As a photography lover, just 135 system will never satisfy me. Recently, I learnt how to use a 645 camera and finished the first roll of 120 film. The camera is Mamiya 645 Super which is a entry level camera for medium format system beginner.
As a medium format camera has many parts which are different to a full format camera, in order not to damage the camera, I downloaded a manual on the internet (there is one on the MMU website) and read it carefully. And then, I tried to take a few shots without films. Okay! That is how it works. Before loading films to the camera, I also watched a few videos of how to load a roll of 120 film to a medium format camera on Youtube. Once I confirmed I understood how to use this camera, I loaded the film and started to shoot.
After the first experience, I realized that it is not easy to get focus with this camera because most images are out of focus. The camera is attached a waist level viewfinder. I might not get used to use this type of viewfinder so I couldn't capture the clear images. When I use it more, that will be improve. Another reason could be that I used the maximum aperture to take the shots. The lens is a 80mm f2.8 lens which is standard lens on medium format camera like a 50mm lens on 135 camera. This 80mm lens on aperture f2.8 gives you a very shallow depth of view. If you hold the camera with you hands, even a very little move that is able to affect the focal point. I didn't use any tripods so my body moves might cause the images out of focus. Although I think f2.8 is not a very large aperture, the depth of view of 80mm on f2.8 is too shallow, I really need to stop it down in the next 120 film.
On f/4, the kettle is covered in the depth of view
On f/2.8, only the glass at the front is covered.
As there is no light meter on the camera, it supposes users use the camera with a light meter. However, I don't have any, so my method of light metering was to use my digital camera. As long as I put my digital camera toward the scene that I wanted to take with the Mamiya camera, the right numbers of aperture and shutter speed would be showed on the screen of the digital camera. And then I used those numbers on the Mamiya camera. It was surprisingly work well.
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