ppisczak's Full Review: Mamiya RB67 Pro SD Medium Format Film Camera
I purchased a used RB-67 with a 90mm lens about 3 years ago in order to get into medium format photography. I soon thereafter purchased a 180mm lens which absolutely loves people! That is I have taken consistently good portraits with this lens. I have used this camera for banquet photography with good results. The only issue I had was that the candid shots took too long to set up and some people were impatient. For the award winners they are somewhat staged and they went flawlessly.
I also carried this camera EVERYWHERE for one week in Egypt and one week in Israel during a vacation my wife and I took 2 years ago. I took it everywhere because it is an expensive camera as well as looking that way. Interestingly enough, the size got me a lot of respect and cooperation from subjects and site officials during the trip as they probably figured that if I was hauling around this boat anchor that I was serious. The first day of carrying the camera and extra lens was tough but thereafter it was a part of me. By the way, the outfit proved its worth as I grabbed a great picture of my wife and the couple we travelled with in front of a mortuary temple in Luxor. From this I made a very large, flawless print.
Another accessory we purchased was a motorized back which allowed me to shoot either 120 or 220 film - big benefit. Even though I have to manually cock the shutter, I am always assured that the film has advanced. We will purchase a second one.
One of the least discussed features of medium format photography is that the larger negative can act as a poor mans telephoto lens because of the scaling effect of the negative. People always talk about quality of the enlargements, but not that you can grab a distant object or scene and still get a quality picture out of it at the developing stage.
Because of the longer setup time and lack of meter, I also carry a Nikon F4 for those candid and 'speed' shots. But if I really want a quality picture, whether candid, fast or not, I figure out a way to use the RB67 camera.
For further information about using this camera - see Roger Hickson's book. He uses this camera for landscape and just about everything else. He is a professional photographer.
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