This camera is a dream to use. Yes, you can in insert the dark slide and remove the film back at any time. Very easy to remove it and install the ground glass for critical focus and composition. You can even get a second film back and be able to use a different film. This is a great feature to have when lighting conditions start changing.
This is a superb informative panoramic technical camera video. I didn’t know the Chinese made 6x17 camera has so much more features than the other brands. The panoramic format has always been out of my budget because of its astronomic price range; normally, the camera alone costs an arm, plus the lens would cost a kidney or two😢 thanks for the great video, always enjoy watching your work. Do you scan your negatives or transparency?
Thank you for the kind words. This is probably the best value for the money...and you can purchase new! It is very versatile with rise and fall, interchangeable backs and lenses...and for me, having the ability to change formats makes this the ultimate medium format panoramic camera. Yes, I develop and scan my negs and slides.
I have pretty much settled on Kodak Portra 400 for the majority of my work. In the past I had used a dozen different films but decided to find the best film for most things. My requirements were pretty straight forward. The film had to have a medium/fast speed, no excessive grain, render good color, convert nicely to black and white, must have good latitude, be forgiving if exposure is off a bit, could give a variety of looks by changing exposure/developing, and most importantly...I needed to be able to easily develop it at home without a darkroom. The film that best fit smy requirements is Portra 400. I hope this helps.
Thanks for the info on the Portra 400 Richard. Remembered the last time I did my own analogue color print from such film was 20 years ago, really like its subtle tonality for the skin but wasn’t aware it also good for color landscape and black and white work. One never too old to learn new things 😊
Thank you very much for having taken the time to explain the camera features. There is so little information on the internet about it, even though Da Yi cameras have been manufactured for almost twenty years now. May I ask you to make a further video about it, to show how the image looks through the ground glass, under the dark cloth, in normal lighting conditions and how is the view through the viewfinder and if it more or less matches the ground glass view. It would be much appreciated, I have read so many conflicting information about those topics and haven't seen anything in real life to figure it out myself. Thank you.
