For the last year I have been debating about MF quite a bit. I'm not
getting rid of my 35mm gear, for I use it and have a nice kit that
I slowly work on improving. The size and lightness are important
for a lot of things. However, I started out in photography long ago
with MF 6x6 TLR equipment. It died eventually and I used my parent's
35mm gear on and off. Now that I am a well equipped 35mm user I find
myself missing MF. The difference seems to have a lot to do with
peering through a tiny viewfinder versus a nice big ground glass.
I think that the MF ground glass lets me "slow down" instead of
squinting through a tiny eyepiece I also spend a lot of time with my
35mm gear on a tripod. Once that happens I often think I should
go the extra distance for a larger negative. That certainly won't
make the shooting any slower than it already is!
All along I have been planning on adding some MF equipment, but the
costs for my favorite 6x6 are a bit high, at least for newer stuff
which is still manufactured. Some 6x6 backs cost almost as much as
a used Pentax 67! So, I put it on the back burner. Prior to this
I didn't really consider Pentax due to the lack of 6x6 and I'm not
particularly interested in 6x4.5. Though not interested in Pentax
MF gear, I've still followed along the pdml posts about the 645 and
the 6x7 and the 67 and the brotherhood of mystic 67 users.
Well, I probably should have not followed the 67 message since it
piqued my interest. I went looking and found that the Pentax 67
gear is quite affordable, even _new_ compared to 6x6 systems used.
As I said above, you can get a 2nd 6x7 body for the price of a
6x6 back! At pricing like that it seems that if I want a 2nd back
I might as well get a 2nd body (if it comes to that). I'm quite
familiar with the astounding properties of the Pentax SMC glass, and
it seems the 67 lenses share all the qualities of my Pentax 35mm gear
... just in larger cannon sized diameters.
I'm off to Chicago this weekend to see some Pentax 67 gear in person
so I can handle it and see what it feels like. I was hoping to pick
the collective brain of the PDML for some extra info before I left.
I've already read the existing articles, but I haven't seen any info
on the following:
1) The 67II does TTL flash. From the photos I've seen the hotshoe
appears to be a Pentax 4p hot shoe. That means that the 67II will
do TTL flash with my existing Pentax TTL Flashes, such as the AF280T?
Also, the 67 flash system is a straight 4p system and won't TTL with
the auto-focus 5p flashes?
2) Only the AE prism for the 67 does metering, all the other finders
lack metering so you need either a hand-held or "sunny-16" meter?
I would like to have a waist-level finder that would meter, so I
don't have to "peer" through the small peephole viewfinder so much.
3) The 6x7 metering prism is a full-average meter, while the 67II AE
prism is closer to 35mm gear with center-weighted, spot, and "matrix"
metering modes?
4) Can you adjust TTL flash fill via exposure compensation like you
can on the SuperProgram? In other words use manual metering, and adjust
the exposure compensation to control the flash fill?
5) What is the highest shutter speed on the leaf shutter lens(s)? 1/500?
When using the leaf shutter lens does the body sync the flash correctly?
6) I have read that mirror and shutter vibration are a big problem
with the Pentax 67 bodies. An article on The Luminous Landscape
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/pentax67ii.htm
shows multiple images on photographs with Pentax 67 gear because the
shutter and the mirror shake the camera so badly. On the other
hand, the PDML photographers have been getting excellent results.
What's up?
7) Some things that I've read say that the camera and lenses have two
bayonets, an "inner" bayonet and a "outer" bayonet. Digging around
it seems that some accessories (extension tubes for example) work only
on one of the bayonets. Does this mean there are essentially two incompatible
lens systems for the 67, and you need to have, for example, extension tubes
and teleconverters for *each* of the bayonets?
8) Any lenses to stay away from? Any particularly outsanding ones
(yes, I already know about Aaron's 75mm f/2.8 :)? Any recommendations for
any particularly good pairs or triplets of prime lenses?
9) Is the film loading particularily onerous, or is it comparable to
6x6 TLR bodies?
9) Any other good questions to ask which I haven't? :)
Thanks for any info!
Bolo -- Josef T. Burger
ps: Just wait till I ask for info about 6x7 capable enlargers!
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