the tightwad

I'd agree about starting with a TLR. The Yashica 124 is a very good

simple reliable camera that can often be found on e-bay for a fair price. If that suits your fancy then you can move up to the newer

Mamiya c220/c330 line and buy the lens that you need for not much

money and....( this it the part I like) ....still have a camera

that , with care, will last as long as you want to shoot medium format.

Yep, these two camera lines are still some of the best picture machines

on the market......no matter what fancy do dads are added.

Mate, I'm what they call a "bottom feeder" in that I love old working

cameras. I don't care one fig about fancy names only what works and that includes MF cameras. For your budget you can buy a good Mamiya or

Yashica TLR some lens and still shoot MF with money left over for other things in your life. I've never worried or missed a shot with any of my "Old Iron" yet.

Kaysie, Look for a Pz-1p over the MZ-s. A bit tougher while costing less. However, I'd have to agree that not many plastic bodied cameras

built today will take a pro beating for long. Find a good Pentax all metal camera for wedding work.

I think the answer may be simpler than you might think. Since you like

6x6 (I do too) then step back in time to an excellent portrait camera

with a well deserved reputation.......A Mamiya C 330 ( or c220) Tlr

with a 55mm, 105mm & 135mm lens and your good to go 'till prices on digital settle down. Simple , direct, and so reliable not to mention

cheap!!

Then there is the photographic bonus of teaching you how to take better

pictures while making it a lot of fun!TLR's have always delivered a ton

of bang for the buck and still do. I'm at the age where I can pamper

myself with whatever I want but I stick with my Mamiya's because they

allow me to study the picture and "see" it before I take it. No whiz

bang SLR is ever going to let me do that. Yes.....simple and direct.

Great pictures every time.

Yes, I'm also interested in this subject. What I think might be of importance here is the pro's going digital in droves now. I can understand why because to pro's time is money and speed of deliver

is critical. However, is that to say the millions of photo hobbiest

will ignored by the film manufactures? No, I don't think so. At least

not completely. What I see is narrowing of both film type's along with

a drop in labs processing film. How soon? Don't know but the axiom of

technlogy doubling every year now it isn't to far away.

In way I think that film will be around for a long while until the

digital field is so easy any brain dead citizen can use it......

without a computer.

I've owned both the yashica & the mamiya starting with a 124 & c220.

I've still got the 124 & c220 recently adding a c330s to my stable.

I find that the 124 is just right for casual use when weight is a

bit of a problem and time isn't. When it's critcal it's always the

mamiya's I choose. So I guess in the end it's a matter of the right

"tools" for the job.