My Plaubel Makina 670 is my favorite camera I’ve ever owned … and I’ve owned more than a few! I got my first one in the mid Eighties and for a significant period of my life I used what for me became the perfect camera. The Plaubel Makina 670 is medium format folding rangefinder camera, equipped with the outrageous fixed Nikkor 80mm f2.8 lens that equates to a 40mm when using a 35mm camera. It may be the ideal focal length if you were to only have or wish to use one lens. The camera and lens was so good that it replaced everything else I owned. It was a quirky but spectacular combination. Not for everyone, but it travelled all over the world with me until it started to develop some interesting problems. I regrettably sold it. A terrible mistake, and ultimately replaced it with a more modern Mamiya 7II medium format rangefinder camera, equipped with the equally great Mamiya 80mm f4.0 lens. I made some very nice pictures with that camera too but realized while visiting a West Bank refugee camp that rapid film changing was not its strong suit. It also wasn’t a folder.
Years went by and I tried a lot of medium format cameras to recapture what I had lost, but in the end there just wasn’t any love! Believe it or not I first I tried another 670. But for some reason the magic was gone and so out went the Plaubel. Damn!
Mamiya 6 … not for me … still didn’t like the square format. I should have known better, given my various failed attempts with Hasselblad and Rollei SLRs. Mamiya 7 … been there, done it. Bronica RF645, nice in some ways but the negative was not large enough for me to make a difference and it had a vertical viewfinder. Weird. Bessa III … another quirky folder that didn’t do it for me. I finally decided to try the “Texas Leica”. That’s right; I’m talking about the Fuji GW690 6X9 format camera with a fixed 90mm focal length lens. I thought I might have found the makings of real happiness.
Then it happened. I was communicating with another photographer and he told me he had a late near mint Plaubel Makina 670 that had been given a CLA by the German factory just before it shut down. You probably know where this is heading. I couldn’t stop myself and the deal was done!
Guess what … third time has turned out to be the charm! If this opportunity hadn’t come around perhaps I would still be using the Fuji. Don’t know, but what I can tell you is that the feeling I had so many years ago with my first 670 was back! Not sure what transpired with #2, but I’ve had a blast using this camera all these years, and to me at least, the results speak for themselves! In short, this is the camera I want to use whenever possible.
All of this brings me to the present, well almost, because I have been without my beloved Plaubel Makina for months now. That’s because the advance mechanism decided to start acting up. I first checked out Nippon Camera in New York. They’re known for working on these cameras. $1600 just to look at it no matter what’s wrong. Uh … no. So I sent it to my go to non-Leica repair person after he promised he could take care of the problem at a reasonable cost and in a quick amount of time. Unfortunately he ended up having some medical problems and between doctor appointments and in the end couldn’t get it working. I finally got it back and found someone else who specializes in the camera and has a stash of parts. I sent it to him and hoped there wouldn’t be any major issues, but alas the film counter assembly needed to be replaced. #@$%^&* I hope I can get it back before February!
Needless to say, I haven’t been all that happy. Being without my fav made me realize just how much I miss it. To me the Plaubel Makina 670 is the perfect camera. I use it whenever possible for street and documentary work and it’s an all-rounder when it’s all I have with me and something unexpected pops up. The Leica’s come out when I know the action is going to be fast and crazy. I hope to have it for years to come … as long it can be maintained. And that’s a potential problem that impacts many legacy cameras. But my camera is like a dear friend I know very well. It suits me and we take care of each other. I probably should give it a name. Even when I’m not using it I know where it is, sitting on the shelf, ready go when I am.
But while my camera was gone the show had to go on! I wasn’t going to stop making pictures! For one thing I needed to complete my Visions of America work and wanted to continue using a medium format camera whenever possible, especially for pictures of urban architecture and murals I’ve been doing lately.
Fortunately I had been trying out another medium format rangefinder (I know …yet another!) with changeable lenses for the past year with the hope that it could become my go to for urban architecture, murals and other non-people related images. Now I had to use it for pictures of people. While it’s a wonderful camera, in my opinion it’s not the best for this application. A great rangefinder, but bigger and clunkier than the Plaubel Makina. That having been said, I used it and after some missed shots and a few other hiccups I got used to it for the task at hand and it saved me. More to come on the mystery camera soon!
So you can make a good picture with any camera/lens, especially if you’re determined. And besides it’s just light tight box and a lens, with a few gizmos that makes it all work … right?
Well, not for me. Being without my best bud has been hard. Really. I miss him and want him back! Safe, sound, and soon! And I don’t care what it costs!
Stay well,
Michael