visualculture

This is a medium format camera which means it uses film that is larger than the standard 35mm film. It has a focal length of 80mm and a maximum aperture of f/3.5. Since the film is so much larger than 35mm film, to get the equivalent focal length of 35mm you need to multiply by the crop factor. Between medium format and 35mm, the crop factor is 0.55. So the equivalent focal length on a 35mm camera would be 44mm.

You may notice there are two lenses on this camera. This type is known as a TLR, or twin-lens reflex. The bottom lens is the one for the film. The top lens is for the viewfinder which is actually located on the top of this camera. One advantage of this configuration is that you don't need to move it up to your face to use the viewfinder. You can hang it on your neck and just look down to take a picture. Also if you want to really dial in the focus, there is a small magnifying class you can flip down to really get a close up look at the viewfinder.

One disadvantage of this configuration is that the image in the viewfinder is flipped on the vertical axis, so it can be a bit confusing to frame the shot at first. Moving the camera right moves the image in the viewfinder left and vice versa. With a more typical SLR camera where you hold the camera to your face to look through the viewfinder, the image is not mirrored because the plane of the viewfinder is parallel to the plane of the lens. The reason the viewfinder image on a TLR is mirrored is because the plane of the viewfinder is perpendicular to the plane of the lens.

This camera is fully manual, and while it does have a built-in lightmeter, the one on my camera doesn't work. Dialing in all the parameters for a shot takes some time with this camera. Also, medium format film tends to be pricier than 35mm and there is normally room for only 12 shots on one roll. For all these reasons, I tend to use this camera at a slow pace and take carefully composed shots with it.