On The Road with Vicky Lamburn

Bodiam Castle, East Sussex

Taken shortly after sunrise on 21 Feb 2009
I really do love using the Leica M2

Leica M2, Kodak EBX 100, Hoya 81A and Voigtlander Ultron 35mm

Continued from Part 2

Part Three – Final thoughts on a TLR and Medium Format in a digital age

Anybody who knows anything about my photography knows that apart from a quick snap on my mobile phone, I only use film cameras. Despite holding down a job in IT working on the forefront of web technologies – I still don’t have any desire to go out and buy digital camera. But with all that considered, how does this weigh up in a digitally dominated photographic world, and even though I spent a mere £120 on this system so far (excluding film) – is it really such a good investment?

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Gary e-mailed me after I started the C330F Review (which I hope to finish tonight) with regard to this gem of a medium format camera. Well, he has a great blog himself looking at photography from the world of Mamiya.

As I have grown very fond of my C330F, there is a chance I’ll also invest in a 6×7 system such as the Mamiya RB/RZ67. Click the logo to follow on to his great blog:

He’s also the US distributor so why not check out www.mamiya.com whilst you’re at it?

There are three things in life that are certain to cause a heated debate and snapped exchanges: Politics, Religion and Ken Rockwell.

However, he has posted a gallery of photos taken on his Leica (an M7 I think) on a Rt. 66 trip (something I’ll do one day) with some Fuji Velvia 50.

The results are just fabulous, seriously fabulous and wonderful work.

View Ken Rockwell’s Route 66 Gallery

Since owning a Leica M2 myself, I just cannot get away from the fact that it is one of the most wonderful enjoyable pieces of photo equipment I have ever owned. And apart from telephoto work, my EOS 3 is beginning to get very envious of the M2. Who can blame it, it’s a wonderful camera and shooting slide in it is a righteous liberating experience.

Show your support for making the South Downs a National Park in 2009!

Hopefully by June this year (2009) I believe the government will confirm one way or the other whether the South Downs are to become a national park nearly 50 years after the first were created. In fact the South Downs were one of the areas first identified in 1947 to become a national park, but unlike the others suggested in the report, it never happened.

Chanctonbury Ring (in distance), W.Sussex
Photo Copyright ©2008 Victoria JK Lamburn

But with your support, in Summer 2009 it could become a National Park at long last.

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A piece of prose…

In Suburbia

In suburbia the mind restlessly wrestles with paved inertia and the beat of life passes by on a horizon distant and forgotten, nothing left in the heart to feel and nothing left to jump at with zeal; so passion and a little life has flown away across the roof tops and gone away into the miasma of haste and mortar. In suburbia she raises her head a little from the passenger seat and peers through the triplex, eyes as glazed as the pane she looks through, distant and longing for something that fell from her grasp so long ago. And he walks with solemn purpose but with no purpose all at the same time in a semi-detached nation of indifference, indecision and inaction. There is a job and a duty but no longer love nor zest to spring forth the dreams that a long forgotten youth once hinted at with an eye’s caressing glint of eagerness. And the drum goes on, the tarmac marches on, the streetlights turn from blank to sodium orange and the sky turns turtle on the mark with racing headlights searching out a lifetime’s journey of déjà vu. In suburbia he longs for the day to break free and make good on the grand promise of travel and writing the book; but turns to the Valium provided for the masses to sedate any hope of breaking from that nine to five he once swore never to be part of. In suburbia she peers into the mirror hanging jewellery from her neck and bunching her hair back waiting for a day to parade in grandeur and pride; But nothing, but nothing. Not even the clarion call to action or the faint sound of a song seeping through that was once felt so deeply inside. And so it goes in suburbia: the pavement cracks and the creeping cats, the windswept parades and vaunted charade of breaking loose. But in suburbia the ring road has you encircled, with your hard-shouldered love waning and verge-side passion wilting before an ever darkening horizon over suburbia.

Part Two – Twin Lens Quirks and Revelations

Continued from Part 1 | Skip to Part 3

So what is the Mamiya C330 or the C series in general? They are Twin Lens Reflex (TLR) cameras which means as the name suggests they have two lenses. One of the lens is the one you view through and the second lower lens is the one that is the taking lens (i.e. with the shutter that exposes the film behind it.)

This leads to a few interesting quirks. The first advantage of a TLR is that you can see virtually what you are taking a picture of as you take it. This has some distinct advantages for long exposures and portraiture where you want to be sure the person/people had their eyes open at the time of exposure. The second advantage is that compared to some medium format systems the Mamiya TLRs are cheaper than other interchangeable lens counterparts like the Bronica ETR, Mamiya 645, Pentax 645 (6×4.5 cameras) and the Bronica SQ and Mamiya 6/7 (6×6 cameras.)

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