coast to coast with holga and mamiya

[jihad]

hey guys,
i recently purchased a mamiya c330F and plan on taking it with me on a coast to coast trip in the US (next week). I am also taking my holgas and NOT taking my digital stuff. It's risky given that I had the mamiya for only 2 weeks now and have been playing with it; i developed my first roll yesterday and they looked good. However i am not taking any chances, so I wanted to see if you guys have any advice and tips for best use of my c330F.
practically i will be taking hopefully portraits and some landscape of course.
I have a the 80mm sekor f/2.8.

what worries me, sounds silly, is that i end up with bad quality pics. it is silly but i am even unsure about the focus/sharpness. I am used to auto focus (or none for the case of the holga) so now i look into that viewer on the c330 and turn the wheel back and forth million times with much hesitation about whether i hit the right point or i am a tiny tiny bit away.

do you suggest by the way that I get a tripod for the portraits ? the good thing baout it is that it is heavy so also relatively stable.

Anyway it was a way for me to introduce my self, ask for advice, wish a merry xmas, and promise some pitchers upon my return.

 

[compur]

what worries me, sounds silly, is that i end up with bad quality pics. it is silly but i am even unsure about the focus/sharpness. I am used to auto focus (or none for the case of the holga) so now i look into that viewer on the c330 and turn the wheel back and forth million times with much hesitation about whether i hit the right point or i am a tiny tiny bit away.

You know that the waist level finder has a built-in magnifier that pops up, right?

do you suggest by the way that I get a tripod for the portraits ?

Tripods are always a good idea if possible.

 

[jihad]

About the magnifier, sure.. but then it is hard to use it at wait level, and a tripod would be best at this point. Thanks Campur.

 

[Torus34]

Raising the camera up so that your eye is close to the magnifier doesn't change the distance to the subject. Raise, focus, flip the magnifier out of the way and then return the rig to waist level [or what height you find comfortable -- shortening the strap so that the camera is at mid-chest height might also work fine for you], compose and click.

 

[Early]

Whatever you do, invest in the prism finder, or at least the poro finder. And the 55mm lens, of course.