New impulse buy - what a camera. I sat in the office since 8:50am this morning waiting for UPS to show up. (They finally got here around 3:30. Long day.)
Anyway.
The Pentax 67 (1989) is the second in Pentax’s 6 x 7cm line of medium format camera systems, following the Pentax 6x7 (1969), and preceding the creatively named Pentax 67II (1998). Minor to moderate changes between the three - this is a system that remained for the most part the same for neary 40 years (Pentax stopped producing these in 2007, I believe.)
The 67 looks like a regular 35mm SLR, but outsizes them substantially - it weighs in at nearly 6 lbs with a lens mounted - and one press of the shutter button lets you know this isn’t your average snapshot camera. The mirror slap/sound is ridiculous.
I got this because of the dumb gorgeous images it can produce - some of this ability is innately a feature of the large negative size, but some of it has to be attributed to it’s legendary lenses. I had to get in on that. I’ve been itching to shoot 6x7, having shot 6x4.5 and 6x6 already and loving the results. I did have the opportunity to shoot a Koni Omega rangefinder, but with very unsatisfactory results. Other options for 6x7 were either more ungainly, more expensive, possessing less legendary optics, or a combination of the three. Of course, this is just the beginning of what I'm sure will be a long journey to get the system where I need it:
- The viewfinder prism is the unmetered version, and with me not being posession of a handheld lightmeter (yet), I'll need to get my hands on a metered prism as soon as possible. until then, I'll be using the ever handy and ballpark figure-capable Fotometer Pro app for metering.
- The camera needs some cleaning. I won't attempt a full on CLA myself, but some nook and cranny cleaning, getting the tape/sticker goo off the body, etc. I can handle all of that.
- Gotta find a strap. It's heavy - and I don't mind lugging around heavy camera gear, but I can see this kind of weight getting old quick. There's also a wooden handle accessory that I wanna grab for it. In due time.
- Saw a comparison of the 90mm 2.8 lens (my lens) vs the 105mm 2.4 lens... I want that 105mm. Also, would like to grab the 55mm 3.5 wide-angle for some urban landscape projects I have in mind.
All in all, I'm super excited to see what I can make the camera do. Can’t wait to run some film through this.