As I’ve wandered down this crazy path of photography over the past couple of years, I’ve discovered that my gut instinct in regards to photography is usually pretty dead on. I bought my first professional DSLR without ever having done any sort of hired work- I just sort of…knew it was a good decision. There have been times where I’ve avoided certain situations because my gut told me it was a bad opportunity, and every time I’ve ended up being right. So when I started to have an ache to work with medium format film and found myself looking for a Contax 645 and found one at a very reasonable price, I went with my gut and purchased it. My friend Lauryn was incredibly kind and lent me her Contax a couple of weeks ago to play around with (THANKS, LAURYN!), so it wasn’t a completely uneducated decision. I just knew that the look of film that I lusted after, the images I drooled over in “The Luminous Portrait,” and that heart-wrenching desire to go out and create something beautiful wouldn’t be satisfied until I could at least TRY.

I really didn’t know anything about the Contax other than it’s a medium format camera, it’s big, and it’s been discontinued so it’s somewhat hard to find. I tried researching the camera because I knew you could buy it in separate parts, but nothing I found really made sense so I took the plunge and bought a complete kit. In case you’re as clueless as I was, the Contax is comprised of four main parts: the body, the film back, the lens and the prism/eyepiece thingy. You can buy them separately, but I’ve found that it tends to be more expensive to assemble an entire kit if you buy the components separately.

Also, in case you’re wondering what the gunk on my desk is, SOMEBODY (DAD) left a tube of Krazy glue on the surface and it leaked. Hooray! lol

A few months ago, I had no idea what the technical difference was between medium format film and 35mm, other than the fact that medium format is “bigger.” The Contax is a medium format camera that accepts 120 film and 220 film, and the digital negatives are between 150-160% larger than a 35mm negative. The only difference between 120 film and 220 film is that 120 gives you 16ish shots, and 220 gives you 32ish shots!

See the difference? Bigger!

A Contax’s negative measures 6 x 4.5cm, and a 35mm negative actually measure 24 x 36mm. Here are the negatives compared side by side! This roll of 120 was just a test, and I’m so so so excited to get my latest rolls back from Indie! Jonathan Canlas pointed out that the great thing about the 6 x 4.5 format is that it means minimal cropping when making 5 x 7, 8 x 10 and 11 x 14 prints! WOOT! I’m clearly still a HUGE novice when it comes to all things medium format and film in general, but I figured I’d share what I’ve learned so far!

And for all of you non-clueless photographers and non-photographers in general who couldn’t care less about everything I’ve just said, here’s a (digital, obviously) preview of Vinnie & Maria’s e-session! Gah, I love them!!

Happy Tuesday!