5 Frames with my newly acquired Pentax 67

Well, all roads would eventually lead here. I knew it in my gut.

My dalliance with different film cameras and a desire for a certain quality took me past 35mm shooters with decent lenses, and I ended up in the world of 645 cameras: the Fuji Ga 645i, the Mamiya 645 and more recently the Pentax 645nii, which was a revelation. It was light and responsive with a very modern feel and great AF, resulting in a dslr- type experience on 120 film. The lenses for the nii were great and it provided me with the opportunity to buy and try the much lauded Pentax 67 105mm f2.4 with an adapter.  This combo was amazing, with the 105 resulting in a roughly 85mm-ish frame. The focus confirmation on the camera made it easy to use the lens and the image quality confirmed everything that I’d heard about it.

My interest piqued, I went down a Pentax 67 rabbit hole looking for a decent one for myself. They are readily available but usually come with a history of knocks, bumps and broken chains. they are getting old after all. After putting the word out to my film shooting friends I finally got a late model Pentax 67 mlu with metered finder in lovely condition and took it out to play. It’s heavy, but I’ve been lugging a Nikon D850 around with Sigma lenses for the past 5 years so it’s not that bad.

With the 105 on the camera acting as a 50mm equivalent in 35mm terms, it’s the perfect street portrait setup and has interestingly changed my approach to shooting too. due to the heft, time and cost involved with this camera, I am more commanding and specific with my subjects on the street, an approach driven by a desire to be as perfect as possible with my shots to do the camera justice.

The 67’s lenses have become part of a “higher image quality” film ecosystem I’ve put together . I’ve since acquired the 55mm f4, the 175mm f4.5 and the 135mm f4 macro + some extension tubes  , which can all be adapted onto my Pentax 645nii and Pentax 645z with Pentax’s trusty 67 to 645 adapter. this  new setup  has left a lot of my 35mm shooters on the shelf for the moment as I enjoy the lovely image quality and depth that I’d heard so much about. (on a digital note, the 645z is a stunning piece of kit and despite being around a decade old provides a wonderful shooting experience with gorgeous raw files but that’s a story for another post)

Film costs may bring me back to 35mm from the 67 in the future, but for now I bloody love it. I don’t develop my own shots, instead sending them to a lab, getting scans returned to me as uncompressed high- res TIFF files scanned with a flat profile and no sharpening so that I can give them small tweaks in Lightroom to my taste.

Here are 5 shots taken with the 67. It takes a bit of time and care to use and a steady hand but the results are mind blowing. Portra 400 has become my favourite film so far, and the meter works fine. I try to overexpose a little to get the best from my shots..

About the author:
Anil Mistry is a creative director and photographer.
You can find him on instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/anilmistryphoto/
You can see his website here: https://www.anilmistryphoto.com