Do any of you primarily do portraits with your Mamiya 7 medium format film camera?

[Certain Exposures]

Do any of you exclusively use a Mamiya 7 for portraits and get great results with something like the 150mm lens? I am curious to check out some galleries because of all the rumors about how great the Mamiya 7 lenses are.

I would not get a Mamiya 7 for portrait photography based on my experience with a 35mm rangefinder camera and medium format SLRs (which I find hard to focus). I think I would struggle to nail focus frequently. Maybe that is a skill issue though.

I would love to see what can be done.

 

[brian steinberger]

I use my Mamiya 6 all the time to photograph my family. They’re not head and shoulders portraits but I think it works great. I don’t use the 150mm much with my kids unless I ask them to hold still. 75mm works for most things (candid).

 

[Certain Exposures]

Nice website, Brian. Do you find yourself nailing focus on their eyes more often than not for candids and posed frames?

 

[brian steinberger]

Thank you! Yes I find I do nail focus. On the rare occasion I’m off by much I discard the photo. I find it easy with the Mamiya 6. The patch is nice and clear. The Mamiya 7 shouldn’t be much different. Have you used rangefinders for long? It does take some time to get used to.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

Chris shot this on his Mamiya7 for our cover of 'Way Beyond Monochrome'

 

[Curtis_]

I've used one for portraiture with the 80mm lens; it's a great camera in my experience. Focusing was never too difficult, although once I did miss the focus on an otherwise good portrait, which I still regret 2 years later.

I've also met many photographers who use the same combination almost exclusively and make great portraits.

 

[Certain Exposures]

@brian steinberger No, not for long. I made the decision I would give rangefinders a full year (2026) of street photography practice before I purchased my first rangefinder camera.

@RalphLambrecht that is a beautiful frame. WBM is one of the books I am still flipping through along with a few other instructional guides.

@Curtis_ this weekend I hesitated and missed a shot that I know I would have loved to print. They always haunt us...

 

[Ardpatrick]

Nailing focus is less of an issue than rangefinder calibration. If your camera is properly calibrated, sharp focus is generally manageable. None of the lenses focus close enough for head and shoulders compositions. But for environmental/ full body shots the camera is great. Subjects also tend to be more relaxed and find the camera less menacing than other cameras, and often they don’t really react to being photographed. FWIW I shoot with the 50, 65, 80, 150, and 210 lenses.

 

[gbroadbridge]

Put the nails through the feet of the subject - focus issue solved.

 

[Big G]

I use the Mamiya 6 with the unloved (but consequently cheap) 150mm lens. You need some cooperation from the subject, but it does work -- mostly. Sure, I would like to use a Hasselblad with one of the longer lenses, but I'd like to keep both my kidneys.

 

[Ardpatrick]

Chris shot this on his Mamiya7 for our cover of 'Way Beyond Monochrome'

A very nice portrait & cover image Ralph, but for the sake of not misleading the OP, I should comment that this image has clearly been cropped down significantly from the Mamiya 7 shot.

The camera cannot focus anywhere near close enough for this composition to be full frame. I have all the lenses except the 43mm ultra-wide, and I doubt this image was shot on that lens

 

[Prest_400]

RF user here through a Fuji 6x9 which basically has the same limitations. With the standard lens it's nice for not so up close environmental portraits. Akin to what Brian writes:

I use my Mamiya 6 all the time to photograph my family. They’re not head and shoulders portraits but I think it works great. I don’t use the 150mm much with my kids unless I ask them to hold still. 75mm works for most things (candid).

It's challenging DoF wise wider open, lately I am stopping down more (f8) which anyways does a lot of background blur focused down at 1.5-2m. Nailing focus is so so which I guess that it's a combination of focus-recompose and I should get my RF checked...

 

[bunip]

I use my Mamiya 6 for landscape and family but the only lens I use is the 50mm. I never even tried the 150 in 10 years. If I need 75-80mm I love Photographing kids with the Rolleiflex F3,5; if I need a shoulder portrait I prefer the Hassy with the 250mm or the Pentacon six with the spectacular 180. I have a lot of cameras that I'd like to use more often.

 

[brian steinberger]

If anyone is interested, you can look at my portrait gallery here.

Every picture in that gallery was taken with either a Mamiya 6 and 75mm or Bronica RF645 and 65mm.

About halfway down is a portrait of my now wife, in a black shirt looking to left of frame with a wooded background. That was shot with the 150mm on the Mamiya 6 at almost close focus.

