degree angle that reflects the viewing image up to the focusing screen. Above the screen is a light-excluding hood and a hinged, low-power magnifier that you flip into place when focusing and composing the picture. As a result of this configuration, the viewing image of a classic TLR is right-side up, but laterally reversed—not so great for following action.

That’s why TLRs usually have a direct-vision sportsfinder built into their viewing hoods. They also have inherent vertical parallax (but no lateral parallax), which can become significant at close focusing distances, but some models (notably Rolleis) have a moving parallax-compensating frame under their finder screens, which is coupled to the focusing mechanism.

On the plus side, TLRs have no flipping mirror, hence less camera-induced shake than SLRs, and they almost invariably have leaf shutters, which also vibrate less and are very quiet besides. As a class, TLRs are simple, compact, reliable, reasonably priced and relatively easy to repair, and virtually all of them take readily available 120 film (Exception: “Baby” TLRs, which take hard-to-find 127 film).

On the minus side, TLRs (except for the late, lamented Mamiyaflexes) lack interchangeable lenses, don’t focus very close (3 feet is the usual minimum), and do not have interchangeable film backs. Most are manually-set cameras, though some have built-in coupled meters. Some that take 220 as well as film, but they’re usually more costly.

I do not consider the TLR’s waist-level finder either an asset or a liability, but for psychological reasons, many folks find it easer to take candid, unposed pictures while looking down into a camera rather than bringing it up to eye level.

Start 66
The first TLR I found lurking on the bottom shelf of Adorama’s TLR section is a Start 66, made in Warsaw, Poland, of all places. It bears the legend WZFO, which, as everybody knows, stands for Warszawskie Zaklady Foto-Optyczne. Anyway, this solidly constructed beast from the ‘60s is nothing if not basic—film advance is by knob and ye olde red window on the back (at least it has a built-in cover), and the manually-cocked 1/15-1/250 sec plus B shutter has its speed settings arrayed around the taking lens, and lacks any form of double-exposure prevention.

Both viewing and taking lenses are labeled 75mm f/3.5 Emitar, and the latter stops down to f/22. Focusing is by left-hand knob with adjacent depth-of-field scale, and there’s a big fat PC connector in the upper right-hand corner of the lensboard.. Despite its spartan specs, the Start 66 is well finished and its viewing image quite decent. Adorama’s price for this excellent condition example is $89.00, and whoever buys it will most assuredly be the only on his block to own one.

Ricohflex
Next, I spied a nice clean Ricohflex, a TLR that’s unique in focusing see-saw fashion, with thumb levers on both right- and left-hand sides of the lensboard! Focusing is therefore fast and quite pleasant. Footages are read out below the lensboard by means of a metal pointer and laterally-arrayed focusing scale.

This nicely-finished Ricoh from the 60s has matched 80mm f/3.5 Riconar lenses, and the shutter is a Citizen MXV with speeds of 1-1/400 sec. plus B, MX sync settings, and a built-in self-timer. It’s also got (wonder of wonders) automatic film stop, a mechanical frame counter on the right, knob wind, a side-mounted hot shoe and a PC outlet.

Shutter speeds and apertures are conveniently displayed in a small window atop the viewing lens. Adorama’s price is $139.50, not bad for a well-made TLR with a good viewfinder and optical performance to metch.

Yashica-Mat 124
Stepping up, in terms of features and price, we come to the well-known Yashica-Mat 124, a Rolleiflex-inspired creation if ever there was one. Like the classic Rollei, it features crank wind, left-hand knob focusing, and small milled wheels inset between the lenses for setting apertures and shutter speeds, both of which are displayed in a convenient window above the viewing lens.

Modern conveniences include a built-in, coupled CdS meter of the match-needle type that ingeniously turns on when you open the viewing hood, and 120/220 film capability. The meter scale is perched atop the nameplate casting, next to the ASA 25-400 speed setting window, and you remove, rotate, and reinstall the pressure plate (which has four convenient mounting slots) to set the camera and frame counter from 120 to 220 film. Clever.

Other features of the mid-‘60s 124 include a bright 80mm f/2.8 Yashinon viewing lens and 80mm f/3.5 Yashinon taking lens (the latter is a very good, four-element Tessar type that stops down to f/32), Copal SV 1-1/500 sec plus B shutter with self-timer, shutter lock and PC outlet. The viewing image is very bright and contrasty, and the screen has a boxed grid pattern to aid composition. Adorama’s price of $239.50 for this excellent condition example with case indicates that high-end Yashica-Mats hold their value very well. Still, it’s a lot of camera for the money.

Rolleiflex Automat
We conclude these festivities with an affordable example of the legendary Rolleiflex, namely a clean Rolleiflex Automat of circa 1950. Later Rollei TLR models with Zeiss Planar and Schneider Xenotar lenses and built-in meters are superb, but generally pricier, while older models with 75mm f/3.5 Zeiss Tessar lenses perform very well (avoid the uncommon f/2.8 Tessar model of 1949. unless you’re a collector. It’s an optical dog).

Anyway, Rolliflexes are the quintessential TLRs—their maker, Franke & Heidecke of Braunschweig, Germany, made the world’s first rollfilm TLR back in 1929. In terms of quality construction, finish and mechanical excellence, they are unsurpassed.

The Rolleiflex Automat in question is remarkably advanced for an over-50-year-old machine, with automatic first-frame positioning and frame counting, crank wind, and automatic parallax compensation. Its 75mm f/3.5 Zeiss Tessar lens and Compur-Rapid 1-1/500 sec plus B, X-sync shutter, and self-timer, are first class. Its viewing system is remarkably bright and contrasty for a camera of this vintage, partly due to the approximately f/2.8 aperture of the unmarked viewing lens, and its screen has a box-grid pattern.

Adorama’s price for this fine old Rollei in excellent shape is $389.00. It’s already lasted a lifetime and is probably ready for another two or three incarnations as a satisfying user-collectible.

Needless to say, the fun TLR quartet highlighted herein hardly exhausts Adorama’s trove of previously owned TLRs and other useable classics, so check out the used camera section of this website or drop by the store and see them for yourself.