Mamiya 6mf or Hasselblad 200fc/m

I know there are myriad "this or that" threads here, but I'm in a quandary. I love the Mamiya 6 ergonomics; I have become used to the rangefinder and I feel like I deal with 6x6 relatively well. I need to sell something though. If the Hassy were a 500 series it would be long gone. The focal plane Hassy bodies are a different animal and seem to inspire fear and skepticism. which make them harder to sell.

Here are the Mamiya pros that apply to my use style;

Lighter weight
familiarity/ease of use
more quiet


Here are the options the Hasselblad brings that I feel are important;

Film backs= easy to keep a color and a b&w roll going simultaneously

Lens options; I haven't done enough research yet regarding Hasselblad 50 CF/t vs Mamiya 50 f4 G. If someone threw a print on the table from each camera mounted on the same tripod in the same spot, I don't think I would know which was which.
The Hasselblad 120 makro-symmar is a very intriguing animal for me as it would open up images that I cannot make with the Mamiya. (I've finally had the chance to try the Mamiya close-up adapter, and it is weird and ungainly).

Waist level capability possibly overrides noise when shooting in public? This is highly subjective, and I don't call myself a "street" photographer.

I don't love the "feel" of using the Hasselblad, but I could get used to it.


So, sell the Mamiya kit and use some of those funds to source another A12 and the 120mm macro and ride off into the sunset? Or?

Here's the wild-card option; Sell the Mamiya and the Hasselblad and source a 6x7 or 6x9 roll-film back for 4x5 and use that when I have the roll film bug.

If anyone wants to chime in with "what if you want to shoot fast? I have digital, 35mm and 2 versions of Holga on hand as well.


An additional point. I feel like the Mamiya and Hasselblad 200 are on about equal footing when it comes to repairs if there is an issue. There may still be one or two places out there who can do it, but parts get scarcer each year.

I also don't what this thread to fall into the alternate suggestion realm.

I've owned a Fuji GW, Bronica RF645, Mamiya 645,
I've used a Hassleblad 500cm, a Mamiya RB67
I've handled a Plaubel Makina 67 and a Fuji ga645zi

So, what sayeth the jury?

Mamiya 6mf cameras can be repaired.
I have a couple Mamiya 6mf outfits, very pleasant to use the panoramic adapter is fun to use. Lightweight easy to use, lenses are fabulous.

I have Hasselblad V series (503CW, 501CM....) Completely different camera, wonderful camera, I use left hand grip. Magnificent no substitute.

I mean nothing quite like a Hasselblad.

I used Bronica SQAi bodies and lenses, fabulous cameras, never had a problem. I sold all of it and fully embraced mechanical Hasselblad.

Haven't owned the (new version ) Mamiya 6 or 7, I do have a 50s vintage Mamiya 6, a Kowa Super, Mamiya Universal. All my MF cameras (including Speed Graphic 2 1/4 X 3 1/4 are all mechanical, take very little effort to maintain. The down side the Mamiya 6 and Kowa is that I print 8X10 and 11X14, so in terms of negative size I shoot 645. Upside is I don't need to worry about ordination of the camera, I can crop vertical or horizontal. With modern film I think a 645 negative is quite good, so I've been thinking about a Pentax non AF 645 and a wide and longer tele so I can shoot sports and wildlife. Other option is early Mamiya 645, large selection of lens. As no longer shoot color having multiple backs is not a concern. The 645 is lighter, both Pentax and Mamiya made very good lens that will resolve Tmax 100 at 200LPM. As my current gear is well used and would not fetch much I will keep them and use as my fancy takes me.

If you wish to sell because you need the money, you'll probably make more $$ by selling the Mamiya, but the tone of your message suggests that you really like the camera, and might regret parting with it.

But if your goal is mostly to reduce clutter, sell the Hasselblad, and accept whatever price the market will bear.

I might consider how much actual value I'd get from macro capabilities, and whether there might be better ways to achieve the desired results, such as a small field camera (Hassy Flexbody/Arcbody included).

