Pentax 67 II

Let's talk about the workhorse in the room. 

I got my first Pentax 6X7 in 2014 from Mr.Cad in London and after one month of using it I went back in the shop and told them "I want you to notify me immediately if you receive a Pentax 67 II" and left my phone number. 

Asahi Pentax 6x7 worked just fine but the problem I had with it was slowing me down a bit. 

The body lacked the grip in comparison to new version and the version I had didn't have meter. Although I use lightmeter in all my analog shoots, there are times that I would like to depend on cameras meter too when time is short. However I knew that any version of Pentax 67 was there to stay in my kit. So several months after I gave my phone number to Mr.Cad I got a phone from them telling me a body in Excellent condition was available there and I Just dropped everything I was doing and dashed there. I part exchanged my Existing camera with the new version and since that day it's been happy shooting for me. 

I knew the camera was not in unused condition and also it was not in Mint+ or Excellent +++ or some on top of a list of some other camera condition ration but it worked and it didn't look too bad and I knew this would be my go to field camera which is to stay. Wont be selling or part exchanging this camera. 

So since last 10 years, I have been using Mamiya RZ67 Pro II and Pentax 67II as my medium format film cameras. Studio and Field I am covered for 6x7 the ideal format.  

In the I'm not there shoot, I asked a friend of mine who also had a Pentax 67II to lend me his camera so I could shoot Colour with one then swap for Black & White with other camera. 

One thing I didn't know about Pentax 67II was that in Aperture priority mode, it has greater shutter speed control (which you can't control). What do I mean by that? The shutter speed on the dial goes up by a stop from 4 sec to 1/1000 sec, but the aperture priority mode would go half stops giving you just little bit more accurate exposure on some scenarios and to be honest I didn't know about this until I shot the Mechanic shoot. Though I  swapped to Nikon F6 in order to get better story from the shoot. 

What I like about Pentax 67 II? 

• It is 6x7 medium format SLR camera
• Unlike Mamiya RZ or RB 67 system, while focusing you wont need to adjust exposure depending on focusing distance. 
• The body resembles modern-day SLR or DSLR
• Backwards compatible lenses with older pentax 67 version. 
• Same camera can shoot both 120 and 220 film (if 220 makes a comeback at all) 
• The focusing prism is beautiful and easy to manual focus. 
• Aperture priority mode has shutter speed half stops. 
• Battery that lasts for years.