If it's a Mamiya 1000S model, that was my first medium format SLR
which I owned in 1981-1983. An excellent camera with good lenses,
focal plane shutter, etc.
Try to keep your hand-held exposures shorter than 1/60 second. The
older Mamiyas would bounce a bit from mirror shock, you need a good
solid tripod for good results at slower shutter speeds.
While you can use the *ist DS as a light meter, I'd recommend buying a
small, simple ambient light meter. I like the Sekonic L-208 Twin Mate:
simple analog readout scale, very accurate, sensitive enough for most
hand-held work at least. It costs around $100 and does a great job.
(I've owned and been using one for a decade or so, so this is not just
a "pick the cheapest out of a catalog" recommendation. ;-)
If you've got more to spend, the digital Sekonic L358 Flash Master can
do it all. It's about $260, is still compact but larger than the L208,
and has more sensitivity, features, etc than you can shake a stick at.
It will meter for ambient and flash, and combinations. Well worth the
money. My flash meter is the earlier model L328 Flash Mate, which I've
also had for a decade or more, and it produces perfect reference
calibration for any camera's built in meter.
Good luck with it.
Godfrey
BTW: If anyone else wants to enjoy learning/shooting medium format
film, I have my Pentax 645 kit up for sale. Body, two lenses, two film
magazines, caps, etc, a few other small accessories. Write me if
you're interested.
On Dec 25, 2008, at 6:28 PM, Jon Paul Schelter wrote:
I've been thinking about an upgrade to a K20D, D300 or D700...
Instead of wading into the madness that is high tech, my Anna got me
a Mamiya 645 - looks like the original to me, with a penta-prism
finder - I don't really know a lot about it, but I'm excited to try
it out. It seems to be in great working order. It came with an
80mm f/2.8.
Does anyone have advice or pointers for a novice? I'm going to need
a light meter, I guess, although I *imagine* that I can use my
*istDS to give me an EV. Is there anything I should know about
moving to a 6x4.5 format? The viewfinder is beautiful, and makes me
think that I might actually be able to take a manually focused
shot. It also makes me wonder at how dependent I am on technology
these days.
--
PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List
[email protected]
http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow
the directions.
