Advice on Rolleiflex camera

[LauriePriest]

just got a vintage rolleiflex 3.5f camera, just curious if anyone has any experience with these or any other medium forumat cameras. Im going to start usign it for studio work.
Does anyone have advice on nice film for medium format camera as well as best ways to use older cameras such as these. I has some artifacts show up on a neg i processed as well, im used to being able to process 35mm can film a long time after i have taken it , but is large film mediums more vunerable to clouding if left unprocessed? Any general tips and guidelines for taking, processing / maintainig such cameras would be well appriciated.

[another view]

You should develop it right away. MF film comes on plastic rolls which aren't nearly as light-tight as a 35mm canister. You can handle them in the light, but it's best to be more careful with them than 35mm.

Just about every film you've used in 35mm will come in 120 and most in 220. The difference is the length of the roll; 12 shots on a 120 or 24 on a 220 with a square format camera. One advantage is that since the film is bigger it takes less enlargement to make a print - so the prints aren't as grainy.

Take a test roll to make sure everything is working correctly (slide film is great for this because it can't handle over/under exposure well).

[LauriePriest]

Thanks for your reply another view,
what is slide film? And should i be using 300ml or 500 ml of dev/fix solution for processing?

[Dzerzhinski46]

For processing it depends on the tank. My Patterson tank takes 590mL for a 120 roll. Your tank may be different than mine. Do a dry run to see how much will cover a 120 roll, or your tank might have the measurements on the bottom, mine does.

I think another view mentioned slide film partly because it will be a good test of whether your aperture, and shutter speeds are working correctly. Anyways, slide film (positive film) is very unforgiving if you do not expose it correctly. It will be a good estimate of whether your camera is functioning correctly. I think this is what another view meant, right?

Welcome to the MF realm!

Dzerzhinski
(Seagull 4A-107 TLR)

[another view]

I think this is what another view meant, right?

You got it! As long as your metering technique (and the light meter itself) is good, then any exposure problems would be due to a problem with the camera. Could be a lot of things with an old camera, but you might be just fine. If it's real close but slightly underexposed, you're probably ok with neg films as is. Just try different shutter speeds and apertures during your test.

I use a standard two-reel Nikor style stainless tank. It fits either one roll of 120 or two 35mm. 590ml seems like a little more than I need in this tank, maybe a little over 500 - but you get the idea...