A few weeks ago on a visit to my local camera shop I came across the gorgeous Yashica Mat 124 G shown below. Minty clean throughout, all the knobs and dials worked and the meter seemed not only to be functional but fairly accurate as well. Although nearly 100% of my life's film shooting has only ever been 135, I have always been curious about 120. In support of that curiosity, I periodically binge eBay looking at medium format cameras - Twin Lens Reflex (TLR) and their single lens cousins (Hasselblad, Bronica, etc.). As a result of the online research I knew this particular model of Yashica TLR was the most sought after variant and that it commanded the highest prices on eBay. I also knew that the shop’s asking price was about half of what similar condition cameras had actually sold for on eBay. It didn't take me long to pull the trigger and I walked out of the shop with the camera and two rolls of Kodak Gold 200 in 120.
Within an hour of my arrival home I had downloaded and read the manual, watched a few YouTube videos and loaded a roll. First order of business was to check the meter against a few of my hand held meters and all looked well. Then I headed outside to shoot images at various shutter speeds to assure myself the speeds were accurate (of course I would only know the results after the roll was developed). Even with only 12 exposures available to me on a roll of 120 (6x6) it took a few days to complete that process. Once completed, more YouTube to learn how to load 120 onto my Paterson film reel. Looked easy and it was and in about an hour I had developed the roll. The huge negatives looked fabulous as I hung them to dry. And later that evening I was able to start the scanning process. Oh my goodness those images are wonderful!
Fast forward to now, I have shot, processed and scanned a second roll with similarly great results. I am hooked on medium format film. Well, to clarify, I remain, primarily, a digital shooter. But my goodness those huge negatives are gorgeous (I keep repeating myself).
The Yashica is larger than my 135 cameras but it is light and quite easy to get around with. Composing and focusing through the waist level view finder is a very different shooting experience and it will need to be practiced more frequently. Especially that "left is right and right is left" thing. Based on the 24 images I have so far produced, there is a time and place for 6x6 images. My weekly photowalks will remain, largely, in 135 format, mostly digital. However, I have a few specific plans for this square format beauty and I'm very much looking forward to viewing the results.
See below four of the 24 images I've captured so far. All were developed using Cinestill's C41 kit then scanned on the CanoScan 9000 flatbed using VueScan, and finally, brought into Capture One for a bit of further development. I am very happy with the results!
