Film Journal: First time shooting the Mamiya C220

This is a journal entry (accompanied by a video if you are interested) documenting my first roll of film shot with the Mamiya C220 twin lens reflex camera.

Key aspects of the first roll:

I used Kodak Gold ISO 200 film, somewhat for the purpose of the warm colors I anticipated (typical with this film stock in my experience) AND because it is cheap –I didn't want to cook a $20 roll of Ecktachrome in a camera that I had not tested first... I prefer to ruin my film in camera's I have already tested.

Metering: I initially tried to use an old Minolta light meter. I realized after my first couple of shots that I had likely been metering my shots wrong –I have to do more research but my best guess is that leaving the opaque bulbous cover on over the light diode gave me an incorrect reading; essentially, providing me with a meter reading which anticipated darker conditions than what I actually experienced at the time. I cross referenced my meter readings with a light meter app on my phone ...but found it consistently conflicted even after removing the opaque bulb... so I guess'd'emated and winged it while keeping an overall strategy to overexpose (for the shadows) when in doubt.

Locations: On my first evening shooting I captured 3 photos in Spring Lake, New Jersey. On the next day, and about at the same time, during a sunset, I captured the last 3 in Belmar along Ocean Avenue.

Challenges and Lessons Learned:

1. Some shots came out crooked, I likely wont ever get the hang of balancing a TLR camera evenly.

2. Underexposure was a concern for at least one frame, but believe in hindsight that I had prioritized the sky as my metering point (which was likely the mistake).

3. Removing the prism viewfinder( for the photo of the vintage car from behind) made focusing difficult, VERY difficult! The dedicated waist level viewfinder would have made the process much easier since it would have blocked ambient light flooding the ground-glass (lowering the visible contrast) and would have offered a magnifier.

One pleasant surprise is that I expected lots of camera shake and blurry photos since I was shooting iso200 speed film on an 80mm lens ...at 1/15th of a second at times... and on a camera with a very awkward shutter button design. Most cameras with this look (TLRs) have a soft shutter release that you squeeze in and towards you with minimal pressure needed. This camera's shutter button seemed like it was going to be problematic to say the least because I needed to push a button (with lots of distance to give before triggering the shutter) down and on a bit of an angle. Nonetheless, despite camera shake not being an issue I will be using a cable release in the future for peace of mind.

In all, it may have been my first time shooting the Mamiya C220 but it wont be my last. I genuinely enjoyed the unique experience I felt with this camera which differed from my Rollieflex and other medium format cameras. I look forward to testing out other lenses and the dedicated waist level viewfinder next (along with a cable release for the shutter).

If you're interested in watching the process in a video format I made a short film which you can find on Youtube linked below:

https://youtu.be/t8JFqso2SSE?si=3e0M3d2ExxlJs4pI