danac

I am very tempted by this unused RB 67 Pro S body and 120 film back. It's the closest thing to new out there. Is it a fair price?

After much study over the last week I can now appreciate the efficacy of a spot meter for landscapes. Deb always has her Canon T7i. It has a "spot" meter that covers 3.5% of the view so I can try it for a somewhat equivalent tool.

At this point I think the L-308 would be a good choice for my needs.

Oops I shouldn't have typed "wide-angle" I've got information overload lately. I just read that AA used a spot meter during his last twenty some years. More studying is in order but my ever so logical wife who is a better photographer says I should just keep it simple. And I say what fun is that?

I can't for the life of me understand why this would be so. Even Chris Johnson in his The Practical Zone System states: "if you are photographing distant mountains, a wide- angle meter can make getting an accurate reflected reading very difficult, if not impossible." I have used wide-angle TTL in-camera meters exclusively for over fifty years and taken many more landscapes than all else. My Photo.net portfolio will attest to this and some of those images aren't half bad. What am I missing here?

Thanks Rick!

I just noticed the Sekonic L-208. It's seems to be all I would ever need and it's only $127. Any thoughts?

I guess there aren't any medium format Mamiya techs. That's probably okay since there isn't much that can go wrong with such a simple camera other than seals which I can replace myself. Incidentally, my intense search for the RB unfortunately comes down to buying from eBay. There are tons of examples. I've had good luck with purchasing a beautifully preserved Canon A-1 from a seller in Japan. A Pentax Spotmatic with three lenses from Canada however was not so lucky though. The equipment was in superb cosmetic and functional condition but everything had a horrible mildew odor. It took weeks to mitigate the smell using cleaning solutions, activated charcoal and baking soda. But it sure took the fun out of ownership. One must be willing to take the very real risk.

To respond to some of the great advice: I enjoy doing my own processing... At my age with time running out, reasonable cost is not an object in order to get the most out of my experience.. . I understand the difference between incident and reflected light but have never considered the former having only ever used TTL SLRs... I've studied AAs Zone System and can see the particular advantage it has for those who use large format sheet film cameras. With roll film you can only develop the negatives with one process... There were times when i would have been well served with a spot meter. An example was an image I made of Vernal Falls in Yosemite. The rocks, cliffs and trees turned out great but the fall was a washed out zone IX. Since the camera will only be used for landscapes, a spot meter is not a really serious issue (I think)... In fifty some years of film camera use, I can just about count the times I needed a flash on two hands. Now I save the indoor images for my digital Canon T6i... If the meter had all of the above features, that would be okay too.

I hope to have an RB67 Pro S in the near future. The plan is to use it almost exclusively for black and white landscapes. Never having used one, I am completely ignorant of which meter to get. I'd like a new or nearly new one. Any suggestions would be helpful. I'm really looking forward to the fun factor of this endeavor.

I hope to acquire a Mamiya RB67 Pro S in the near future. It has been my dream for forty-five years. The camera and lenses will have to be in as fine a condition as possible but there is always the alleged prospect of compromised lens shutter springs from leaving them cocked for long periods. I will want to immediately send it off to a competent Mamiya RB expert in order to assure the best performance from it. Who in the continental USA can do this?

I used Legacy Pro Paper Developer from Freestyle Photographic Supplies yesterday. It mixed and processed the same as Dektol and the results are indistinguishable from the Kodak version.

email to Kodak sent.

I took this photo of my home yesterday and developed it today. It shows the smoke we have here in Colorado. The near mountains are two miles away and the further ones another three miles. The camera is an A-1 with an FDn 50mm f/1.8 on Delta 100. No filter was used. I won't be photographing any more landscapes for a while.

It's an FDn Jim. My wife nearly always had it on her AE-1 for many years before she went digital.

FTbn with 50mm f/3.5 macro lens

laurencecochrane: The RB67 Pro S would be on my list but they are older than the RZ so condition comes into play. If a truly "like new" one with standard and wide angle lenses came along I would be desperate to own it. I want to use the FTB et al more but smoke from the fires to the west (I'm in the foothills on the east side of the Rockies) have made landscape photography a non-starter. I'm lousy at street and people images so the cameras are just waiting.

All: If I ever acquire another camera it will be in the following order of preference: 1. Mamiya RZ67 Pro II, 2. Pentax 67 Pro II and 3. F1n. A mint condition Mamiya with a wide angle and normal lens is now quite expensive but at this point in life that doesn't bother me. The Pentax is currently unobtainium. The F1 would be fun but the FTB covers most of the same bases already. Too much of a good thing doesn't always work. Back in my shooting days a friend used to say: "beware of the man with only one gun." The same thing applies to vehicles. My wife and I own four cars and two pickup trucks. When switching around between driving them we have to learn them all over again for the first couple of miles. One of my favorite quotes however was by the late great Mae West: "Too much of a good thing can be wonderful." But I don't think she was referring to photography. Steven: Your technique sounds interesting. I'll try it.

After using my new/old FTBn for the first few times I went back to the A-1 and it wasn't fun anymore. The A-1 practically did all of the work. The FTBn gave more feedback and control. Exposure compensation was a breeze.You can do the same things with the A-1 but it doesn't show you analog trends when changing aperture and shutter speed. Even the AE-1 and my new/old Pentax Spotmatic SP were boring. Now I can actually appreciate the big fuss that folks have had over the F-1 all these years. You really can teach an old dog new tricks.

Looking at some of my TMAX 100 images they do look a bit boring. I will try to re-do some prints with contrasty filters. Maybe that will save them. Delta 100 has somewhat more character and similar grain. I'm getting some Fujifilm Acros II tomorrow. Judging from images online It could touch all the bases. If it does I will surely report the results here with examples. Alan: Plus-X had much better contrast. It was the best all around B&W film.

Bill: It was probably D-76. That's what my brother's shop used back then. Has anyone here tried Fujifilm Acros II? I just read some glowing reviews on it.

conrad_hoffman: Why did you dislike t-grain films?

kmac: That was back in the early '80s when I had yet to discover colored filters. A circular polarizer was my usual filter choice.

What are the alternatives for print developer? I have my doubts about the contaminated Dektol.

Sierra de la Sals, Utah taken from Canyonlands N.P.: All of these images taken with a Canon AE-1 on Plus-X.