 Yo, what up? Welcome back to another episode. I finally cut off whatever that thing was growing on the back of my head because Baxter wouldn't stop growling at it So you're welcome. The world is a slightly more beautiful place now Today's episode is sponsored by Squarespace Well, it's time to get busy living or get busy dying And I figured what better way to die than with a Makina 670 in hand As most of you know, I recently picked up a Plable Makina 670, which is now my third 6x7 medium format camera Which you might think is kind of overkill and you know what for once you're probably right Why was I interested in this camera to begin with? Because it seemed like everything I wanted needed and desired from a medium format camera It checks all the boxes a lightweight rangefinder camera with a sharp lens a light meter and it collapses in on itself or easy portability And it ain't too hard on the eyes either Plable is a German company. It really started off that way in 1902 The word plable comes from the German language and directly translates to room temperature beer I'm just kidding. It was just some dude's name The first Plable Makina camera was introduced to the world in 1912 and through several iterations It eventually became the Plable Makina 670 when the company was sold to a Japanese business group with this change came a Change in lens design as they started incorporating more Nikkor lenses into the camera So at this point the camera is entirely Japanese in design But it's still bore the German plable name Interestingly enough Mamiya actually took over the outsourced work from Koppel and became the company producing the camera becoming one of the Titus collapse of the world's ever seen, but we all know what happened to Mama Mia in 1984 they sh** the bed and went under thus the Makina came to an abrupt end Be sure to pour one out for the fallen homies the Makina 670 was the final model produced by Plable But enough history lessons What is it like to actually use one of these bad boys in the field besides a couple of test photos? I took to make sure the camera was in working order. I didn't really know So I rang Caleb and told him to drop everything. It was time to plable Makina 670 super hard We hit the road down to Laguna Beach, and I loaded up some portrait 400 to get me in the mood So speaking of loading the camera I think the biggest pain in the ass with this thing is changing the ISO selector for the light meter It's under the lens and it's not particularly indented so you kind of have to use your nail and force it to move sometimes This shot would have been great would have if not for these goddamn cars Maybe in 30 years when these models are considered vintage. It'll be something cool So probably the biggest thing I noticed while I was out there shooting was how much you actually have to get used to Using this camera first off the focus is actually located at the advanced lever you turn this dial to line up your rangefinder Patch I actually really dig it But it will catch you off guard the first few times that you use your camera another thing is I thought I'd be using the collapsing feature a Lot more often but honestly it becomes kind of exhausting to erect it and then de erect it constantly men You know what I'm talking about eventually you just learn to keep the camera open unless you're packing it away for the day So I've heard a lot about how the whole Makina line of cameras are very capable But also very fragile and prone to breaking these cameras were actually featured in a Wim Wenders film Called Palermo shooting and yeah, I definitely see how this thing could break There are a couple of wires in the bellows that allow communication between the lens and that camera body and as you can probably imagine Constantly folding and unfolding them or whatever this clown is doing will wear on them over time I actually really like this shot for some reason It's quite atmospheric and the pastel tones calm my anxiety about the discontinuation of Fuji Pro 400H so eventually we arrived at a very popular location for photography and Needless to say everyone could instantly feel the tension. We soon realized we were wildly outnumbered by digital photographers They could easily kick our asses so in order to blend in Caleb and I checked the back of our cameras every time we took a shot Our survival depended on it at some point I switched over to a roll of Ektar 100 if you know me at all You know that Ektar and I got beef, but I don't think these photos actually turned out too bad I don't want to get too ahead of myself, but perhaps Ektar and I could reconcile our differences in the future Is this camera waterproof? Well, I wasn't really planning on testing it, but a huge wave hit the shore and I mean I guess it still works Lastly a hot swapped in some very expired Ektacrum 64 daylight that was kindly sent to me by Denali Norsen Here's his Instagram if you feel inclined to show him some love This was just a test roll to see if the film was a dud and thankfully It kind of wasn't It expired in 1980 and was fogged as sh**, but I could still yank something out of it That someone somewhere someday might think maybe somewhat resembles a photo If we were to continue our comparisons of the Makina to the Mamiya 7 or even the Pentax 6x7 I'd have to say the shooting process is a little bit slower Maybe that's something I'll get better at with time But changing the f-stop in the shutter speed isn't very quick, especially when you're peering through the viewfinder Worth noting too is that the aperture is de-clicked What that means is you can actually hit those sweet in-between apertures like f6.9 and f4.20 As the light was fading I threw in a roll of Cinestill 800T Which was a bold move if by bold I mean stupid I guess just don't expect crazy beautiful colors if you're shooting a tungsten film in daylight Which is a lesson I should have learned by now. What can be said about the lens? I mean in a poetic sense. What does the wind say about the grass? What does the tide say about the moonlight and what does sudden onset explosive diarrhea feel like? It's sharp and forceful folks. It renders space beautifully and frankly I don't think I've ever been more physically attracted to a lens than ever before So the awesome thing about the Makina is that the lens goes down to f2.8 This is significant to me because I've often found that the f4 minimum aperture on the Mamiya 7 was a bit limiting at times Limiting usually only when you're running out of time It's getting dark and you're squeezing your heart is trying to pinch off the last shot of your roll Wide open the lens is pretty solid as well a little dreamy But I think that's a fair trade for an 80 millimeter 2.8 that covers 6 by 7 Truthfully this lens is to die for I'd literally throw someone else in front of a bus to save it Before I wrap this video up, I'd like to thank our sponsor Squarespace Has this ever happened to you a colleague friend foe family member or even the pizza delivery guy asked to see some of your Photos and you draw blank because you don't have them neatly arranged anywhere online Well, if you'd like to take the leap from trying to verbally describe your photos to actually showing them off Then guess what you can easily do so with Squarespace Squarespace is an online website building platform Which means there's absolutely no downloads patches updates or annoying chords of any kind I've been using Squarespace to host my portfolio work for the past couple of years And I couldn't recommend it more if you're ready to build a website You can start a free trial today at Squarespace comm slash grainy days And if you use the code grainy days at checkout you can get 10% off your first purchase So is this camera moist or not moist? I think it's very moist I've already produced some of my favorite medium format photos with this metal dream machine So I'm gonna keep cruising with it the rangefinder patch is excellent The whole camera is excellent. It's just a well-made piece of photography equipment And I can see why it was heralded in its time if you've ever used this camera Let me know your thoughts or even better any tips on getting the most out of it Someone told me it's best to keep the camera stored open for the internal wires But I don't know you can't really believe everything you hear on the internet At least of all a guy who makes jokes about interpreting German words But doesn't want anyone to translate his last name