So, my Yashica 124-G went missing sometime ago. The 124-G is a great camera, made in Japan in the 1970s. It is a Twin Lens Reflex (TLR as opposed to SLR) camera that is made for medium format film. Medium format produces a 120mm square negative that has amazing detail and the structure of a TLR give photos a very different look than an SLR. The depth of field is often flatter and is just very pleasing, in my opinion (see image at the bottom)
There are digital medium format camera but they are a bit out of my price range (the digital sensor backs start at around $16,000) and, of course, they produce amazing pictures. But, I don’t think I’ll be a Phase One customer any time soon, as much as I might like to be. A clever wedding photographer named Ryan Brenizer devised a way of faking the medium format look that is now known as the Brenizer Method. But, sometimes you just want to do the real thing.
Anyway, I thought I had lost my Yashica so I bought another one through Ebay. When it arrived, I went looking for my box of medium format film… in this box was my old Yashica. Now I have twins. I guess I could try for some elaborate stereoscope-type images (3D basically), but a friend expressed interest in buying my new, redundant TLR and thus I’ll be back down to one Yashica pretty soon.
I took a few rolls of film at the LSU game of Saturday as well as uncovered a couple of other undeveloped rolls. I just need to mail them off to a lab that can process the film and I can get back into the swing of medium format again. If anyone happens to know someone at LSU who would be able to develop my 120 film, then please let me know. I can pay! It would beat mailing it all to Dwayne’s in Kansas (although they do a great job).
