The Last Great TLR
c330s by Mamiya
By Joel Aron
1 June 2008
One medium format camera was not enough. I needed even shallower DOF in my life.
Enter the Mamiya c330s.
A Twin-lens Reflex, or as the old photographers on the street like to say, a TLR. This TLR is very unique with its bellows that allows the camera to focus as close as 9" at f/2.8. That's just bananas for a medium format camera. Bokeh like crazy, and a focus zone that can and will keep razor sharp focus on an eye's pupil, and dropping focus by the time it hits the eyelashes. Not that my Haselblad tank didn't do a bad job with an extension tube so delicately clicked in between the lens and the body, and figuring out the exposure compensation from 30 year old chart in a book. It's just that handling that combination is like driving through a toll booth at full speed with your hands off the steering wheel. You either make it, or you don't. With the c330s, images appear to have a more accurate and dreamy falloff in the focus depth. It's what first attracted me to the camera, and it's the excuse I created in my mind as to why I needed to have it.
The Mamiya has a wonderful, and somewhat intuitive method in removing the high level math out of calculating the exposure compensation as you move the lens farther from the film. The same holds true with any extension tube you mount in-between a lens and a camera body. As an example with the c330s, the more you push the focus to get closer to a subject, the more distance you create from the lens to the film plane as you extend the bellows that is attached to the lens. This distance causes the strength of the light from the lens to the film plane to diminish. To compensate for that, the Mamiya uses a clever dual purpose indicator bar that's visible in the ground glass when you look down into the camera. On the ground glass, there are numbers going down the left edge that go from 1 to 3 in 1/2 stops. As you focus close, the bar moves down across the ground glass. Once you have the desired focus, look at the number closest to the bar, and you have your exposure compensation. (Genius!) Subtract that from the exposure you metered for, and you're ready to shoot. Example, if you metered 1/60th at f4, and the bar indicates '1', then you either need to shoot at 1/30th, or f2.8. The second purpose of the bar is your best friend for close focus and macro work. Since a TLR lets you see through the top lens while capturing to film with the bottom, if you begin to get too close to the subject, what you see is going to be higher than what gets captured. (you still with me?). The bar now tells you two things at once; your exposure compensation, and what the new top of frame is. (Super Genius!) It takes a few tries to make sure you're lined up correctly, as it's a bit of a guess to make sure you're going capture what you don't see on the bottom of frame on the ground glass. If you can wrap your brain around all of this, and deal with a box camera that will gather a crowd if you shoot with it in public, then you can get the creamiest close-ups that no digital camera can touch.. well, at least digital cameras that don't cost as much as a mid size luxury car.
A huge plus with the c330s that sets it apart from other TLR's, is that you can change the lenses. The shutter is in the lens, and that's another huge plus. Crazy, two huge pluses in a row! Since shutters are the first thing to go with older cameras, you clip on another, and keep on shooting. There are several options out there for lens choices. Go as long, or as wide as you can afford. But the gem of the lenses, is what comes stock on most of the c330 cameras, and that's the 80mm f/2.8.
One nice advantage of the c330s, is that you not only can use 120 film, but you can use 220. That will save you money in processing, as you get twice the shots in a single roll of film.
I bought my Mamiya c330s for $375 from a second hand shop. It included the 80mm lens. The camera was in 'like new' condition. Clean as a whistle, and fired perfectly at all shutter speeds. That's about $1500 cheaper than my Hasselblad, and $350 more than my Holga. It was just under the price point of not having to get in too much trouble in explaining to my wife where this new camera came from.
I posed this new monolithic brick on the kitchen table, where all new cameras before it have been documented into my life. Rather than have my digital camera witness the event, I aimed my Hasselblad at the Mamiya. Attached the 21mm Extension tube between the body and and lens of the Hasselblad. Got a piece of paper and a pencil to write down the exposure calculation. Opened up a bookmarked website that displays the exposure compensation based on lens and extension tube. Wrote down some exposure math. Setup the camera's exposure accordingly. Locked up the mirror. (so far, all steps that wouldn't have to be done with the c330s) ...and then took the shot.
1 Response
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On 3 December 2008 Alexander Bussey said:
nice article. wish i had the money for one.
