クセカメ購入

そう、ハッセルを手放してPentacon Six TL買っちゃいました ^^

ファーストインプレッションは？

ハッセルよりファインダー小さくて暗い！

でも軽いさは抜群だ。中判の高性能と３５ミリ判の一眼レフに近い利便性をバランス良く両立させているのが特徴だ。

今はCarl Zeiss Jena Biometar 80mm F2.8使ってます。

このレンズの描写は暖かみのある、スッキリ系だ。色乗りがいいし、ボケ味も綺麗だし、逆光撮影にも強い。

以前ハッセルでよく使ったCarl Zeiss C Planar 80mm f/2.8と比べて、やっぱりこっちの方がちょっと甘い。同じツァイスなのに、ビオメターは後期のプラナーと比べるとかなり性格は異なる印象だ。

それじゃ、また。

A Taste of Yashica and Tomioka

This is a late exhibition report.

The author of Time for Lenses（レンズの時間）, Mr. Suzuki, held a little exhibition at Popeye Camera a few months ago. On display were photographs taken by him with rare lenses (like the Zunow 50mm F1.1) and fun, mostly unknown stuff such as some modified-lenses.

There were also a couple of his favorite lenses on sale, most with pretty decent price tags.

Intrigued by compact rangefinder cameras, I was immediately gravitated towards a modified-Yashica COLOR-YASHINON DX 45mm F1.7 converted to the Fujifilm X-Mount. Although by no means is this lens hard to find on the internet for sale, it's definitely a rare sight in person.

Legend says that this lens, which was originally paired with the Yashica Electro 35 series of cameras, was designed and made by the guys over at Tomioka. Tomioka famously made many great Yashica lenses in the past, and was also credited in manufacturing the legendary Yashica ML 55mm F1.2 on the C/Y mount. 

Mr. Suzuki, having done various interviews with optics manufacturers, later confirmed for me that this lens was indeed made by Tomioka.

Zeiss and T*

Zeiss's T* coating is well known in the photography community to be highly effective in dealing with flaring and ghosting in backlit situations, but come to think of it, is this really true?

I'm certainly not a Zeiss-guru per se, but I've had various Zeiss lenses come and go in my kit. I've always thought of the T* coating as just an advertising gimmick, but this might just be me. This notion of mine comes from experiences shooting against the sun and getting lens flare and ghosting on my pictures that I normally don't get on, let's say, pictures shot from my Nikkkor lenses. (Not to say I don't like flaring and ghosting here, though.)

I've come a long way from shooting T-coated Zeiss Opton-Sonnar 50mm F1.5 to lenses that are more recent like the Sonnar 35mm F2 on the RX1/RX1R and other Sony-Zeiss lenses on my A7's, and I do recognize significant improvements that Zeiss has made in the digital era. However, I really don't get the hype whenever something's being advertised to have been coated with Zeiss T*.

Lens coating technology is getting so good these days that I might just be nitpicking here. These Zeiss lenses are certainly better (in an objective way of thinking) than those super vintage lenses that tend to produce low-contrast and foggy images. 

So is it better than the past? Hell yeah, but this doesn't say much though.

Should people give into the hype of T* marketing? Yeah... Probably not.

Thoughts on the Lomo LC-Wide

I have to admit upfront that when I first heard the word "lomo", I have in my mind cross-processed, heavy-vignetted, ultra-saturated pictures. I hate those things, and the LC-Wide did not change my mind about cheap-ass filters that I can get just as easily on my phone. However, this camera showed me that it's not just about the look that gave Lomography such a cult-following.

Let me explain.

I'm not going to call this little camera a beauty, because let's be honest, it NOT PRETTY, like AT ALL. The Lomo LC-Wide resonates with me more like a toy, but I'm not going as far as to calling it a toy camera, just to show some respect. (Quite frankly, I don't believe Lomography themselves consider what they make toy cameras.)

The LC-Wide is an interesting little film camera. It has a 17mm Minigon ultra wide angle lens on it, which I think is totally amazing. Do you guys realize what an ultra wide like this would cost as a stand alone lens on any given mount?

I bought the LC-Wide at a bargain price of under 30,000 Yen, and I haven't regretted this purchase one bit. The Minigon lens on it is contrasty and vignettes strongly just like how I have speculated, but quite surprisingly I actually like this little camera. Don't get me wrong, though, I'm not saying I like the so-called "Lomo effect" that I can get from this camera, I'm purely talking about the joy of using the LC-Wide.

溫柔、無味的6x6 | Yashica Mat-124G

這是我的第一台中畫幅6x6相機，也是我的第一台TLR。以前在用Pentax 6x7的時候，因為機身太過笨重，對自己來說也沒有其他太多吸引人的外觀特色，除了外拍使用上實在沒太多興趣帶出門。但是這台Yashica Mat-124G改變了我對中畫幅相機的看法和使用方式。

1970年生產的Yashica Mat-124G其實在時代上已經是接近TLR成熟期的一款型號了，也是Yashica最後一台TLR，於1989年才正式停產。它有內置測光功能、支持220底片、而且價格低廉，使用上也沒有太多的quirk。它的誕生是在Yashica於1972年與Carl Zeiss合作之前，也與1983被Kyocera收購之前還有一段時間，算是Yashica作為獨立公司的全盛時期下所開發的一款TLR。

相機結構

Yashica Mat-124G是一款6x6比例的中畫幅膠片相機。顧名思義，拍出來的照片是正方形的。特別適合上傳instagram。 （不）

它除了可以用120底片，也能用220底片，但是我從買到現在只拍過120，還未拍過220。切換這兩種也十分容易，底片倉有個小桿子，撥一下就能提示自己了。

裝底片、過片、回捲等動作也十分簡潔明了。對於在這之前從來沒用過TLR的我，我覺得算是很好用的一款相機。 Youtube的視頻有好幾個，看一下大概就能知道使用方式了，我也就不再多說。

它的測光錶我當做是壞的。本身精度並不高，用替代品的話電壓也會不太對。我買了一個Voigtlander的VC Meter來替代。不過YashicaMat-124G的熱靴很滑，讓我移動的時候常常讓掛在上面的測光錶掉落，很不方便。

Yashinon鏡頭

成像方面，它有著一顆Yashinon 80mm f/3.5的鏡頭。結構應該是Tessar type，不過實際用過應該都知道它和很多有名的那些鏡頭不在一個級別上面。當然，我沒用過Rolleiflex或者Mamiya的6x6膠片相機和鏡頭，我只知道這顆Yashinon的表現並不是那麼討喜。

它很清淡，反差很低，全開的時候偏軟調。逆光的時候顏色會顯得更淡雅，可能是鍍膜扛不住強光的原因吧。不過我個人是蠻喜歡它逆光時的成像的，眩光和鬼影是一道道的彩虹色。