I got a ga645zi last year. I bought it for alpine mountaineering. It's compact and easy to use one handed what with the motor drive, AF and AE operation. And we're talking about a gloved hand, on a 4000m peak without really stopping moving, when your heart is beating twenty to the dozen! Metering was good enough to handle shooting slide film in bright light with snow etc, as good any other camera I've used. Lens is great if a touch slow. A great camera for walk around/travel shooting. A poor choice for use tripod mounted because of a lack of an easy usable manual focus option.

at the moment the medium format market for Mamiya,s and pentax 645n (eBay) seems to be at a good place money wise. the last couple of months I have been looking at eBay and when things have been coming up I have been putting a bid in or making a offer I have managed to buy a Mamiya 645 afd11 two film backs four lenses two of then zooms all of them AF ,and a arsat mc 30mm 3.5 that will fit other cameras with an adaptor and all for about £1400. I was looking at a hasselbladH1 or H2 with a standard lens ,and for about £1400 I would have got a knackered old H1 or H2.also I couldn't afford to buy any Hasselblad lenses . so Mamiya and pentax AF cameras seem to offer medium format auto focus at a very reasonable price.



www.essexcockney.com

I wonder if the OP is still listening? Doubtful but I am willing to be corrected! MF auto-focus, not something I know of.

Agreed, the mamiya 645AFD camera bodies and lenses are excellent, and can be had for sensible money. The only exceptions are the wide lenses (28 and 35mm) which seem to be very expensive compared to the other lenses. You can however fit MF mamiya 645 lenses to the AF body (no adapter required) and you obviously loose auto focus (you get a focus indicator) and the meter only works as a spot meter. Manual focus 35/3.5 lenses are sensible money, and it's one of the last things on my list to complete a lovely 645 setup!

The only downside is the mamiya 645 chews batteries, and it's not great at understanding rechargables either. Lithium AA batteries are the answer - a bit expensive, but they last well, and the reduction in weight compared to normal AAs is quite significant.

I know this thread is a bit out of date, but being a new boy and getting my posting numbers up I will offer some suggestions.

120 is so much bigger than 35mm that means a lower quality 120 camera could produce a better picture for enlarging than a 35mm trouble today is that 120 scanners are pretty expensive. However technology is at hand. I have an epson flatbed with the film scanning facility. It is set up for 35mm only. However by making ones own mask 120 film can be scanned in two passes and combined using the panoramic facility on a decent editing programme. I use Adobe Elements 7 and have had really excellent results including some 120 slide film.

for new 120 the only source now is Lomo who do some. I have the Belair which is set up for 12 x 6, 9 x6 or 6 x6. Not the greatest of lens (interchangeable) but massive magnification not required.

There are plenty of old 120s, TLRs and folders on fleabay. You do not need to spend a fortune to bet a reasonable 120 camaera.

Whilst we appreciate your comments on 120 cameras in general your references to scanners and methods of using them are inappropriate and totally irrelevant to this forum which is dedicated to film and DARKROOM printing. Please bear this in mind in future posts.
Thanks
Bill

I wonder what the OP decided to do? While this is a very old thread, at least by FADU standards, I note that the OP has been here as recently as March this year.

It is always nice to know what the thread starter decided to do after all our advice.

Mike

Snap! That is exactly what I use my Fuji for, photographing on-the-go , if it is blowing a gale I use one of my walking poles as a monopod. The lens is very sharp, I put a Moose warming polarizer on mine when using Kodak Porta 400 and set the camera to asa200. It turns the camera into a "point and shoot". The film has great "latitude". You would have to do something drastically wrong to get an exposure that was difficult to produce a good print from when using the Fuji loaded with Porta. There is no time to "faff" about on mountains especially when your mates are moaning about holding them up. At my age stopping to take a photograph is a good way of sneaking a breather.

I put a Moose warming polarizer on mine when using Kodak Porta 400 and set the camera to asa200.
QUOTE
It should be asa 100 not asa 200 I allow 2 stops for the filter.:slap: