TLR – it’s new to me

[XenPix]

I have a lovely Yashicamat twin lens reflex that I accidentally acquired when my dear old dad left the family home some years ago. It was nothing to do with me having hidden it before he left. Honest.

Anyhoo.

I finally got around to getting some film for it. I’ve checked to make sure it is clean and operating correctly.

Now, what the heck do I do? Apart from take pictures. It’s my first time with a TLR and I’m just wondering if there is something they are particularly good at, anything I should avoid, that kind of thing.

Otherwise I’ll just go my usual snap-happy way.

Thanks!

[Elsinore]

Oh man…I’ve been wanting a TLR for awhile now (especially a Yashica). I had an uncle who had one, but alas, my aunt gave his camera gear away long ago 🙁 I’m no expert, but I know medium format is great for portraits, and the huge negatives make huge enlargements.

[monkeybort]

i’ve got an antique rollie (i think) sitting on my shelf but i’ve never tried to do anything with it – i keep meaning to futz around with it but never get around to it.

[XenPix]

i’ve got an antique rollie (i think) sitting on my shelf but i’ve never tried to do anything with it – i keep meaning to futz around with it but never get around to it.

That was me until I got the film yesterday.

😉

[Curious]

you want to have fun shot some chrome with it. few things more fun than handing your friends a 2 1/4 square slide to see.

a 4 x 5 is even more fun. folks freak.

keep in mind that your composition will be different and it takes a bit to get used to. but that’s part of the fun.

[sleeping]

For a medium format camera, anyway, TLRs are fairly small, light, and unobtrusive. They’re excellent if you’re going to be wandering around somewhere all day, and don’t want to carry a bunch of extra lenses and stuff – put it around your neck, stuff some film in your pockets and you’re good to go.

They’re less good, in general, for close ups (for one thing, the parallax between the viewing and taking lens starts to become an issue) – it’s not impossible, but an SLR is way more convenient.

The light meter in my yashica (124 G) is very erratic. I would check it against something reliable and make sure you can trust it (or not). I usually take a little handheld meter with me instead.

If your camera can take it (my Yashica can, but my Minolta Autocord can’t) I like using 220 instead of 120 as you get 24 exposures.

[monkeybort]

just looked at mine, it’s an argoflex by argus. i think it would take some serious cleanup as the view finder is pretty dirty, but i’m definitely intrigued now. 😛

[Curious]

i have a fairly nice rolli (acquired used) that has a built in meter and the last time i used it it worked fine. got the pretty leather built on case and all. it’s the shits.

before that i used a “tower” TLR which is turns out was sold as a sears brand many years ago. also acquired used. it light leaked something fierce until a camera repair guy in a little shop in austin replaced a tiny missing screw. from there on it was fine. no meter but i have two hand helds for my 4 x 5 so that wasn’t a problem. see them here http://www.davesweblife.com/images/old%20stuff%20002.jpg

now you want to talk old meters check this out http://www.davesweblife.com/images/old%20stuff%20017.jpg that sucker works too. note that depending on the light levels you have several option with the hood. also note it reads the light in “foot candles”. how many of yours can do that?

[XenPix]

It’s the YashicaMat LM, I had a quick check on the light meter, it’s working, but I’m not sure if the accuracy has been affected. I don’t have a light meter so I can’t check that. I was figuring I’d use the first film as a kind of test run, noting all the settings and such, to see if it needed the use of an independent meter.

I got the 120s because I didn’t know it could take other films, I’ll look into the 220. Thanks!

[Elsinore]

Actually, you do have a light meter–your Rebel XTi 😉 Can’t remember what setting you’d use that would be the same as the meter on the Yashica (probably center weighted–anyone else know?), but you can check your light meter against the one in your DSLR or digicam. Your Yashica won’t take 220 film unless it’s got an insert to switch between the two (can’t remember if the LM does or not, but I think it might–IIRC, the LM and G are the same except the G has gold contacts and all black trim–don’t quote me on it, though).

[Analogy]

Actually, you do have a light meter–your Rebel XTi 😉

And I have a camera bag with a Pontiac logo on it. =D

[Elsinore]

LOL! 😆

[sleeping]

Can’t remember what setting you’d use that would be the same as the meter on the Yashica (probably center weighted–anyone else know?)

The meter on the Yashica is external to the lens, so it’s probably more of an overall average of the metering area (not sure if the metering area is equal to the film area or not, the one on the 124G seems to be a good deal smaller). It’s probably not going to match exactly any of the metering modes on an SLR, but if you get fairly close to a uniform subject (an evenly lit wall or something) the difference in metering systems shouldn’t be significant.

You can also use the “Sunny 16” rule – a middle toned subject in direct sunlight should give a shutter speed about equal to the film’s ISO at f/16 (i.e 1/125 for 100 speed film, or 1/500 for 400 speed)

It doesn’t look like the LM takes 220 – there’s a scan of the instruction manual here: http://www.kyphoto.com/classics/instructionmanuals.html
(the manual itself is password protected, but the password is listed on the page there)

[XenPix]

Elsinore – I’m so dense, I didn’t even think of that. I can at least get an idea if it is close to accurate or not that way. Cheers!

Sleeping – You rock. I was hoping to find a manual somewhere, you just saved me some work. Thank you!

[Elsinore]

XenPix: I can’t say I came up with that myself–a friend of ours once told me about that trick. As it turns out, I got a TLR for Mother’s Day–here I was talking about still wanting one and I got it :lol:. It’s a Seagull, which is a Chinese knockoff of a Rollei I think, and I got 4 rolls of b/w 120 film (I ruined the first learning how to load it, though :lol:). Unfortunately, the self-timer appears to be hosed, so it will have to be exchanged for a new one, but looks like we’ll be able to learn our TLR’s together 😉

[Author]

Posts