Why you should own a Rolleiflex SL66 !

The Rolleiflex SL66 is one of those under dogs camera which is not very popular among film shooters. I would say it's a hidden gem among all the 6x6 cameras. Those who love shooting in the studio would go for the ever so popular modular Hasselblad 500cm due to it's wide lens selection, additional motor winder / grips, optional finders, as well as Polaroid back options. Street and travel photographers would prefer the slightly lighter and smaller fixed lens Rolleiflex TLR  like the 2.8 f or 3.5 f. This SL66 I would say it's actually a beast on it's own. I had this camera for almost two years now and have taken quite a lot of images with it and it never fails to surprise. Here are 6 reasons why you should own one !

1. Best for close up portrait - The SL66 is the only few 6x6 format camera which has a bellow besides Mamiya C330. Bronica, Hassellad, Pentacon, Minolta Autocord, Yashica TLR as well as it's siblings Rolleiflex TLR doesn't offer this option.  The bellow enable you to do close up portrait without having to pay for additional extension rings and lenses.

2. It has the amazing Zeiss Plannar 80mm f2.8 - This is the legendary lens which is found on the amazing Hassie as well as the Rolleiflex 2.8f . The 80mm f2.8 Planar has gorgeous rendition and color reproduction. It's constantly spot on and the focal length is very usable. With an added bellow and reverse mount option for close up macro , the possibility is endless without spending a single penny ! For a Hassie, you would need to buy multiple close up extension rings for the same effect.

3. It has tilting bellow  ! As far as I know, only the SL66 has a tilting bellow for 6x6 format which gives your the flexibility of correcting your perspective like a tilt-shift lens. ( minus the shift of course ) . This gives a lot of flexibility for the user to control the focus point and to creature your signature look.

4. Modular  - Just like the Hasselblad, the SL66 is just as flexible. You can customize and swap out any parts of the camera as you wish, from the focusing screen , finder, film back , lens, grips and etc. This is never a dull moment with this camera.

5. Fully mechanical - The SL66 is a full mechanical camera, hence there is no battery needed for operation. I always love full mechanical camera as it will just keeps going on and on. A good CLA will bring this camera back to life in no time. The elder siblings SL66E has a more modern  electronic circuit board for the metering but apart from that it's basically the same camera at a fraction of it's price.

6. It's more affordable than a Hassie. Well USED TO be . Comparing in term of price point, the SL66 is a lot cheaper than a regular 500cm and it's packs with tons of goodies. I got  mine 2 years ago for around USD 600 mint condition with a 80mm f2.8 lens with hood as well as a Rolleiflex original leather case. A Hasselblad 500cm is selling for around USD 1000 back then due to the fame with the Hassie brand. However SL66 price has gone up recently on ebay hence you might need to hunt around for a decent unit.

Pentax 645Z Review

Having owned and used two 645 medium format camera, the Contax  645 and the Mamiya 645 AFD which runs on film, the Pentax 645Z would be my very first digital medium format camera. Hence to be fair, I could only review and comment on Pentax based on the ease of use, ergonomics and features .

Starting off with the overall built quality, I find it to be really sturdy or at least on par with the other 645 contender in the market. The button placement is very well thought off , necessary buttons are all placed near the thumb and index finger while less frequently used buttons are placed further away to avoid accidental activation. The swivel LCD screen is really great specially shooting in some of the hard to reach angles. I love this feature a lot! The experience of using this camera reminds me of some of the old Panasonic prosumer camera FZ-50 which I had used over the years. The size and weight is pretty much the same as other make in the market. 

I think one of the best selling point of this camera is the ISO capability. I am able to get decently clean shots at 2000 to 3200 ISO which I feel it's amazing for a medium format. It is still able to retain a lot of details and sharpness even at such high ISO, thanks to the new CMOS sensor. This opens up a lot of possibility to a lot of photographers as the camera need not to be glued to the tripod at all times ! I have a feeling that wedding photographers will enjoy this camera a lot :) I really like the neutral color rendition from this camera. I shot only jpeg with this camera and added a mild touch of personalization on the images attached. 

The autofocus on this camera is rather fast and accurate, way better than my Contax 645 but again I am comparing this to a 15 to 20 yrs old camera which might not be relevant. The mirror slap could be a tad louder than I expected but I could bear with it. I am able to steal some shots taken at low 1/60s which fairly acceptable  sharpness. 

