Not long ago I found myself experimenting with a Pentax 67 medium format camera. It was one of those cameras that I always wanted to try out in part thanks to the heaps of praise other photographers tended to sing about it. I’m not going to deny, the camera sounded very appealing. Basically an SLR (single lens reflex) design but instead of tiny 35mm negatives you get big 6x7 negatives. Plus, the older Pentax 67’s tend to be fairly cheap on-line and even cheaper if you happen to find one not too far away on craigslist. Which is what I personally did.

I expected the Pentax 67 to be heavy. I’m perfectly fine with heavy cameras. After all, anyone who reads this blog or follows my work at all knows that I regularly use a Mamiya RZ67 which is no slouch in the size and weight department. However, though I liked the Pentax 67 in theory, I didn’t really like it much in practice. Putting a camera as big and heavy as the Pentax 67 up to your eye was annoying. Seriously, I quickly started to feel like I was going to give myself a black eye if I worked too fast. Plus, the edges of the camera body were just too shallow to get a good grip on the body when working hand held and I constantly had the sensation that I was going to drop the camera at any moment.