Mamiya C330 F Brazil

alexandre costa · Nov 25, 2013

Hi guys, i recently bought a rather interesting Mamiya C330F that was made in Brazil, i've read that they build some in Brazil but not a lot of information appeared about them, here are some pictures.

Nick Merritt · Nov 25, 2013

Thanks for posting these -- I have never seen one of these myself.

grahamp · Nov 25, 2013

I have only seen photographs myself - there was/is a really nice example on Flickr somewhere. They were made in Manaus. It must have been due to trade restrictions or import tariffs, and only appears to have been the C330F. Interesting that the 80mm lens text is in English and not Portuguese. I am not too surprised that one made it to Portugal, but I really wonder how many were made and where they were sold. I would not have thought that Brazil alone would be a large enough market to warrant setting up a subsidiary, but it obviously made sense at the time.

The 'Fabricated' rather than 'Made' notation suggests assembly, but that might just be co-incidental.

pedrocruz · Nov 25, 2013

grahamp said:
I have only seen photographs myself - there was/is a really nice example on Flickr somewhere. They were made in Manaus. It must have been due to trade restrictions or import tariffs, and only appears to have been the C330F. Interesting that the 80mm lens text is in English and not Portuguese. I am not too surprised that one made it to Portugal, but I really wonder how many were made and where they were sold. I would not have thought that Brazil alone would be a large enough market to warrant setting up a subsidiary, but it obviously made sense at the time.

The 'Fabricated' rather than 'Made' notation suggests assembly, but that might just be co-incidental.

I guess it was a mistranslation, owing to the fact that products made in Brazil usually carry the inscription "Fabricado no Brasil".

Not only Mamiya, but Kodak, Fuji and even Zenit once had factories in Brazil, mainly located in Manaus and São José do Campos. Kodak operations once were fairly large, as much of both film and paper were produced here.

grahamp · Nov 25, 2013

Interesting. Was the market all of South America, or just Brasil? It has always intrigued me ever since I first heard about the Mamiyas.

Of course, Kodak even had a factory or two in the USA, once upon a time

mgb74 · Nov 25, 2013

IIRC, there was a time when Brazil had very onerous import duties on manufactured goods. So many companies set up subsidiaries to "manufacture" in Brazil. This amounted to doing the minimum amount of final assembly to comply with regulations.

benjiboy · Nov 26, 2013

This camera is very rare, I have read about them but never even seen a photograph of one before.

alexandre costa · Nov 26, 2013

Forgot to take pic to this, also another reference to where it was made, other else it seems like a standard C330F.

Mamiya C330 F Brazil

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