While on the lens, I opted of the SMC Pentax-Fa 75mm f2.8. The lens is really sharp even when shot wide open at f2.8. I can't find any fault with it at all but I still prefer the Zeiss Planar 80mm f2 on my Contax which I feel it has a little bit more character. Probably because I shoot wedding and I love the more dreamy feel on my wedding images, the F2 really shines. I think for those does commercial, the Pentax lens would be really awesome. I really like this camera a lot for what it's capable but I still heart the Contax 645 more as film is closer to my heart :) 
 

Shot at f2.8

shot at f2.8

shot at f2.8 - Image at 70 percent crop

shot at f2.8

shot at f2.8shot at f2.8

shot at f2.8

shot at f2.8

shot at f2.8 @ 1/60s  3200 ISO hand held

shot at f2.8 @ 1/60s  3200 ISO hand held

We at WAF.ASIA

We are truly grateful to be invited for the WAF Asia event last weekend in Zebra Square alongside with vendors like Wishing Tree, Celeste Thoi, Peak Experience and Funky Dali just to name a few. We had an amazing time meeting up with so many new and old friends who took their time off to pay us a visit at our humble little dark room look a like booth. Here's some image to share.

7 Simple tips to Travel with Film

Thinking of traveling with you film camera but having a lot of concerns about the possibilities of coming back empty handed ? Not sure if you are aware but X-ray damage on film can't be corrected in the lab or dark room. The processing lab cannot separate X-ray fog from camera exposure, and because this type of X-ray fog often appears in patterns, it is impossible to correct this damage in the duplicating or printing process. Therefore, I have a few tips to share on traveling with film.

1. Hand carry . Don't ever check-in your film together with you other baggage. This includes cameras that still have film in them. Checked-in baggage normally uses higher powered X-ray machine as compared to hand carry. Low 100 to 400 ISO film might not be a problem but anything higher might be an issue.

2. Pack your film in a organized manner to ease inspection. If you are very concerned about the letting your film passed through the x-ray machine, you can always request for a manual inspection by the custom officer.  Not all country or airport security will entertain this request specially during peak hours but there is no harm trying. If so, please be considerate and organize your film and gears properly so the inspection could be done in the fastest possible manner. Line hogging is so so not cool !  Be considerate.  You can purchase film cases such as the one below from ebay or Japan Camera Hunter site to organize your film. It makes checking a lot faster and easier too.

3. Ziplock bag is your film best friend. This is one of the coolest invention ever. It's cheap and you may fit easily 10 to 20 rolls of film into one bag. I like to use ziplock bags for storing 120 type films when I travel. It's fast, effective and seals off unwanted dust and moisture from your negatives too. I normally dump all the 120 film wrappers into the bag and dispose them when I reach my hotel room as it saves you time hunting for garbage bins when you are halfway reloading. I normally separate my color film with the black and white ones to avoid mistake in loading wrong film. The 120 format Kodak Portra and Kodak Tri-X film roll are very identical looking and its easy to get it wrong. I am super careful when come to stuff like this.

4. Kodak Tri-X for added flexibility - This is one of my favorite go-to travel film. This 400 ASA / ISO film is so flexible that you could push it to 800 ( 1 stop ) , 1600 ( 2 stops ) or even 3200 ( 3 stops ) ISO with amazing results. As the film speed is just 400 ISO, hence there is no issue passing through the scans together with your other hand carry gears and equipments. I will have a Kodak Ektar and Fuji Pro400H as well when I travel but the TriX is a must for me.

5. Estimate the amount of film needed for the trip. This is always the tough part. You wouldn't want to bring too little where you will out of film half way through the journey or carrying too much you would worry the X-ray may deteriorate the quality of these unexposed films. I always estimate my film qty rather precisely with extra two to three rolls as a safety stock.

This is how I do it. Look through your travel routine / itinerary and plan where you will be heading. Know your shooting pattern as in are you are trigger happy person or more of a sniper. I normally won't shoot much during transit like in airport and such hence I could just estimate one roll of film for the flying part as there isn't much stuff to shoot anyway ( for me at least ). I will allocate around 1.5 rolls of 135mm film for the each day. If you are flying to places like Japan or Hong Kong or Taiwan, then you can always purchase film over there as there abundance of film stores over there. However for more remote places like Vietnam, Nepal, TIbet, India and etc ....best to bring more on your own.

6. NO no with Instant film - Sometimes we could be a little ambitious when we travel. We tend to have a lot of 'What If' in mind and you ended up hogging your entire dry box over. Instant film like the Fuji FP are very sensitive to x-ray machines hence manual inspection is the only option.

7. Develop your film locally if necessary.  If you are going to be traveling for a long period of time or probably exceeded your hand carry on limit, there is always an option to send your film to a local film lab for development. This will save all your worries as X-ray will not have any effects on developed film negatives.

