Marvellous Mamiya 1000TL

This is one of two Mamiyas I own. It's a 1966 Mamiya 1000TL, previously my grandfathers, and I adore this camera. It still works well, and currently has some Tmax keeping cool inside it.

The lens on the front is the Soligor 135mm f3.5. A completely anonymous lens in many respects, but capable of stunning results, and is often stuck on the front of one of my modern cameras - some of my previous blips have been through this lens. Today however, I took this picture with the Mamiya's usual partner, a Mamiya 55mm f1.4. I was going to post a picture taken at f1.4. but only the M was in focus, I decided to go for this f2.8 shot, as the image quality is better, insofar as you can identify the subject.

RobArt recently posted some info on M42 lenses such as these. I would encourage anyone to try using manual focus lenses on digital cameras. Although initially harder to get the results, it is very satisfying, and gives me an excuse for hanging around backstreet camera shops. Of course, using film cameras is very fine too.