11/9/2022 0 Comments Mamiya 6 flickr![]() ![]() ![]() However its location is actually quite convenient. I always half-expect that turning it will advance the film (as it would on my Olympus XA compact). The thumbwheel focusing does require some mental re-adjustment. It allows for a more direct rangefinder coupling, and a focus thumbwheel on the camera body. But I’ve discovered no particular penalty in close-focusing distance, or film flatness. Before seeing this in person, it sounded like a strange idea to me. The Seikosha shutter has (unevenly spaced) speeds from 1 to 1/500th second, set via a somewhat hard-to-grasp knurled ring.Īn unusual feature of all the Six models was that they focused by moving the film plane, rather than the lens. Frankly, I prefer that to any untrustworthy 1950s selenium-cell meter marring the camera’s looks. The ASA dial is simply a reminder of which film you have loaded. (You can re-cock the shutter for double exposures in this way also.) ![]() In that case, you’ll need to manually slide a cocking tab on the top of the shutter. The cocking linkage does not work if you wind while the camera is folded (unlike a Retina). The necessary linkage is hidden behind a cover at the front of the dropped bed-an easy way to ID the Automat models. However Mamiya bettered Zeiss by having their film winder also cock the shutter (hence the Automat name). Right down to the horizontal stripes embossed in the leather). The look seems to have been inspired by Zeiss folders of the day, especially the Super Ikonta III The camera’s styling is angular and businesslike, rather than plump and cute like some of its folding competitors. ![]() (These would have been provided by the original leather case, which I am missing.) Unlike some folders, its body style is nicely graspable, particularly by cradling the dropped door in your left hand. And it folds up to a tidy package about 2 inches thick with few projections to snag on a coat pocket. In the world of 120 folders, this one is not particularly small yet compared to my Minolta Autocord TLR it’s about 2/3rds of the volume, and saves 15% in weight. And amateur enthusiasm for 35mm film was rapidly eclipsing 120.īut “ Medium Format in Your Pocket“-with a rangefinder for accurate focusing-is a great idea, one that deserves to be revived today (despite the archaic appearance of a camera with, *gasp* bellows). Even the venerable folding Kodak Retina line would switch over to a rigid body style by 1960. Folding designs were beginning to seem archaic and excessively fragile. Its identification as the Mamiya 6 Mk4 model is common in collector circles, but it’s not marked as such on the camera.ĭespite its many refinements, by 1958 the market was moving away from this style of camera. Mine is the mid production model, introduced in 1946, which was a more sophisticated version. But in fact, the later 1950s folders are actually engraved MAMIYA-6 (note the hyphen). Some make the distinction between Mamiya Six (spelled out) for the company’s early 120 folding models, versus Mamiya 6 for the modern plastic ones. But today I’m going to show you its distant ancestor from the 1950s-the only similarity being that they are both 6×6 format rangefinders. In the 1990s, Mamiya introduced a highly-regarded, plastic-bodied camera called the Mamiya 6. Its a very solid, HQ Camera with great sharp coatedĤ element Zuiko Lens ( a good Carl Zeiss Tessar copy) If it came to a battery using camera, either the Contax T2 (35mm) or the Mamiya 7 (6x7 cm).Today I have received my mamiya 6 folder from 1947, If I could have only one non-battery using camera for the rest of my life, this would be it. Its all metal and sondly built so the price paid is the weight: 29.8 ounces. The film advance is mechanical, i.e., no red window is required to align the next frame, meaning high speed film is much less likely to have a bit of fog from light working its way around the film's paper backing. The final masterful detail is that the shutter is cocked as the film is advanced. This moves the film plane with a thumb wheel - a much better system IMHO. I don't like how most folders focus, requiring your hand to be on the lens, thereby obscuring part of the composition in the viewfinder. The film plane is held very flat (the Achilles heel of many folders) in a method copied by the Leica CL many years later. A very sharp Zuiko lens with good contrast matched with a high speed (1/500th) shutter is a combination that's hard to beat. ![]()
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