Since getting back to film photography I’ve been wanting to try out some medium format photography. I had previously only shot a few rolls during my first studies in the beginning of the 2000’s. An opportunity presented itself when a friend loaned me a Rolleicord TLR.
Those of you who follow my ramblings will be aware that I’ve recently been through a little bit of a phase of shooting Pentax SLRs. The thing I’m beginning to love about them is how I can mount pretty much any Pentax PK lens on any of the Pentax cameras I own and get some level of functionality. It’s the understanding of that fact that had me dream up this slightly ill-conceived plan.
For a long time, I was looking into 6×6 medium format cameras with a really fast standard focal length lens (around 80mm). Such lenses are rare, as far as I know there are two of them: the extremely expensive Schneider 80mm f2 Xenotar HFT lens for the Rollei 6008 system, and second, the more affordable,but rare and hard to find Norita 66 SLR system with Norita Noritar 80mm f/2 lens. The high image quality Schneider was out of question for the price alone, but the Norita had another bonus – it has a very unique rendering that I was drawn to. Pictures made with it, in right conditions, possess some “dreamlike” character that I really really dig, so I finally went for a Norita 66. Finding this camera with lens in acceptable condition for reasonable price is another story for another day – it took me almost half a year to build up a system…
I have over the past five years developed either passion or an obsession for instant films, depending on who you should choose to ask. Growing up just on the cusp of the digital imaging revolution I remember quite a lot people shooting on film as I grew up but somehow Polaroid passed me by almost entirely. There’s a teenage shot of me shaking my head but that’s about it. By the time I reached university I ended up shooting a couple of packs of the now sadly demised FP-100b/c as proofing material but never got that excited by it, it was just something that was there until it wasn’t.
The following endeavour was something that I thought had been tried by others, but it turns out that I think it might be something new. I recently wondered, why not adapt the Chaika which already has M39 mount to accept the nice Canon glass from my rangefinders..?
