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From: kirk@cholula.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.rec.photo
Subject: Re: Yashica Mat 124-G
Message-ID: <65@cholula.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 29-May-85 16:56:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: cholula.65
Posted: Wed May 29 16:56:00 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 1-Jun-85 00:29:30 EDT
Distribution: net
Organization: Teltone Corp., Kirkland, WA
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*** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR 50MM F/1.8 ***

Thought some TLR guru would've responded to this by now...anyway, for the
benefit of the uninitiated -- the twin-lens reflex is usually a medium-
format (6 X 6 cm neg. on 120 size film, although I'm sure that some 
members of the genre have used other sizes) camera, having a second 
("viewing") lens over the "taking" lens.  The image from the "viewing"
lens is reflected on to a ground-glass screen on top of the camera (the
image is reversed left-to-right); this necessitates holding the camera
at chest level for most pictures.  The "sports finder" is simply a small
aperature cut in the back of the viewing hood, atop the camera; with the
front part of the hood folded down, you can look through the aperature at
eye level and compose the picture fairly quickly, assuming you've pre-
focused (at least that's how it works on my old Minolta Autocord).

The big advantage of these cameras is, of course, the larger negative
size as compared to 35MM.  Price is also a plus; it's about the cheapest
way to get into medium-format, short of a box Brownie.  And they're fairly
rugged, having a small fraction of the number of moving parts of their
medium-format SLR brethren (Hasselblad, Bronica, Pentax 6x7, etc, etc.).
They're quieter, too, if that counts.  And most have a leaf shutter, which
means you're not limited to one shutter speed for flash pictures.

On the minus side, they're definitely cumbersome to use, compared to
SLR's.  The ground-glass image can be difficult or impossible to focus in
low-light situations (most have a magnifying glass that flips over the
screen for focusing).  And most don't have interchangeable lenses, although
you can get auxilliary wide-angle and telephoto lenses for the Yashica and
others.  

Caveats aside, I would certainly recommend TLR's to anyone who's not quite
solvent enough for a Hassy (or a Sinar :-) ) and has finally gotten tired
of grainy 8 x 10's.

---
  Kirk Bellar WB0SJP				Teltone Corporation
  ...uw-beaver!teltone!tikal!kirk		Kirkland, Wash. USA

 	  "They told me I was gullible...and I believed them!"