----- Original Message ----- From: "Guy Glorieux" : Considering your tight budget, what might be best for you is to get a good : vintage medium-format camera on eBay. : : What kind of camera format are you looking for? 6x6, 6x4.5 or 6x9? <clip> : You could also try to look for a good folding camera. At the top of your : price range, look for cameras such as a Voightlander Bessa or a Zeiss Ikon : Ikonta. Down the price line, you could get a good Franka Solida or Franka : Rolfix (6x9) and still have plenty of money to buy film. I've got a Rolfix : myself and it works wonderfully. good advice here! I have at the bottom end of my MF kit(s) a mamiya C3 - no great difference from any of the later versions other than you have to manually cock the lens. Nice too if you decide to get a later version, you'll already have a lens or two :) I had a polaroid 600SE but sold it on to a former blad owner who LOVED the rangefinder capabilities, these along with the mamiya press cameras all sell reasonably cheap and offer a good camera with nice lenses. I also have and use often an ensign 'autorange' 645/66 folding camera. good lens, variable format, small and very compact. Moskva are a russian maker of multiformat MF cameras and a student bought a nice 66/69 from an ebay seller some time back brand new for very little - the images were beautiful! there's lots of very good, very cheap 'old' medium format cameras kicking about the world that are perfectly serviceable and take perfectly good pictures if you're not to proud to endure to snorts of derision from those offended by black leatherette k
