Mamiya 645

Old school analog photography. Mmm I like this stuff.

A few weeks ago while in Fernie, we decided to head down to Kalispell Montana for the day. I love Montana in general, and Kalispell is a nice city. On a prior visit, I found a great little camera store that has quickly become a favourite of mine. Photo Video Plus. Paul, the owner, is very knowledgeable, honest and an all around great guy.

When I pulled up, there was a specific camera I had in mind that I'd been trying to find for quite some time. A Mamiya 645. It's an old camera (I think my is front he 70s?) and it's medium format. Found this one on consignment, made the seller an offer, and walked out with a new toy.

Paul was 99% sure it worked, but told me that if it didn't, he'd gladly take it back and give me a full refund. He's good like that. I ended up putting about 13 rolls of film through it before even knowing for sure that it worked. I sent the exposed 120 to The Lab in vancouver, and earlier this week I got it back. I had thought that if it didn't turn out they would have called me, so when they sent me the tracking number for the developed rolls, I was pretty stoked.

This camera is 100% manual. There is a built in light meter, however the battery was dead and I haven't tried it out while shooting yet. It's a slower process, walking around, metering the light with a hand held light meter, setting the camera's aperture and shutter speed to match, but I think it's worth it. The colour that comes from shooting decent film (Kodak Portra 400 in this case) is just amazing. No post production required what-so-ever. I love that about film.

For shooting this much film without any feedback on what the images were actually turning out like, I'm really happy with the results. Slow down, think about what you're shooting and get it right the moment you press the shutter button. And at $12 for a 15 frame roll of film, you're forced to get it right.

Here's a few frames front the beast from an engagement session I shot.