Mamiya 7 + 43mm the best thing ever?

[jlab]

Does anyone ever shoot the 43 without the external viewfinder? They are quite expensive to replace and I fear I may have lost mine...

 

[EdSawyer]

the finders come up on ebay from time to time, usually for $100 - 150. Not cheap per se, but cheaper than buying it new from B&H or something.

It's hard to know what would be in the shot without the finder...

 

[billbretz]

the finders come up on ebay from time to time, usually for $100 - 150.

I hope you are right, Ed, I can use one, too, but new they are $400+ and I've never seen one used in the range you describe, but I admit I haven't been checking fervently...

I'm toying with the idea of just getting the Voigtlander 21mm in ltm and its companion finder, since I'm already in that system and want the lens to start with.... It would almost be like getting a bonus lens for the cost of the Mamiya finder. Or skip the lens and just get the finder or some other 35mm format finder in 21mm focal length. Obviously there would be some differences in the 35mm vs. 6x7 framing, but that can compensated for, perhaps as accurately as the Mamiya finder is, anyway.

jlab-yes, I shoot without the finder (though, obviously, I wish otherwise). It is not super-radically wider than the limits of the built-in viewfinder (people go without the 50 finder and just use the edges of the built-in as a rough guide). Sure, not ideal, but it just takes a little thought and trial and error. And it doesn't hurt to make sure critical elements are not on the edge of the frame. But, yeah, a good finder would be better.

 

[Klainmeister]

Funny you bring this up since I just forgot my 43mm finder on a hiking trip two weekend ago and had to "guess" my shots. It is fairly tough, but I would just use the the rangefinder view and imagine another 10-15 degrees beyond the square. Worked rather well actually...

 

[kurt765]

I rented a 7II with the 43mm for the weekend. It's pretty sharp. Bests my 645's by a significant margin. I may have to trade up.

Request: If anyone has this combo, would you mind weighing it and giving me the exact weight of the camera and lens?
I was going to do this but forgot until after I returned the rental, sigh.
-K

 

[jbbooks]

I rented a 7II with the 43mm for the weekend. It's pretty sharp. Bests my 645's by a significant margin. I may have to trade up.

Request: If anyone has this combo, would you mind weighing it and giving me the exact weight of the camera and lens?
I was going to do this but forgot until after I returned the rental, sigh.
-K

1504 grams with neck strap, lens shade and cap and RRS adapter.

 

[Thingy]

I thought about buying this camera for over two years, and finally took the plunge when an Mamiya 7 came up secondhand for £400. I don't think the actual camera body is worth paying the price the 7II cost new (!!!!!) but having used Mamiya optics with my old C330f and my recent 645 Pro TL I've always been impressed by their optics. I normally carry around my large format camera outfit, but there are situations where it isn't practical (think volcanos ) where a relativly lightweight camera and a decent MF format are desirable. I shall buy a secondhand 50mm lens later (when my finances recover from my summer exped to Iceland) as they are cheaper, though for a mint/vg condition one they are usually sold for just under £1000 in the UK.

 

[kurt765]

Thanks jbbooks!

 

[jbbooks]

Thanks jbbooks!

You're welcome.

 

[2F/2F]

My good friend has one. Great lenses. But pretty darned wide for me at 43mm. And spot metering only? That is really stupid design. If I am using an in-camera meter, I don't want to go moving my camera here and there to get spot meter readings once I have a composition set up. Especially not for the things I would shoot with a rangefinder.

Personally, I want one of the Mamiya rangefinders, but I think that over all, the 6 is the better camera. Better meter if needed, and no monkeying with external finders. Plus I love square format.

I say go for the 7 if you want the 43mm lens. For any other purpose, go for the 6. YMMV.

 

[SFC]

Many of KR's reviews are dubious, and generally his favorite thing in the world is whatever the latest gizmo out is. However, he's probably correct about the Mamiya 6/7 cameras and lenses. I have a 6 and all 3 lenses are sharper than anything I've used, even sharper than my 80 Planar CF (although that lens has slightly better micro-contrast). The 50 is fantastic. I would judge the build quality of the lenses as good as Leica and even better than Hasselblad, which do have some plastic parts on them. The cameras do have a little too much plastic (I'd really like a metal shutter speed control), but if they were all metal you might not want to carry one around and they'd be 2x expensive.

If you get a Mamiya 7, you need a Nikon 8000/9000 or you will not be getting all the quality out of the lenses, and color balance will not be so great.

 

[2F/2F]

KR says some stupid $hit from time to time (like how terrible the Mamiya Press and C systems are), but for the most part, I find his reviews and advice to be the best on the 'net. He has excellent, practical, common sense, user-friendly advice (lacking almost everywhere else in equipment reviews throughout the 'net). Also, for as technically focused as his subject matter is, he does not come across as obsessed with technical aspects of photography. He "keeps it real," I might say. He is also humorous- and grumpy-enough to keep me interested. Plus, he loves film, and wrote the greatest film vs. digital article I have ever read, by far. I wouldn't call his writing anywhere close to "dubious" on most matters...at least not those that he thoroughly researches (which I do not think he did in the aforementioned Mamiya cases).

