Out there on the mean streets of photography, it's a digital world. So what possible good can come from shooting with a 50 year old Yashica-Mat Twin Lens Reflex medium format camera? How about 50 megapixel scans, square negatives, and a classic "analog" look? Dive into this article to discover all the techniques, benefits and eccentricities inherent in Twin Lens Reflex (TLR) photography.
Common wisdom tells us that "the bigger the sensor, the better the image." Micro Four Thirds (MFT) cameras, though 3 times the price, have a sensor 9 times larger than a point-and-shoot. Great value! The sensor on a full-frame "35 mm" digital camera is 4 times larger than MFT and, coincidentally, costs approximately 4 times as much. Unfortunately, should you wish to shoot digital medium format, you'll run head first into the Law of Diminishing Returns, where a sensor only 1.5 times larger than 35mm currently costs about 7 times as much. Ouch. This article discusses my decision to go "medium format" in a decidedly analog way — by purchasing a 50 year old Yashica-Mat Twin Lens Reflex camera for less than $100. Read along with my tongue-in-cheek logic, and see if you won't end up scouring eBay for your own medium format film camera.
