Plaubel Makina 67

Tsuyoshi of Project Basho and I were talking about 2.25" rangefinders a few weeks ago and I was basically complaining that I only want one for just an everyday point and shoot and wouldn't use it for serious work so I can by no means justify spending more than a grand on a camera of this type. I'd really like a Mamiya 6 or 7 but refuse to pay well into the thousands for a USED system I won't use often. Then out of no where Tsuyoshi drops a bomb on me, "Ohhh kevvvviiinnn, I have a 6 by 7 rangefinder you can borrow it." Awesome. Turns out its a Plaubel Makina 67, the fucking camera I used to sweat when I was in college!! I would have bought one years ago but they don't come up on eBay too often and when they do they go for way too much.

Last Tuesday I went to Jon's while the boys were recording and tested out the Plaubel 67. I shot 4 rolls of film - 3 Provia 100(still unprocessed...) and one super outdated roll of Tri-x 400. I used a Nikon speedlight bounced off of walls and the ceiling. All photos below shot at 1/125 f/8-11ish. Processed ten minutes, 20 degrees C, Edwal FG-7, scanned @ 300dpi with Epson 4990 slight crop and level adjust.





Overall I really enjoyed the camera, it was simple to use, the viewfinder was bright and the rangefinder produces tact sharp negatives(looking under a 12x loupe). The best part about the camera I think is the 80mm Nikkor with the leaf shutter. I shot a test roll to see how well it preformed hand held and I was able to get a sharp image at 1/8th f/2.8!! Try that with a slr.