 

[MattKing]

If anyone is interested, you can look at my portrait gallery here.

Every picture in that gallery was taken with either a Mamiya 6 and 75mm or Bronica RF645 and 65mm.

About halfway down is a portrait of my now wife, in a black shirt looking to left of frame with a wooded background. That was shot with the 150mm on the Mamiya 6 at almost close focus.

And those toes are tack sharp !
Thanks for sharing those @brian steinberger - they are really fun.

 

[Ardpatrick]

Is "Meg, Lifeguard Chair, VA Beach" a crop? It is clearly the closest shot, and looks closer than I can go with the Mamiya 7? I like "The Billy" a lot. Someone happy about Celtic's win over Hearts. Nice work.

 

[brian steinberger]

And those toes are tack sharp !
Thanks for sharing those @brian steinberger - they are really fun.

Thanks Matt!

 

[brian steinberger]

Is "Meg, Lifeguard Chair, VA Beach" a crop? It is clearly the closest shot, and looks closer than I can go with the Mamiya 7? I like "The Billy" a lot. Someone happy about Celtic's win over Hearts. Nice work.

Thanks! Yes now you mention it, that shot (Meg) was close focus on the 75mm. I do that sometimes where I focus the lens at close focus then lean in and out until the eyes are tack sharp.

 

[wiltw]

A Mamiya 7 with 80mm lens has frame dimension of 56mm x 69mm...so the 80mm FL lens would see the same short dimension AOV as seen with 35mm FL 35mm FL on 24mm frame width... a 3.3' wide area on a portrait-orientation frame at subject distance of 5'

• Shooting with 80mm FL with f/5.6 at a distance of 5' would result in quite shallow DOF (for viewer with 20/20 corrected vision) which is only 3.5" in total depth. If your camera is handheld, you cannot sway very much with breath-induced motion before losing focus!...better to mount the Mamiya 7 on tripod to eliminate breath-induced motion.
• If shooting with 135 format an 35mm lens at f/5.6 you would have considerable 'slop' with a handheld camera because of 8.75"DOF zone!

 

[MARTIE]

A Mamiya 7 with 80mm lens has frame dimension of 56mm x 69mm...so the 80mm FL lens would see the same short dimension AOV as seen with 35mm FL 35mm FL on 24mm frame width... a 3.3' wide area on a portrait-orientation frame at subject distance of 5'

• Shooting with 80mm FL with f/5.6 at a distance of 5' would result in quite shallow DOF (for viewer with 20/20 corrected vision) which is only 3.5" in total depth. If your camera is handheld, you cannot sway very much with breath-induced motion before losing focus!...better to mount the Mamiya 7 on tripod to eliminate breath-induced motion.
• If shooting with 135 format an 35mm lens at f/5.6 you would have considerable 'slop' with a handheld camera because of 8.75"DOF zone!

I don't follow your calculations for dof?

 

[wiltw]

I don't follow your calculations for dof?

The DOF calculation that I used (online, Cambridge Color web site) allow me to specify both the visual acuity of the viewer (vs. 'manufacturer standard' calculations which assume somewhat inferior vision) and the viewing distance (and I use the usual 12" viewing of 8x10" print).

 

[brian steinberger]

Nailing focus is less of an issue than rangefinder calibration. If your camera is properly calibrated, sharp focus is generally manageable.

Yes, I should have added in my posts that I have both of my Mamiya 6 bodies serviced every 6-8 years or so by Bob at Precision Camera works in Texas. My cameras always focus where they should, most importantly up close, which is what we’re discussing. If you have a RF and you’re not sure if it’s ever seen a CLA (RF calibration) it’s probably not a bad idea to send it in with whatever lenses you use with it.

 

[MARTIE]

The DOF calculation that I used (online, Cambridge Color web site) allow me to specify both the visual acuity of the viewer (vs. 'manufacturer standard' calculations which assume somewhat inferior vision) and the viewing distance (and I use the usual 12" viewing of 8x10" print).

I had a similar experience with pinhole calculators, no two matched. Too many variables.

 

[wiltw]

I don't follow your calculations for dof?

Per the Cambridge Color DOF program, 135 format with 35mm f/5.6 has a 'manufacturer standard' DOF zone of 27.4" at a subject distance of 5'
Per Photopills DOF program, 135 format with 35mm f/5.6 has a 'manufacturer standard' DOF zone of 25.8" at a subject distance of 5'