Makina vs Mamiya ergonomics, reliability, and repairability

I had a Mamiya 6 with all the lenses. Ergonomics are just perfect, really you can't get a better handling 6x6 camera, weight, balance, the lot. I got rid of it for two reasons. One was the slightly sticky film advance made me uneasy of an impending repair bill (guy who bought was aware of this and paid accordingly before anyone asks). Two was that a 75/3.5 that focuses to 1m is just not that good for anything resembling a portrait (apart from environmental ones). As far as image quality goes, I think this was the sharpest I've ever experienced, (and I've owned Hasselblads).

M Carter said:

Arax 60

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..looks cool - that is a HUGE tank though!
: D

RattyMouse said:

Fuji GF670W

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..looks cool - that's 3-4k though!
: O

ITKI said:

..looks cool - that is a HUGE tank though!
: D



..looks cool - that's 3-4k though!
: O

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I dont think so. I've seen them sell in the low $2k's.

A GF670 goes for even less.

RattyMouse said:

I dont think so. I've seen them sell in the low $2k's..

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Just had a quick look on eBay; 670's went for 1-2k but 670W for 3k..

I would prefer a Mamiya C220 over a Mamiya 6. It works without batteries and it is a leight weight tank. Lenses are cheaper.

I struggled with this question of Mamiya 6 RF vs. Makina Plaubel (Plow bell?) and begged off on a number of issues... chief of which is like my Leica M's for RF and figure I'm not ready to chop that investment off. Yes MF is a ton better, but for travel, smaller "sketch-like" or "water colorist like" Leicas do the trick in a small package. Mamiya 6 I find the most appealing because I like the flexibility of the square format. But because the Mamiya 6 seems to have reports of the RF going off alignment, I wasn't sure about their ruggedness vs. Leica M's. So I put the whole thing off, and switched instead to dropping my Bronica in lieu of a Rollei SLX which has something more of the form of a Rollei TLR (at least so I imagine) while giving SLR and lenses licensed by Zeiss. In the end, some electronics aren't all bad. Now the service question ain't immaterial.... so I glad to see you raised that and would love to know where Makina and Mamiya are on that spectrum, too, these days.