31 December 2017 — 2049 mdt

Synthetic twin lens reflex photography

Before Instagram repopularized the format, square images were the product of drugstore processed 120-size film (57mm x 57mm) exposed with twin lens reflexes such as the Rolleiflex, Rolleicord, Yashica Mat 124, Minolta Autocord, and a variety of inexpensive fixed focus TLRs sold by Kodak. The square 3.5-inch prints often were made on deckle edged glossy paper and stapled together in a small booklet.

Old square images differ from Instagram square images in three ways:

• Shallower depth of field;
• A normal instead of wide-angle view; and
• A waist level perspective.

TLRs were held at waist level, providing an eye level view of small children and a looking up, and somewhat unnatural, view of adults. The Rolleiflex’s 80mm f/2.8 taking lens provided a shallow depth of field that separated the subject from the background in a pleasing way. Nowadays that effect is synthesized by software, but it also can be produced with full frame and APS-C digital cameras.

I made this photograph of snow surrounded mailboxes with a wide open 24mm f/2.8 lens on a DX DSLR with a flip-out LCD that permits waist level viewing. Cropping the image to a square yields a horizontal angle of view of ≈ 36°, the functional equivalent of the 39° HAOV of an 80mm lens on a TLR, and a depth of field that’s the same as f/9 on a TLR. On a full frame digital camera, a 35mm lens provides a 38° HAOV for a square crop, and an f/1.4 lens provides the same depth of field as a TLR at approximately f/3.2.

Used TLRs are available through eBay and many online camera stores. Rolleiflexs are overpriced, but Rolleicords and Yashica Mat 124s in good working order are available for a few hundred dollars. Black and white 120 film — I recommend Ilford Pan F Plus for large aperture work outdoors — from BHPhotoVideo and other online retailers. A Samyang 35mm f/1.4 manual focus lens costs ≈ $450 and is a better investment if you own a full frame DSLR. A 24mm f/1.4 Samyang costs approximately the same; on an APS-C DSLR it approximates an f/4.5 depth of field on a TLR.

Below, my grab shot of the mailboxes in color and grayscale. I was in a hurray because of the cold; framing isn’t optimal.