A recent thread at Rangefinder Forum was about twin lens reflexes. It's not a camera type that you see much anymore. It was a professional camera format in the 50s and into the 60s. I bought a cheap Chinese TLR around 1990 and used it until I got the Mamiya Universal. It was really cheap.

But it was really fun to shoot. And it shoots square — 2 1/4 x 2 1/4. For the negative size it's very compact and light. I brought it down of the display shelf of dead cameras and cleaned it up. I took to to Thanksgiving with my family and ran a roll through it. It's a great camera for taking pictures of people! The square format seems to lend itself to taking people pictures.

Cameron

It also wants to have black and white film in it. Yes, it shoots color very well but I like the black and white images from this camera. Now I have to set up to develop my own black and white film.

I also need to get a better TLR. The Pearl River really is cheap and the lens isn't that sharp. The Rolleiflexes were the standard and are expensive but some people feel the Minolta Autocord was better and it can be had for *much* less. There is a very nice one on eBay if someone should want to get me an early Christmas present. It's immaculate (with an interesting story) but good autocords go for around $110 to $120 and careful bidding will get a good user for $80. As a point of reference, a digital camera that will get this quality will set you back around $22,000.