I’ve decided that 2025 is my “Year of of the TLR” and I’m hoping to spend the time improving my skills with my Yashica-Mat. This lines up nicely with the five pack of Cinestill XX 120 that I bought and have been working with.

For this roll I could finally use my release cable, thanks to an adapter I recently purchased. And this combined well with my interest in using a Rolleinar 2 to reduce my camera’s minimum focus distance. These Rolleinars work great, but greatly reduce the camera’s depth-of-field, so I wanted to shoot at f22 with long exposures. Reducing camera shake here is very helpful.

Some examples of Tripod/Release Cable/Rolleinar 2 shots.

Even at f22 the depth of field is pretty minimal in these shots. In the first the center of the plant is in crisp focus, but the back of it is not. The dog’s nose is in focus, but his ears start to get fuzzy. So something like 3 or 4 inches of DoF. It’s not a lot. But I could see using this set up for portraits in certain situations.

And then I got outside for a bit. The goal here was to test changing my metering based on conditions.

For the inside shots above I metered at 320, thanks to the fairly direct light. But for these outdoor shots (taken on a flat, overcast day) I metered at 200. These do not use the Rolleinar, just a tripod and release cable and a lens hood.

Something that I need to be aware of in shots like this is that when I place the subject at minimum focal distance anything in front of that will start to blur. Especially evident in that second photo where that branch in the bottom of the picture is out of focus.