I am a strong support of the Hasselblad V Series which has strong supplies of lenses and bodies as well as repair services, but I strongly advise against the Hasselblad 200 and 2000 series which has no parts supply or service support. I have the Hasselblad 503 CX and the Hasselblad 903 SWC bodies. All but two lenses are CF lenses. The two C lenses are the 30mm Fisheye and the 500mm Telephoto lenses, because the offered prices were so low that I could not pass them up in lieu of CF lenses.

I sold a Hasselblad years ago and used the money to buy a Mamiya 6 system. No regrets; the Mamiya 6 is so small and light, so easy to carry out in the field, and it is handholdable. The Hasselblad is a great studio camera. Its a great field camera if you can carry the weight; but I have a lot of health problems and can't.

Mamiya 6 is a small system, with only three lenses and one camera (the close-up adapter was made to increase the volume of the booklet). The ergonomics are probably the best in the world, a pure tool for taking roll film hand held pictures. Very sharp, but maybe not a contest winner. So there is no other reason to have it than to take pictures.
Hasselblad is a huge system, with many lenses, cameras and accessories capable of almost everything. They can be found on any comparison list. Ergonomics are certainly not the best, but it seems that craftsmanship and quality are an object of desire in itself, even for non-photographers.
So unless you know that Mamiya is the right tool for you (as it is for me), I would go for another system.
Roll film with a medium format camera or with a LF via adapter? To my taste, an adapter is only an occasional solution. I would only buy LF to shoot LF.

I have both the Mamiya 6 and Hasselblad 500cm. I own both because they do slightly different things. To me the Hasselblad is a tripod camera. I know there are those who can handhold it and I can too but it’s awkward. I also cannot focus the Hasselblad near as quick as the Mamiya. I dislike the long throws on the Hasselblad lenses. I like to see SLR lenses snap into focus quickly.

The Mamiya 6 to me is the ultimate on the move camera. If you’re hiking or walking with friends or family who you don’t want to hold up waiting for you to take pictures, or just working quickly the Mamiya 6 wins easily. This is the main reason I’ve been using this system the most of all my cameras.

I bought the hasselblad for telephoto and macro work. I do own the 120 makro and it is super sharp. I also have the 250 for telephoto and ended up getting the 60 and 80 as well to round out a kit in case I want to go shoot with the tripod which I do enjoy doing a lot.

All this said, me personally I would keep the Mamiya 6.

I used to own two Mamiya 6 bodies with 50mm on one and 75mm the other, and when collapsed both fit perfectly inside a Billingham Alice bag. I traveled extensively with these cameras until I started using Leica rangefinders.

Hasselblads do not make great travel cameras. Believe me I tried. They are just too heavy and I walk a lot sometimes 8 miles a day for that shot. I currently own a 2000FC/M and only have one lens for it. It comes in handy. It’s best for an entirely different type of use and those Zeiss F lenses are top class especially the 50/2.8, 150/2.8 and now super hard to find 110/2.

My travel camera is almost always a interchangable back camera. For me travel is when it is most likely for me to move from a situation demanding one type of film to a situation demanding a very different type of film. In another thread I gave the example of standing outside a cathedral in the bright sun photographing it with E100 or Ektar (or TMX or Acros II) to moving inside the cathedral where you load Portra 800, set the aperture to ƒ4 (wide open on the 40mm lens) the shutter to 1/30 and pray you got enough light. A year ago in Barcelona I did exactly that with a Bronica SQ-A at Sagrada Familia, and got great shots inside and outside. I also swapped in a third back with some Delta 3200 in the interior, just in case the Portra 800 was too slow.

mshchem said:

Mamiya 6mf cameras can be repaired.
I have a couple Mamiya 6mf outfits, very pleasant to use the panoramic adapter is fun to use. Lightweight easy to use, lenses are fabulous.

I have Hasselblad V series (503CW, 501CM....) Completely different camera, wonderful camera, I use left hand grip. Magnificent no substitute.

I mean nothing quite like a Hasselblad.

I used Bronica SQAi bodies and lenses, fabulous cameras, never had a problem. I sold all of it and fully embraced mechanical Hasselblad.

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Sold my Bronica SQA 5 years ago, regretted it ever since.
Looked at and handled a Hasselblad; too much bulk and weight.
Mamiya 6 is tempting but I suspect repairs could be problematic!
The ownership of good glass is paved with hard earned dollars$$.

