I’ve always been intrigued with the TLR (Twin Lens Reflex…ahhh now the title doesn’t seem so creepy right?) and last weekend I set in motion the plan to acquire one. Conventional knowledge would have you believe that the Yashica Mat 124G is the best place to start for a relatively inexpensive, yet relatively high-performing, entry to the TLR game. That same conventional knowledge, however, has caused second hand prices to skyrocket past reasonable levels, shackling the conventional buyer to a decades old machine for 2x the appropriate price. But as we all know, I am no conventional buyer, I am a man of discerning tastes and abilities. That being said, I set my sights on the Yashica Mat LM, an older (and all manual) model without a coupled light meter or the stylish black trim of its attractive cousin. Why would I do such a thing? Because it’s the lens that matters, and this puppy has the exact same version as the 124G. Thus, hoping to keep my incredibly good eBay streak alive, I placed a bid on an “as-is” LM and won the auction for the low low price of $50 even. Would the gamble pay off? Would I be left with the world’s most beautiful paper weight? Will you even read on to find out?
More images after the break… Continue reading →
Somewhere in my infinite Tumblr browsing I stumbled (or tumbld) across a beautiful set of long exposure images. They were black and white shots of carnival rides, with exposures just long enough to blur the lights (but not too long where everything goes psychedelic.) Those images stuck with me, and I decided to see what I could pull off at New York’s finest amusement park…Coney Island. With Winter looming and my window shrinking, I set out late one Sunday night to see what I could find.
[gwu] Graham Whitaker Unterberger 