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Re: [APML] Good 220 Negative/Slide Meteor Film?
Hey Ray,
Well... this is way more than I asked for. 8-) But it is excellent
information that (hopefully) I can put to good use. I will do a little
research before I jump into MF.
I understand what you say about the Pentaxes. I feel the same way about
my Taurus Trackers (I have 2). For some reason most folks use GEGs. It
is the one piece of astro equipment I own that I will not consider
getting rid of.
Alan
--- Ray Butler <ray.butler@nuigalway.ie> wrote:
> > The newer ones have this the older ones you can either use a
> battery
> > adapter which goes into the camera and allows you to use a remote
> > battery or send it into Pentax and have them modified it.
> > I did this with mine. The cost was some were around $100.00
> > for this,that was about 5 years ago.
>
> Hmmm, $100 just for a small modification to an old body seems
> uneconomical to me. For the very same $100, you can buy a used Kiev
> 6C
> medium format SLR with 90mm f2.8 lens, waist level finder, TTL prism
> finder, etc. and have it shipped to your door. Only difference is
> that
> it is 6x6 and not 6x7. It takes both 220 and 120 format film with a
> switchable pressure plate, like the big Pentax. The build quality of
> the
> 1970s to mid-1980s Kiev 6C is better than that of the more recent
> (mid-1980s to present day) Kiev 60. I have a 6C and I like it, no
> problems so far after running a few rolls through it, except I think
> I
> need to replace the door foam seals (a few dollars worth of foam from
>
> microtools.com will sort it out), as there is a hint of a light leak
> along the edge of the film rebate. My old Mamiya 645 has begun to
> show
> even worse leaks, so don't think ill of the Ukrainian camera just
> because of that!
>
> A Kiev 6C body will key you into the largest range of medium format
> lenses ever created in the same lens mount - the P6 breech-lock
> mount,
> which you will find on a whole bunch of different cameras (Pentacon
> 6,
> Praktisix, Exakta 66, Kiev 6C, Kiev 60, Kiev 88CM). Some of these
> lenses
> are very, very good and very, very, very, very affordable. Best of
> the
> bunch are the 30mm f3.5 fisheye, the 55mm f4.5 shift-wideangle, the
> Zeiss Jena telephotos (120mm f2.8, 180mm f2.8 and 300mm f4), and all
> of
> the Schneider range (60mm f3.5, 80mm f2.8, 150mm f4, 250mm f5.6) -
> although the Schneider lenses are considerably more expensive and
> rarer
> than the others. These are the same Schneider lenses used by some of
> the
> uber-expensive Rollei cameras.
>
> The Pentax 6x7 became the dominant medium format camera in
> astrophotography more by an accident of history than through any real
>
> price/performance comparisons. If it were not for the Cold War and
> the
> resulting differences between the access to western markets of
> Japanese
> versus Soviet Block goods, and the accompanying attitudes and
> awareness
> amongst consumers, things might have been rather different. But that
> was
> then and this is now, and there are wonderful bargains to be had in
> P6
> gear these days. As with any used gear, caveat emptor - this is as
> true
> of Pentax as of P6 stuff. To quote (from memory) from "Medium and
> Large
> Format Photography" by Roger Hicks & Frances Schultz: "The early
> Pentaxes (6x7) were not known for their reliability, and did not
> improve
> with keeping".
>
> Ray "proselytising affordable medium format options again" Butler
SCT Astrophotography: http://www.pbase.com/avoetsch/astrophotography
FS-102 G-11/Gemini: http://www.pbase.com/avoetsch12952/tak_fs102
& http://www.pbase.com/avoetsch12952/fs102
& http://www.pbase.com/avoetsch12952/takpf
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