Melvin J Bramley said:

Sold my Bronica SQA 5 years ago, regretted it ever since.
Looked at and handled a Hasselblad; too much bulk and weight.
Mamiya 6 is tempting but I suspect repairs could be problematic!
The ownership of good glass is paved with hard earned dollars$$.

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The Bronica SQ-A with grip is fantastic! Makes it very hand holdable. Still bulky but easier to hold. Wish Hasselblad had a right hand grip with winder.

Another option:
Sell both, and find something that checks ALL the boxes.

One major plus for the Mamiya: Very easy to hand-hold, even at very slow shutter speeds. It's the shutter!

AnselMortensen said:

Another option:
Sell both, and find something that checks ALL the boxes.

Click to expand...

In medium format, not sure there is such a thing. Want telephoto and macro and portability? Good luck.

Which Hasselblad do you have? 200 or 2000? fc/m's only came in 2000 series. 200's are worth more.

Yes. I goofed. I have the 2000 fc/m I don't necessarily need to sell anything, but due to the ridiculousness of the post pandemic housing market I let some of my saving be derailed and went slightly nuts with cameras during the last 4 years or so. Call it whatever you like, but there is some gear I should let go.

After reading the above posts it becomes clear to me that the 2 cameras that started my post are not quite apples to apples. I'm leaning towards the Mamiya for sure. Time to sleep on it.

I once could loan a Mamiya 6 for a few hours, and indeed it was a very nice tool for reportage style photography, rather wel designed and having an interesting technology vision.

But, as a very long term Hasselblad 500 series user, the Mamiya's thin (*), light and (delicate-) electronic characteristics weren't my cup of tea.

Indeed, you can consider the Hasselblad to be a "tripod camera", although I shot the majority of my photo's handheld with it. Even more, if you look closely you will see that the 500 C is actually designed to be handheld, if it wasn't only by Victor Hasselblad's wishes as an ornithologist...

To my personal opinion, the most handheld-able Hasselblad is the super good, light and compact SWC/M. Add to that the exchangeable roll film holders, it is 'complete'; but indeed it is so (too-) expensive and hard to find used (I was lucky).

(*) Too many body parts of the Mamiya 6 are coming out of the sheet metal press and the plastic extrusion; the 500 C is a milled aluminium block and by this stronger and more reliable to be lugged around for fieldwork, but that's just me...

MTGseattle said:

Yes. I goofed. I have the 2000 fc/m I don't necessarily need to sell anything, but due to the ridiculousness of the post pandemic housing market I let some of my saving be derailed and went slightly nuts with cameras during the last 4 years or so. Call it whatever you like, but there is some gear I should let go.

After reading the above posts it becomes clear to me that the 2 cameras that started my post are not quite apples to apples. I'm leaning towards the Mamiya for sure. Time to sleep on it.

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The decision should be, which one do you prefer using (rangefinder/SLR viewing?), and sell the other. If you need $, the Mamiya will fetch more, but will be harder to replace at a latter time.

I have both (Mamiya 6MF and Hasselblad 2000fc/m) and I've kept both. The 6MF is a nice camera with arguably better lenses, but I tend to use the 2000fc/m more (the 500c more than the 2000fc/m). Part of that is I prefer the ground glass view over rangefinders (but rangefinders are better for candid and action, and are lighter and smaller for packing). The Hasselblad also allows the use of digital backs, which have become comparable in cost to film.

My advice is to keep both

I have owned a Mamiya 6 in the past and it is the camera of all the ones I've owned that I most regret selling (and that includes Philips and Canham LF cameras, which were so great in so many ways). I currently own a pretty full Hasselblad 500 system with bodies and a passel of lenses, etc. There is no question that the Mamiya can't match up to the capabilities of the Hasselblad, but it simply wasn't trying to do that.

I would match the Mamiya G 50 up to the Hasselblad 50mm lens easily and I suspect it is the superior performer on film because it didn't need to be nearly as retrofocal in design to work on the rangefinder body. Hence, it is much smaller and lighter. Combine that with the collapsible body and it makes a formidable travel camera. To be fair, unless you are doing extreme things with the images, they will both produce superior quality results and you would likely have trouble distinguishing them.

