Brian Petrillo with the Mamiya M645
After three promising rolls of Portra, my “new” Pentax 67 (from eBay) had jammed up on me and needed repair. I had been planning a nine-day tour of the UK and Ireland to explore castles, cathedrals, and photograph the brilliant landscape. I was excited to use the Pentax along with my Rolleiflex Automat as its sidekick. It's a really nice camera in its own right, but the 80mm lens lacked flexibility and sharpness to create stunning landscape photos.
Only having a month to figure out a solution, Film Objektiv proved to be a lifesaver. I decided to use the Mamiya M645 primarily with an adapter so I could use my P67 lenses.
Destination 1: Tower of London
I had visited the Tower on an England trip ten years prior, that time having lesser photographic equipment. While being a popular tourist attraction, there is a unique peaceful vibe at the Tower — almost like it is frozen in time. Hard to describe in words, I sought to capture this with these photos. Fortunate to get close enough to the ravens that live on the Tower grounds, those shots are among the favorites from my trip.
Destination 2: Glastonbury Tor
The Tor, a hill overlooking the town of Glastonbury, England, is rumored to be the location of Avalon from Arthurian legend. The hill is topped in dramatic fashion by St. Michael’s Tower, dating from the 14th century. A spiritual pilgrim and a photographer’s dream... photographing the Tor at sunrise was the closest I’ll ever get to living out a scene from Tolkien.
Destination 3: Ireland/Northern Ireland
My three-day Ireland trip featured two guided tours, one "Game of Thrones" tour of the Northern Ireland coast, and the other a day tour of western Ireland finishing at the amazing Cliffs of Moher. While the trip was a blast, I made a few blunders that left me with disappointing photos overall. The Rollei CN200 film had too much of a color shift to capture the green Ireland countryside and seemed to be inconsistent throughout the roll. Improperly exposed slide film and difficult lighting doomed most of the Cliffs of Moher photos.
Using the Mamiya 645 was really enjoyable. The lighter weight (compared to a Pentax 67), 6x4.5 format (15 frames instead of 10-12), and multi-exposure capability made it an awesome travel camera. I also found the film loading process to be faster as I got the hang of it. I may be investing in a Mamiya in the near future!