OK... my usual question!... Pentacon Six?!
 

Just discovered this camera online... and I am really impressed with it's ability for portraiture... anyone have any views? Good?/Bad?...

Many thanks all you knowledgeable folks! : )

Jim

Well you need to decide if you want a 120 system or a 35mm system. A 120 system obviously provides superior resolution and versatility (if you have interchangeable backs) which the Pentacon Six doesn't. The various Bronicas and Mamiyas do. The price is huge weight and and slightly higher cost per frame.

35mm is faster, more spontaneous, and easier and cheaper to purchase and process as you travel across the globe.

Going cheap at the moment are Bronica SQA and ETRS systems, which are like poor man's Hasselblads to some extent. Ffordes has a great selection.

Thanks Alex. I'm thinking Medium format for only portrait work... 35mm I see as a whole different discipline to Medium format and the look/feel of the results for me is incomparable... so I'll still be looking for a 35mm to suit my needs too!

I've been looking at this :

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...#ht_500wt_1129

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kaikilo...-90622540@N00/

An example of the Pentacon Six portrait style..

Grrr... been outbid... again!. ; )

How old are these East German cameras likely to be and what's their long-term reliability like?

My favourite cameras ever have been my Olympus OM1s (I still have both of them) - but...Olympus stopped making them in the late 1980s so they'll all be over 20 years old now, no matter how well they've been looked after. I wouldn't recommend them to anybody for serious work without knowing precisely how well they've been maintained.

There's also the Kiev 66 which is a Soviet copy of the Pentacon. Works very well and some of the soviet lenses are pretty damn good. It's a chunky tank of a camera though, best start working on those biceps :P

I have an OM-1 and it is indeed the most pleasant SLR to use, however seeing as you've been looking at F5s and the like I guess you want AF so the OM-1 is out. I like it for the good construction, large viewfinder, shutter speed ring by the focus ring on the body and the compactness.

I'd think the Bronica systems are a more practical and just as affordable way into medium format...how much money do you want to spend on a medium format system?

Ahhh yes. I've seen the Kiev 66... but the images, on the whole did not have the punch of the Pentacons (From images I found on Flickr).

OM -1's are lovely... as was and AE - 1 I tried... really big and bright viewfinder... I also just borrowed a Rolleiflex 35mm and that was pretty great too!... F5's out of my immediate price range for now!... but a boy can dream hehe!

Oh... I'd like to spend around... £120... that's why I was looking at Pentacon's and maybe and old but working Mamiya press cameras (If they are good enough for William Egglestone... they're good enough for me hehe) I had a Polaroid 600 SE Press and it was great... but I just had the Polaroid back for it so we parted ways!

Medium format for £120 is a very tough call. Maybe a Yashica Mat or a Minolta Autocord?

Yeah!... I know... a long shot... but I'm bidding for a Pentacon... 60 quid at the mo.. with 2 Jena lenses... if it stays under 100 I may get it! : )

Reason being... I'm starting a book of portraits and I want them all on film... plus, later in the year I am thinking of self funding a submission magazine and I want people that shoot film and digital to submit so I need/want to do a good lot of medium format portraits for the flickr group and my own book project : )

However there is this, which is close to your budget:

https://secure.ffordes.com/index.htm

Ahhh that links to the menu page Alex... but thanks for looking : )

Whoops bad website. Go to used-->Mamiya-->M645 Cameras where you should find an M645J complete with one lens for £130. It's a little battered but it works.

Looking at used prices of Pentacons it seems unlikely that it will stay below £120, there are some going for as high as £300!

Question: do you develop your film and if not who does, and do you make prints, scan or both?

Oh thanks for that very much Alex!... I will make some research!... good store that! : )

I can and do develop and print, B&W... and I have also a store that does for me too (Colour negs mostly)... I think I will split between the store and then the very best I will do myself so I can dodge/burn to my choices etc... Don (Hoey) here on WPF has shown me the best way to replicate negs, better than any scanner I have seen/used... so I will be using his technique for digitizing the negs : )

Ohhhh Alex... are you part of this project personally?

http://alienproject.wordpress.com

AMAZING!!!

Care to share?

Yes, I am personally on the ALIEN project team ;-) New launches coming up within the next 6 months or so.

Oh yes... of course... I will try to find the links or I will ask Don to give them to me so i can post here... I know they are somewhere here in the WPF threads! : )

Love the ALIEN project!... where is the next launch taking place?... exciting times!

http://www.worldphotographyforum.com...ead.php?t=4972

Thanks Don for the link : )

Thanks for the link, it's an innovative way of getting film into a digital format. Incidentally I have a V300 as well and the scans of 35mm negs it gives me are great (for printing up to 8x10 inches and sharing on the web). I didn't see enough difference in the tests Don gave between the two to justify me building a lightbox. However the lightbox does give images that are slighly sharper and I noticed that the tonality is marginally better, but nothing too drastic to my not very well-trained eye.

Good luck with the Pentacon auction, we'll be updating the blog with a launchtime for ALIEN-2 once we figure it out, but that only happens about a week before launch because it's heavily reliant on the wind.