On The Road with Vicky Lamburn

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?

The quick bottom line is that this camera will produce results that equal what I have seen with the likes of a Sony Alpha 900 (24 MP 35mm format.) Being 120 format based, even ISO 400 film remains very clean. But, I’d dare say you don’t shoot film to have the clean look of digital which even with the likes of Ektar 100 and Velvia, digital really does ‘win’ on its clean grain-less appearance. I don’t like that clean look, I like a little bit of grit although with slower films (Provia, Astia, Velvia, E100VS, FP4, TMax 100, Acros, PanF etc.) you’re going to get very clean looks with 120, so unless your working in Olan Mills (do they exist any more?) where you have to churn out good results quickly, 7 days a week, 120 format cameras (i.e. medium format) is a very viable medium. It’s going to take a lot of film and processing to get you close to the £8000 it costs for a 16MP Hasselblad digital system, and digital MF backs though coming down in price, are still expensive.

And this is the clincher with digital, in the long term you save yourself money on processing + printing, on film you can buy a cheaper camera but in the end given long enough digital will have worked out cheaper. But – cheaper doesn’t solve the issue of not really enjoying the digital aesthetic as much as I like film’s. This is not to say I hate photos taken with digital cameras, I have seen some stunning results and love many a digital photo/print, and I have seen a lot of rubbish pictures taken with film (my early ones for example!) But – for what I do, the film aesthetic knocks a home run. And even if it works out in about 5-6 years time that my Mamiya C330F has cost me more in film, processing and printing than a Sony Alpha 900 – it’ll still be worth it. Cost is not a consideration when it comes to getting the result I want.

I’ve read and heard too many digital versus film rants and they are all incredibly tedious, boring and pointless. And this is not a versus comparison, this is about using an older camera in 2009 and whether it is viable and whether it will continue to be. That implies some crystal ball gazing and I know like the next person I could be completely wrong!

Arguably the biggest casualty so far of the transition to towards digital being the mainstream of photography is slide film. Whereas black and white and colour print have been kept relatively stable with even additions here and there to ranges, slide film and associated ranges have suffered. There was a time where the legendary Velvia 50 was discontinued but demand showed Fuji was a silly mistake that was. However we have lot a lot of Kodak E6 films and Kodachrome is now on its last legs as the ISO 64 consumer variant. That said, what remains and that’s a pretty decent offering from Fuji and Kodak suffices – but it’s taken a battering. Why? Because for a long time magazine editors demanded slides, instant viewing and in the early days of computer desktop publishing, scanners were optimised for slides, not C41 (colour) negatives.

How long will slides (E6 in this case) last? I’d personally be surprised if in a decade’s time if you couldn’t buy slide film any more, though I would expect some further rationalisation to have occurred. But – clearly for the next decade 120 film is still going to be available and in good volumes and ranges too, especially when Kodak have announced their new Ektar 100 film will also now be launched in 120 format. This is of course in my view a pre-empt towards a time when Kodak can call it quits on their Ektachrome range of slide film, but we’re not there yet.

The bottom line is that those who are professional photographers for magazines, newspapers and publications that demand results yesterday have largely all switched to digital. Where film will remain strong is the casual shooter, the amateur and enthusiasts out there shooting family and friend portraits, and landscapes with all manner between. This kind of work doesn’t demand digital’s convenience like a newspaper editor today would expect. So before you think you could end up buying a paperweight, a medium format camera like the C330F will remain useful for a long time to come.

And then there is the processing. Well, any one can process black and white, it is easy, and with a little more precision C41 is achievable. E6 is a bit different agreeably and you’ll probably need a lab for C41 and certainly for E6. But as some high street/main street labs close, they’ve closed because they were either nothing special or they never catered for the amateur but the professional market which has largely gone digital. What remains however are quite a few very decent labs where many have freepost mailers and will turn around in 1 day. My favoutites are The Darkroom and Peak Imaging – the latter who are just excellent for everything whereas The Darkroom are slightly cheaper but good for general processing of 35mm, 120 and XPan negatives/slides.

But if you invest some time, developing and then printing in the darkroom is another skill you could learn and ultimately a very rewarding one in my view. It’s also not that difficult to get started with either (Although as you learn you will get more intricate with your art.)

The point I am trying to make is that film isn’t dead, it’s not really dying, it’s fading into the background, it’s here and here to stay but it’s not mainstream. This is why you can’t really expect to pick up 120 film from the high street drugstore, but many decent photography/camera shops will. Even in Worthing AllPhotos on Tarring Road stock 120 so you won’t be solely restricted to purchasing over the Internet or traditional mail order.

The point remains that the C330F and the Mamiya TLRs in general are proven picture taking machines, mechanical beasts and hefty ones at that. You don’t need to worry about charging batteries or batteries at all, you don’t need a vast array of accessories just a couple of lenses maybe and the body – you will then have a superb picture taking machine. I have the 55mm wide and 80mm standard and hope to finish my system with a 135 or 180mm soon, and so far all the prints I have had done (i.e beyond the 5×5 proofs I usually get) have astounded me and their recipients of just how wonderful the results are. It’s a joy to use such a simple camera by today’s standards and yet get results that are equally as good as a very expensive (i.e.: £2000 and up) camera. And part of that joy is printing my own black and white negatives of family. If you’ve only ever used 35mm, the definition of medium format is a whole new world and it can be cheap.

It really is no joke that I got a C330F (a bit beat) and an 80mm for £60, and a 55mm for another £60. Picture it, you could sell prints made using this system that would not look amiss in a gallery and it will have cost you a fraction of the leading edge digital 35mm and a pittance compared to digital medium format.

In conclusion, the Mamiya TLR still makes sense in this digital world because it still takes great photos and will continue to do so. It’s also tough and well made, my C330F’s handle came away the other week because the pin worked free from the crank and the handle itself. A bit of bent wire soon sorted that out. It’s not the most pretty of picture taking machines and it’s quite a raw TLR compared to the smaller Rollei’s, but the system glass is very good. The price is such that you could take a digital SLR for weddings say for the majority of shots, but those where a little closer intimacy or size is anticipated, wouldn’t it be nice to load up some TXP320 or 160NC in this and capture those moments?

There are alternatives such as the Bronica ETRS(i) but that’s 6×4.5 format, or the SQ (6×6 like this), also others like the Pentax’s and other Mamiya’s – but out of all those, the Mamiya TLR is probably the cheapest. The real clincher of this TLR is that unlike the Rollei’s, Minolta’s, Yashica’s and Seagull’s – these take interchangeable lenses and with those lenses, this will take photos that not only wow you, but will wow others when you can wryly smile and say: “See that ancient beat up looking camera over there, that film camera, I took that photo with it.”