Hasselblad 500cm / 503cx Tips and Review

As a photographer, I have always been curious to know how does it feels  to actually hold and shoot the world’s first camera which travels to the moon. The brand Hasselblad or Hassie in short has been synonym with amazing picture quality and workmanship as well as high flexibility. I can still remember the day clearly when I first collected the camera from the KLIA custom ( i got it off ebay ) . Opening up the parcel with utmost care and assembling the camera part by part while in the car until it finally take shape is truly hard to forget.

The 500cm as well as the rest of the Hassie are modular system cameras which allows user to mix and match the components whichever suits their needs. In other words, the photographer have the flexibility to choose different bodies, film or digital backs or even Polaroid back,  waist level or prism finder, focus screen as well as manual or motorized winders as per one’s preference / needs. I have both the 500cm as well as 503cx and they are almost identical. The only difference between these two siblings is the 500cm the more down to earth brother while the 503cx come with palpas internal coating at shutter curtain and mirror chamber which supposed to have a slightly better light absorption. The 503cx has the ability to do center-weight TTL Flash metering with appropriate SCA modules with certain capable flashes. Hence the 503cx has an ISO dial on the left side of the body as shown on the image on top. I use the 500cm more for natural light / out door shoots while the 503cx more for studio application as well as a back up. Both or can I say all the film Hassei runs on 120 / 220 film and it shoot 6x6 format which is Square ...think Instagram ! : )

I have replaced the original split focusing screens on these two Hassie with a high brightness Accumate screen which works really awesome. The clarity and brightness improved tremendously. I have also purchased a metered prim finder to go with it. I would highly recommend these two combination though the upgrade is not cheap. Prob will set you back around USD 350 for one set.

Starting with the body, the built quality and material used is indeed top notch. This Swedish made camera is cast out from an aluminum alloy body which is indeed very solid. The Carl Zeiss Planar 80mm f2.8 CF T* is one of the fastest lens in the Hassie line up. It’s small and light weight despite it’s metal construction. The focal length is almost equivalent to a 50mm lens on a full frame camera hence it's very useable. The CF*T lenses is the second generation Planar and it comes with Zeiss T* coating which helps with flare reduction. What I love most about this lens is the creamy bokeh as well as the amazing color reproduction. It’s to die for ! The sharpness is good even wide open. Being a medium format, the subject on the image just pops right out of the negatives / scans. I am starting to understand why Rolleiflex 2.8F , Rolleiflex SL66 as well as the legendary Contax 645 ( f2 version ) uses the 80 Planar lens. All the Hassies lens have a locking EV value on the aperture ring and shutter speed ring hence changing depth-of-view ( F stop ) while maintaining the same exposure during middle of a shoot is really a breeze.

In term of useability, the camera is pretty light for a medium format and it's so easy to size it down when you are traveling. Just replace the metered prism finder back with it's original waist level finder that would save you around 160gs easily. The Hassie fits perfectly into a Billingham Hadley Pro with two additional film backs being stored on the front pouches. Just awesome !

For first timer, using the Hassie is not an easy task. There are a lot of steps involved and the most crucial is to fully wound / cock  the shutter before you remove the lens or film back. There is a coupling system between the camera body and the lens right at 6 o'clock of the lens mount. It needs to be aligned accordingly ( in the horizontal position ) in order to mount the lens correctly without damaging the camera.

If the lens is removed when the shutter is not cocked, the cam on the lens will spring to the vertical position. You would have to use a small screw driver to turn the cam clock wise as per the arrow indication until the slot is aligned with the red dot on the left as per below diagram. Only then you can mount the lens back to the camera body.

On the right side of the camera body, there are also two indicator who show the status of the shutter, RED = Uncocked  WHITE = Cocked. Both indicator on the body as well as the film back needs to match as well in order to mount. Hence as a general rule of thumb, make it a habit to  cock the shutter all the time right after you fire a shot and you should be pretty much save from damaging the camera. Don't ever remove the lens when the shutter is not cocked else you will risk damaging the camera !

Pros : It's modular and very versatile. Very well built and the Zeiss  80mm f2.8 CF optics is amazing even shot wide open. I absolutely love this glass !  I love the replacement accumatte focusing screen too. It's among the brightest in the market which makes focusing such a breeze.

Cons : The body and lens coupling can be a little tricky for new user . Make sure you spend time to read the user manual thoroughly before using it . It's also not cheap.

Buying tips : The price for the 500cm has been escalating quite a fair bit for the past two years specially with the Zeiss 80mm f2.8 CF*T lens.  I foresee this particular model will appreciate it price and become more collectible as it is really well made and a true classic. As the Hassie body is really simple in construction ( which basically is just a small mirror box ), it's pretty much problem free.

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