 

[jbbooks]

My good friend has one. Great lenses. But pretty darned wide for me at 43mm. And spot metering only? That is really stupid design. If I am using an in-camera meter, I don't want to go moving my camera here and there to get spot meter readings once I have a composition set up. Especially not for the things I would shoot with a rangefinder.

Personally, I want one of the Mamiya rangefinders, but I think that over all, the 6 is the better camera. Better meter if needed, and no monkeying with external finders. Plus I love square format.

I say go for the 7 if you want the 43mm lens. For any other purpose, go for the 6. YMMV.

We are allowed to differ, I hope.
The main reason I got one was for 6x7 color slides, which I much prefer to the 6x6 ones or, even worse, the 6x4.5 or the “Super” slides. Later, it became an obvious replacement for the 4x5 cameras where it is not possible to possess or use a tripod. You may not like its spot metering, but I prefer it. I use a small pocket meter for larger angle reflective readings and for incident light readings. As to some complaints about the plastic used, I have no complaints about the reliability and I appreciate the cameras light weight. A bag with two bodies, a full set of filters and stuff and three or four lenses is easy to manage and does everything I expect. It is a kit that makes large color slides that are incredibly sharp and clear with great color and contrast when projected as well as black and white negatives that are an acceptable substitute for what I would get using a 4x5; movements excepted, of course.

 

[ic-racer]

But please please please refrain from using the word 'best'.
QUOTE]

It is the best by definition. There are no other 43mm lenses for 6x7 that would be better.

 

[Thingy]

I agree with jbbooks, but as a LF user that may be simply because I love spot metering. If you are using the camera on a tripod and using Lee's graduated filters, a spot meter means that you can, where needed, use an ND grad, sometimes at funny angles, to balance the lighting on an image. I will probably use my Sekonic spot meter with the camera anyway.

 

[kurt765]

One of my Mamiya 7 II + 43mm shots from my rental week. This exposure was meant to be longer but the mechanical cable release failed at some point in the night. Still, turned out to be a pretty nice image considering.


Twin meteors over Horseshoe Meadow by Kurt Lawson, on Flickr

 

[kurt765]

Here's another.


High Sierra Trails by Kurt Lawson, on Flickr

-K

 

[2F/2F]

I love the second pic, Kurt. Thanks for sharing it.

 

[polyglot]

Excellent! How did you go about getting such a good exposure on a chrome with such a long exposure? I mean, I realise RDP has excellent reciprocity but those exposures look like an hour or two and the light changes a fair bit at night over that duration. How did you decide when to close the shutter?

(me, I've only done it on negs and aimed for some overexposure)

 

[john_s]

One of the reasons for disagreement about the Mamiya 7 meter is that it is a spot meter and the position of the actual spot is often not quite where it's supposed to be. A few minutes experimenting in a large room with a single bright light bulb will reveal the actual spot, and if you remember it the metering will be somewhat better.

 

[kurt765]

Excellent! How did you go about getting such a good exposure on a chrome with such a long exposure? I mean, I realise RDP has excellent reciprocity but those exposures look like an hour or two and the light changes a fair bit at night over that duration. How did you decide when to close the shutter?

(me, I've only done it on negs and aimed for some overexposure)

That has been the subject of much experimentation by me over the last 7 months. I've worked out a formula based on lots of tests with the moon as fill light. I'm not quite ready to share my results since it's taken hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars to come up with this formula, but RDP is definitely the favorite film for this task. That second shot there was indeed a multi-hour exposure.

-K

 

[ROL]

That has been the subject of much experimentation by me over the last 7 months. I've worked out a formula based on lots of tests with the moon as fill light. I'm not quite ready to share my results since it's taken hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars to come up with this formula...
-K

How gracious! He asks for help, receives it, and then refuses to reciprocate.

 

[kurt765]

How gracious! He asks for help, receives it, and then refuses to reciprocate.

As of right now, you bet I'm not going to share my hard fought exposure formula. Sorry to disappoint, but until I get the shot I'm after I'm not going to just give it all away. I've asked for info on hardware I did not have, and for some opinions on film before coming to entirely my own opinions and conclusions based on *my* testing many different films over many a dark night, spending thousands of dollars on gas, equipment rental, film and processing, time and good hard effort. Please enlighten me, ROL, as to what post exactly that you made that would entitle you to a share of my work?

Edit: I also said "not quite ready to share" in my post, if you had read it.

-K

 

[kurt765]

So, after my experience renting the 7II and the 43mm, I think I'm going to start selling my Mamiya 645 gear to replace it with such a system. The bigger resolution from 6x7 is just too enticing, and the glass in the 43 was excellent.

 

[Dr.Pain-MD]

^^ Haha, secret "magical" exposure formula. Oh please!

EDIT: Great shots BTW, but still...