# My first foray into medium format photography (Mamiya C220), my photos came back! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** photo\ **Created:** [March 27, 2024, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-first-foray-into-medium-format-photography-mamiya-c220-my-photos-came-back/999416 "2024-03-27T00:15:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 1
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2024, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-first-foray-into-medium-format-photography-mamiya-c220-my-photos-came-back/999416/1 "2024-03-27T00:15:56Z")
Three weeks ago I was watching a YouTube video that mentioned [Vivian Maier’s work](https://www.vivianmaier.com); I had seen her work years ago but had forgotten until now. She was a nanny in NYC in the 50s and 60s, and she took amazing photographs with a 120 film twin-lens reflex camera. I suddenly thought “Wow, I wish I could take B&W photos on film with a TLR like that!” and after a half hour I realized there was no reason why I can’t do it. I have shot film in my younger days, my mom was a photographer with a fully tricked-out darkroom in our basement, and I have been shooting serious digital portraiture for many years. So I boldly ordered a Mamiya C220 twin lens reflex from Roberts Camera and a five pack of Kodak Tri-X. I sent the photos off to a lab in California to be developed and waited, gnawing my fingernails, until I could see my 3 depressing pitiful rolls of totally out of focus and poorly exposed photographs… …but they turned out great! Here is the very first photo I shot on 120 film in my life: [![](https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-QRGQ7GG/0/DfJBBfWBn84C26z6NphQLzktHJD3B2Gnm92ZX2KBg/O/i-QRGQ7GG.jpg) ](https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-QRGQ7GG/0/DfJBBfWBn84C26z6NphQLzktHJD3B2Gnm92ZX2KBg/O/i-QRGQ7GG.jpg) And if you don’t mind flipping through 35 photos (missed one somehow), here’s the rest of the gallery: > **[New Mamiya C220!](https://www.smugmug.com/gallery/n-pNh69D)** > > Photos from my new Mamiya C220 medium format camera. There appears to be a scratch on the negatives of the first roll of 12, possibly caused by dirt inside the mechanism or maybe at the lab. I will be inspecting very carefully. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-first-foray-into-medium-format-photography-mamiya-c220-my-photos-came-back/999416)._