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Having just picked up my trannies from last Sunday's sunrise shoot with Geoff, I am pretty much convinced I need/want a bigger tranny size and am considering going to 6x7 (from current 6x4.5).

My options, as I see it, are:

Mamiya RB67
Mamiya RZ Pro II 67
Mamiya 7II
Pentax 67
Contax?

Obviously, there are the panoramic Fujis, etc but they are well north of my price range.

Of the first 4 listed above, does anyone have any comments or suggestions.



Secondly, if I acquire the Epson V700 scanner, from a 6x4.5 or 6x7, how big a print can I expect to produce with good quality from the scanned file? (I am sure this is a pretty ambiguous question, but I live in hope).

Cheers

The Mamiya RB67 is a simple mechanical camera built like a tank. It can a lot of punishment yet is able to provide very high quality negs. I can highly recommend them. You can pick them up for a reasonable price if you shop around. Be sure to include a 150mm lens in your purchase.

The Epson V700 is an outstanding scanner. I regularly make A3 prints from 35mm negs and they could easily go to table top size. Check out

http://www.photo-i.co.uk/Reviews/intera ... page_1.htm

I have scanned 12000 negs, with this baby and it hasn't missed a beat.

Hope this is useful

Patrick,

I almost bought an RB67 a while back, see:
viewtopic.php?f=36&t=30587

As Matt says, it is built like a tank. I ended up deciding not to get it as for what I wanted it for, it was too heavy to carry up mountains.

I will eventually get something but not sure what. Sometime next year I'll decide.

Good luck,

André

Thanks guys. I appreciate the comments regarding the RB. Does anyone know if it can take a digital back (assuming I can ever afford one)?

cheers

depends on the body model........ Mamiya have one and Phase One make one...... L&P photographics are the agents for Phase One.....

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0809/08091 ... l_back.asp

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/hitched.shtml

....... google is your friend

If you want to play with my Mamiya 7II just pm me.

If you want bigger trannies, there is always 6x17

Edit: I was kinda thinking about selling in order to buy a 'blad...

Jeff

Should have added this to my earlier post....

I recently got myself a 6x17 set up for about $1500... Gaoersi body with Schneider SA 90mm f8... 4 shots per 120 roll is not nice but 6x17 negs are very nice, going to shoot some trannies this week... will post when they are dev'ed

trotkiller wrote:If you want to play with my Mamiya 7II just pm me.

If you want bigger trannies, there is always 6x17

Edit: I was kinda thinking about selling in order to buy a 'blad...

Jeff

Thanks for that Jeff. I may take you up on the offer.

The benefits I see of the RZ/RB 67 vs the 7II are:

1. Cost - given the 7II is still in production, finding second hand versions is not too easy, so the cost is significantly higher.
2. Availability of digital backs.

The primary benefits of the 7II are availability of new product/warranty and size.

I need to question whether I can justify the much higher cost (particularly when you add a wide angle lens into the picture) and lack of future digitability. That said, I know that I can pick up a good scanner for $700 to convert real photos to digital replicas of very good quality.

As a general observation, the 7II have sharper lenses.

But the RZ67 is more versatile, saw a test that the RZ with a 180mm lens can achieve sharp slides at 1/15 shutter (dampened shutter and it's a leaf shutter afterall), that is quite amazing, still not as consistent as TLRs though.

Personally I'd get both and I only have the RZ at the moment.

They are also two different types of cameras. One has nice big screen (WLF) great for composition the other is a rangefinder designed with portability in mind. The RB/RZ would probably be more of a tripod camera (unless you work out!) and the 7II useable as a handheld.

robert wrote:The RB/RZ would probably be more of a tripod camera (unless you work out!) and the 7II useable as a handheld.

Anyone want to buy me both?

robert wrote:They are also two different types of cameras. One has nice big screen (WLF) great for composition the other is a rangefinder designed with portability in mind. The RB/RZ would probably be more of a tripod camera (unless you work out!) and the 7II useable as a handheld.

The RB/RZ is handholdable, just a bit heavy, that's all, and on topic, I've figured out good exercises to work out those forearms.

The 7II have very very sharp lenses though. And dare I say, a roll of Ilford Delta 3200 and it would make better prints than a 35mm rangefinder with 400iso film... give the fastest 7II lenses are at f4 and 35mm at f1.4...