Digital BW, The Print

You are venturing into uncharted territory here. This obviously 
could evolve into a whole maillist of its own. But briefly, I've 
owned everything, and for street/travel I've settled on a 
Hasselblad 202FA or 203FE. Small, lightweight, incamera 
meter, auto or manual meter that's very accurate. I use the prism 
on top because I can't deal with the reversed image. I carry an 80 
and a 40; that's it.

Issues with others: Pentax 67: too big and floppy is the mirror; I 
couldn't shoot slow shutter speeds. Mamiya 6/7, Fuji 690, Leica: 
all rangefinders; same issue as yours--bugged me that I wasn't 
seeing what the lens was seeing, plus trouble focusing. Any 645 
or 35mm: too small a negative. Fuji 680 (all-time favorite 
camera) but way way too big.

These are just MY preferences and issues; like many other 
things, it's a big world out there, and you've almost got to try it
to find out what works for YOU.

I just did this whole soul-searching thing for ideal travel camera: 
ended up with Hassie 202FA and an XPan, with Kodak T400CN, 
on this trip to India in May. Let me tell you: India will flush out the 
best travel camera. I sold the Xpan when I got back, due to 
(again) the whole rangefinder thing. The images are at:

http://marktucker.com/india/

-Mark Tucker

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Stephen Kundell, MD" 
<skundell@p...> wrote:
> First of all, thanks to all for this wonderful group. I especially 
appreciate that Jerry can be as opinionated as he wants,  and 
no-one will chastise him (unlike some other groups I have 
seen).  This is obviously a group of individuals with diverse 
backgrounds, all quite serious about their photography. 
> Like other members, I have been amazed at how I am able to 
bring new life to old images. I have been quite happy with my 
second hand Umax powerlook 3000 since I started mounting 
everything with Kami. The scans are beautiful and very sharp. I 
am not a street shooter, and most of my work has been medium 
format and 4X5. I recently took a Koni Omega Rapid 120 to Paris, 
and am delighted with the images. The optics are very nice 
(60mm and 135mm lenses), but the camera is an absolute 
beast regarding weight. I also can not get used to that 
rangefinder thing. I really want to see what will be on the film. 
> So, does anyone out there have recommendations for a 
medium format SLR camera, preferably manual, not very heavy, 
with nice optics (the lenses above appear to have great Bokah), 
that also does not say "I am a Hasselblad, steal me!". This Koni 
is pretty ugly and threatening which is beneficial. BTW, I did have 
the Pentax 6x7 in the past, and a Horseman medium format. 
Both were too big and heavy. 
> Thanks to all
> Stephen
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]