One goes, another comes...

Personally, ever since I started holding a camera in my hands.  I had never ever dropped one while shooting.  Ever!

Well, maybe except once when I was fooling around with my friend's kid and my bag dropped and broke my Bessa R.  But it was not when I am holding or shooting with the camera. 

Anyway,  I dropped my "Beast".  That was about 2 weeks ago during a shoot . The whole camera was 1.7m above the ground on my tripod when it dropped.  And it hit the ground with such a large bang I thought the whole thing was gone.  Luckily (not sure to say if its lucky), only the lens was damaged.  But it was a lens I was having great fun and results with.  My 75mm!! Its physically looking alright but the shutter and aperture was jammed.  I managed to release the jammed shutter and aperture later by pulling the lens barrel by sheer force.  It was a straight down drop so the lens seems to slightly pushed into the helicoid.  It still focus well but the shutter just won't fire now. :S

Feeling sad, I was thinking of looking for a broken 75mm or Seiko S0 shutter part on ebay when I saw a lens being listed. The legendary and rare 100mm 2.8!  The only 2.8 lens in this Mamiya Press system!!  And it was in pristine condition!  Without thinking, I emailed the guy for a shipping quote and bought the lens.  While waiting for the lens, I was stuck with my backup copy of the 100mm 3.5 for the pass 2 weeks to shoot with.  I was using the 75mm more often as it provides full coverage to the Instant FP100c and FB3000B without any vignetting.  The 100mm has slight vignettes if open wide but once stopped down to f5.6, Its literally gone. 

Shooting with the 100mm 3.5 on film makes me excited.  Why?  Because from the viewfinder, the angle of view was very very familiar to me.  I was wondering why then I found out that its Field of View (FOV) is actually around 40mm angle of view on a 35mm system!! Which means it's my favourite RF focal length!!!  (My favourite RF lens is my VC 40mm 1.4)  This means the new 100mm 2.8 would be almost an exact same lens (FOV and DOF too!) on my "Beast".  So I was waiting in agony for the new lens to come... f/2.8 will be like f/1.4 on 35mm or greater!

It also means I can get to shoot handheld with my 3000B Instant indoors and at night :)    Anyway, I planned to bring the damaged 75mm back to Singapore and see if Steven of Camera Hospital could fix it.  I just absolutely love how the lens renders colour.  Its FOV is about 35mm but the main issue is its speed.  Its only a 5.6 lens so I plan to use it more for landscapes and outdoor shoots. 

Here's a great link on the Mamiya Press camera system overview for those who are interested in this camera :)

And finally a test shot of the lens indoor at f/2.8 with 3000B.  Sharp and sweet!  Bokeh is wonderful too!