Ready to get back into film photograph...
Years ago, before digital, I had various camera systems that I'd use in my career in advertising as well as for pleasure. Prior to that, I had studied photography throughout high school and college. My favorite camera was a medium format Kowa/SIX SLR. I b...
興和光器製作所 (Kōwa Kōki Seisakusho), Kowa Optical Works was formed in 1946
Like a number of companies at that time it started out in a different industry, textiles in 1894, turned trading company in 1939 and later optical works. I have never handled their 6x6 camera but as mentioned it follows the Hassy tradition. I have, but do...
I didn't know anything about their early history, only that they introduced their medium format camera in, I think, 1968. Today I believe they still make high quality optics, but not cameras
They also made 35mm SLRs. Never had to opportunity to use a Mamiya but have used a Pentex 67 SLR, another great medium format camera system although rather large.
This is the camera I had in Art School, in 1968
and many years after. I just adored that camera and when compared to f.i. the 500C, the screen was so much better and easier to focus on. Years later Kowa released a version with interchangeable backs, but I never had a chance to try that one out. Enjoy y...
Looks like fun. I used Hasselblad for the 30 or so years before I went digital. In my field, portrait photography I rarely saw a Kowa, almost exclusively Hasselblad and Mamiya RB or RZ.
These Hasselblads I bought in 1976 I used for many years and still have them. ...
Back when I was in school I would have loved to have a Hasselblad but they were way out of reach for a student with only a part-time job. Had to settle for the Kowa and grew to love it.
I've considered getting an old 500c since I like the old school technology. But I'll stick to the Kowa until I'm back into the swing of things, then take it from there. Also depends how seriously my daughter gets into film, or if she decides to stick with...
Lots of Hasselblads on ebay now but for your purposes no real need. I'm not sure the real appeal of film these days if the negs are going to be scanned...
but the magic of watching a print come to life in a darkroom tray is pretty cool. Film has a slightly different look than digital but even that can be manipulated in photoshop. The first thing I did when I moved to digital is spend hours to make my large ...
I've spent many hours in darkrooms over the years, including in my home darkroom, disassembled years ago, manipulating prints the traditional way. I miss that.
I learned the zone system in high school from my art teacher who was heavily into Ansel Adams. Years later, in my career, I worked in Photoshop daily, digitally manipulating images and creating digital illustrations and designs for advertising and marketi...