I regret selling it so much that I recently purchased a Mamiya 6 body and lenses and they are supposed to arrive today... That kit will be far better for me to carry when doing more casual shooting and travel, especially with my spouse, because I don't want to be hindering our enjoyment of the travel with all the Hasselblad gear. She's very understanding, but I feel it is a big imposition and that the Mamiya 6 will help alleviate (and substantially simplify) shooting while out with her on more casual travel. Mostly, no need for a tripod (the leaf shutters and no mirror help with this) and it will all fit in a pretty small shoulder bag. Even with a comparable setup for the Hasselblad (50/80/150 or maybe 60/100/180), I'll need a larger bag to match up and it'll be heavier. The film backs are bulky, too... the pentaprism is pretty large too... I guess I could go with the WL finder, but then I'd need a handheld meter... you can see how the Hasselblad system balloons up into a big bag.

When out shooting specifically for myself, I'll be using the Hasselblad mostly because it offers better lens choices and better long exposure shooting, along with the Fuji GX617.

My opinion is that they really serve such different purposes that it's hard to judge them against each other. If you "need" longer focal lengths than the 150mm limit on the Mamiya 6, then there is really no question what system you have to be shooting. Similarly, on the wide end, but you really could get the Hasselblad SWC/M for that and keep it even if you were primarily shooting the Mamiya 6. I'm not much of a macro shooter, so I don't think that would impact me, but this is also a space where I'd probably drop into digital anyway for a lot of reasons, so I don't think I'd let that impact my choice.

I'm going to be shooting with both for a while and see if there is a reason to eliminate one of them, but I see the value in both, so that may not occur.

I too have used the Hasselblad for almost twenty years hand held. The only time I put it on a tripod is with the 500mm lens which is too unwieldy to shoot hand held, especially with the 2XE Extender.

One may not forget that the Hasselblad camera's concept dates from rather shortly after WWII, long before the Mamiya 6.
Then the Hasselblad was an avant garde concept, not to say revolutionary!
And it had no electronics incorporated (which ones?), no plastics neither (Bakelite?), and the lens design was done without modern performing computers (a Triumphator mechanical calculator?). The design was somewhat a 'spin off' of a WWII military (hand-held) aerial observation camera.

Anyway, if you look at a Hasselblad 500 series with the nowadays eyes, then it is indeed outdated and has a lot of disadvantages provoking some frustrations by contemporary photographers.
But looked at it with a little understanding, one will see the ingenuity of a ornithologist with some passion for photography (Victor), a watch maker (ROSS) and an automobile designer (SAAB), not to mention Carl Zeiss himself...

PS: I know, my vision may be prejudiced and one-sided coming from a reactionary old prig...

chriscrawfordphoto said:

I sold a Hasselblad years ago and used the money to buy a Mamiya 6 system. No regrets; the Mamiya 6 is so small and light, so easy to carry out in the field, and it is handholdable. The Hasselblad is a great studio camera. Its a great field camera if you can carry the weight; but I have a lot of health problems and can't.

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I second this, I got Mamiya 6MF with the 3 lenses, one year later I sold the 501cm set to a friend. No regrets.
I have sent my 6MF for repairing this month, all great.
I still have my 1000f and the Ektar 80.

funnily enough, this thread is making me want to source a backup Mamiya 6. I got my system back from repairs in early July, and mine were a distressed enough pair that it took 2 bodies to make 1 working.

(both of mine were sourced for under $800 between 2021 and 2022) There is truth to finding the best example of a camera that you can afford. I could have afforded more but didn't.

A longer focal length than 150mm on 6x6cm is something that really doesn't interest me, and macro work with 6x6cm is a type of image I don't necessarily "see" every time I am out photographing.

I'm still contemplating, but I appreciate all of the input from everyone.

I own two Mamiya 6 bodies. It’s nice having two bodies when there is film in one and you want to shoot a different film. Or of course for repairs. I got both of my bodies before 2012 and I believe I paid under $1000 for each and they were in great shape. I have Bob at Precision camera Works in Texas service them every 8-10 years or so.

I would recommend adding another body if you love the system (like I do).