buy a 'Blad 500 C/M or keep my Mamiya 6 kit

[Andrew Moxom]

I have an opportunity to purchase a Blad 500 C/M at a decent price. It is in great shape, and appears well maintained. My dilemma is as follows. I used to own a 500 c/m and sold this body and a 50mm distagon, and an 80mm planar to fund my first 4 x 5 and a few lenses purchase a number of years ago. Anyway, long story short, I really did miss the square format and ended up acquiring the full system of Mamiya 6 and all 3 lenses when I stumbled across a great deal. While I love this system, and especially covet the 50mm lens, I am getting a serious bee in my behind about getting a blad again. The main driver is that the SLR gives you WYSIWYG, while the Mamiya 6 RF doesn't and the RF viewfinder introduces some serious issues with some of the compositions I use. Keystoning is something that is not always visible in the RF viewfinder. I end up with a lot of shots bang on, but feel I could be more accurate with the 'Blad by seing the image I am going to collect. Then there is the fact that Mamiya 6 spares are drying up, and the winders being so fragile. (not an issue with mine in it's well kept and babied history) I am at a quandry as to what direction to take. I had some dough set aside to purchase a digital SLR for general use ( I know, I know.. luddite), but I can use this to get the Blad. Also, I would like to gauge availability of 'Blad parts. I am assuming there were tons more made, and tha tparts should be available for a very long time, unless I am mistaken?? If I could have my cake and eat it, I would keep both systems as I know I can get good results from all of them and that would be a good compromise. I love the portability of the Mamiya 6 and the lenses. Yet the body and same lenses with a Blad would eat up a lot more room and weight... I'm torn.. decisions, decisions. I want both, but know I'd have to offload the '6'. Then there is a question that could be debated forever. If I was to obtain a newer 'FLE' variant of the 50mm Distagon, how would it compare to the Mamiya 6 50mm that exhibits no distortion. I have a serious bout of GAS and not sure what to do. Anyone have to make a similar decision?

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Sounds like you really would prefer the 'blad. Obviously, no one else can make this decision for you, since they're both fine systems, and it really depends on whether you prefer an SLR or a rangefinder.

 

[Andrew Moxom]

I am thinking of leaning towards two systems . One lighter system for when I travel and want to do unintrusive shots, and the 'Blad for when I want to get exercise in lugging stuff around, and take my time! The GAS has really got me bad, but I still have the question on the 50mm Distagon to get answered.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Come on buy the 'blad. You know you want it.

The you can cross over to the dark side with a 39 megapixel back for a meer $30,000US.

Remember: Handling a 'blad can be hazardous to your financial well being!

Steve

 

[Jim Noel]

I would go for both.

 

[Peter Williams]

I personally prefer the Mamiya. After finding a great deal on Rolleiflex and really loving the Zeiss lens, I decided that what I really needed was the Hasselblad so that I could have interchangeable Zeiss lenses. I already had the Mamiya at the time and I enjoyed using it. I hated the film loading on the Hasselblad. I hated focusing with those lenses. All in all, it just wasn't for me. No doubt the Hasselblad can make fantastic images, but what really counts to me is "Do I really enjoy using the camera?" IMO - considering parts availablility for cameras that aren't broken isn't the best basis for a sale/purchase decision. You have used both - buy/keep the one that makes you HAPPY If you decide that the Hasselblad is the one that you want, PM me with your asking price for the Mamiya 50mm