I started using my mamiya 645 in 2009, first time when Ariane was on the beautiful island of Texel. I bought a few rolls of color and black and white negative film and left Osnabrück. Next stop was months later on Formentera. Even if my Mamiya is just a “small” one in the Mamiya collection, it’s a big machine. I mostly use the waist level finder and not the prism which makes it at least a little lighter. Well maybe a D200 has the same weight but I think the 645 is bulky, especially when you need an external light meter or a second camera to meter.
Because I have no scanner for the medium format negatives I ask CrazyTob if he could scan a few rolls. He did and I’m very happy. Thanks a lot Tob! Now I don’t care about the weight anymore, this machine is just great, the lens (Sekor 80/1.9 ) is outstanding and I even think of using the 645 much much more when I shoot people. It takes much more time and i’m more focused. That can be nice but it also can be a pain. Well, at best you see yourself about the results…
Texel first. This was a pretty old (and probably expired) roll or Adox 25 iso film. This was shot next to an abandoned farm, this wooden sticks are probably for fences?? The Adox tones are a bit fucked, i blame the lab because that’s always the easiest way to blame others. Well, I know this film since I used it in Rome in 2006. It was way smoother. I also overexposed it because my gossen was fucked too so i used the olympus xa as lightmeter.
This was there too. I like this shot. Shooting 25 iso is always fun!
I always find place like this romantic, maybe because Bruce Springsteen wrote “Sleeping in that old abandoned beach house getting wasted in the heat” but these places are scary too. First I was there alone, it was twilight so it became more scary. The next day me and Ariane were cruising around and stopped by that place.
pretty northsea cliché shot but i like it
Some of you might remeber the digital edition of the next shots. I prefer these here. We were hiding from the cold wind…
My pseudo famous shot on film, this time i prefer the digital one…
This was fun, crazy bird! Don’t ask me about it’s type but it looks funny. I wish I had a 200mm lens with me but I don’t want to turn into a bird photographer.
That day it was quite warm, no wind at all. We were fortune to had great weather in general…
These shots were all done on APX 100 or Rollei Retro 100 if you want. I just like this film, its perfect for me, even if the lab treated it pretty hard.
Changing place, don’t know when this was but it looks like resting between a lot of work: thesis writing, paper publishing and a bit of rest…
Now changing location again. Now I will show you a few frames that I took during our vacation in Spain on the beautiful Island of Formentera. All these shots are taken on 120 film, most of the black and white are shot on Ilford Delta 400, Color are shot on Portra 160VC, color shots from the fishing hut are taken with Ektar 100, but now see yourself
So, this is us. Preparing for a nice dinner
During our bicycle tour, a short stop.
I think the 645 is a very “handy” camera if you want to shoot medium format. The 80/1.9 Sekor is a great great lens. I wish I coud use it more often but it’s a bulky machine. I wished I had a Mamiya 6, 7 or one of these crazy Fuji medium format machines. I think I’m gonna buy one of these when I’m a rich man. Hopefully soon!
I found this wreck in a gravel pit so I used the mountain bike to get in the pit. Full of gravel and stuff, not so easy. On the way out I busted the drive of it so I couldn’t use the back break. Still it was worth it. Crazy Fiat but I think this photograph is to busy…
Out in the steppe there are some fig trees. I really like these so I took a frame of one.
We ran into this old windmill or maybe it was a storage. There is this great graffiti on it so we posed. I thought these shots are better.
Far away, a bit more close. I’m not so happy about these shots. I liked the scene so much but I couldn’t put it in a good shot. They looks normal and I don’t like the Portra in here too. Yeah, blame it on the film and the lens. Germans say: “Wenn der Bauer nicht schwimmen kann liegt es an der Badehose – If the peasant can’t swimm you blame it on its trunks” (bad translation, I know).
Another coffee stop. Of course Ariane took this of me. I like this shot a lot!
Full Sekor action. I like the bokeh in this one, as much as I like her red shoes.
Found this tree on a cliff close to our hotel.
This old fishing hut was behind the cliffs, a 15 minute walk from our hotel. I like the romanticism in it. Most of these shots are taken on Ektar 100, black and white was Ilford Delta 400.

Ariane said that these are boring ones. I like the shadows on the wood and the tones on the straps… but in general, yeah these are quite boring
I think this is the coolest shot. I think I have it +1 stop because I shot this quite open. The latitude if the Ektar is freaky, from now on I stop using Portra. I often get this pale haze on it. With the Ektar I get a nice pastel tone but clear colouring. I havn’t got that on Reala as well. Since the weather over here is quite bad I can’t really say how good the Reala performs in good sunlight. I saw some good frames with it but I think the Ektar works fine, even if it costs 1€ more per roll. New I need to check it on my 135 Film too.
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Now something old
These two shots are from 2005. Taken with my old Seagull 6×6. When I saw the scans I was shocked about the lens. Yeah of course the “Haiou 75/3.5″ it’s a bad lens but I thought that it might be alright because of the huge format. Now I really value the Sekor. I can see the eyelashes in most of the shots, here I can only see the eye
So this was the selecton of my medium format shots from 2009. Of course I have a few more that I might present in my next blog. So far I’m working on a full formentera post since I have a few APX rolls waiting the be processed.








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