Mamiya RZ - what's your experience

[Stephen Prunier]

Man, am I jealous. Enjoy it

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

No. Electronics are great!

Have you had any problems with camera malfunctioning due to electronics? Just wondering.

Won't work without batteries though

 

[polyglot]

Won't work without batteries though

Yeah that's a total drag. The battery dies after only about 300 rolls and a 4SR44 is nearly 2cm long so it's real difficult to keep a spare in your bag without using up all the space for your film. And the battery shelf-life is only a decade or two, so you need to be careful of that spare! And the shutter accuracy is terrible, with errors of as much as 1% instead of the lovely mechanicals that can be as good as 1/4 stop when properly and regularly serviced.


Rob: you'll love it.

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

Hey Rob, you're a tough customer. 300 rolls =3000 shots . But the RZ is a beautiful camera. I love the mirror lockup feature and the rotating back.

 

[EdSawyer]

Congrats, great choice. It is such a versatile camera system.

 

[JBrunner]

Irrc my rz would default to a mechanical shutter speed of I think 1/400 if the battery died or was removed. If I've remembered correctly then you don't really need a battery, as it's just a convenience item for those for some unfathomable reason want to shoot some other speed.

 

[polyglot]

You need to select orange-dot mode to get the 1/400 mechanical shutter. Handy for studio use though!

 

[robbalbrecht]

Thanks guys. I'm pretty excited to start messing around with it. I will buy a couple of those giant, heavy batteries for it. One thing I want to get right off the bat is the cable release. Since I do some landscape stuff it will be nice to have the mirror lock up feature.

More to come and I'll post pics when it gets here.

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

Thanks guys. I'm pretty excited to start messing around with it. I will buy a couple of those giant, heavy batteries for it.

They're not heavy, giant but pretty cheap. They're the same as those doggy shock collar batteries.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=4lr44&_sacat=0

 

[MattKing]

Thanks guys. I'm pretty excited to start messing around with it. I will buy a couple of those giant, heavy batteries for it.

The batteries are about 1/3 of the size of a AA battery.

If you have a choice, get the silver oxide versions of the battery. Or a variety - some alkaline and some silver oxide. The silver oxide versions (4SR44 and other designations) are more expensive, but they last a lot longer than the alkaline ones.

If you have more than one piece of equipment that uses them, this seems to be a decent quantity price for 20: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Camelion-20...t=US_Single_Use_Batteries&hash=item35be340cb3

 

[Marc B.]

Rob,
Congrats on acquiring the awesome RZ II.
A couple of notes, now that you have purchased the Pro II version of the RZ.


If you want to purchase a power winder for your Pro II, you have to buy the 'Winder II' version of winder.
The original 'Pro' winder will not work on the Pro II body. No 'upgrade' modifications are available.


If you find yourself wanting AE, 'automatic exposure' input or control, the only prism that will work
on the Pro II is the prism made specifically for the Pro II. The knobs are on the top of this prism, (not the side).
Example:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/33801-REG/Mamiya_212_407_AE_Prism_Finder_II.html

An original Pro AE prism can only be used on the Pro II, only after the prism has been modified.
I don't think MAC America is offering this service anymore. When they did, the service was in excess of $350.
Serviceable Pro II prism's can usually be purchased on the used market now for less then $250.

Without the aforementioned modification, the AE 'chimney finder' can not be used on the Pro II, either.

The economical PD prism can not be used on the Pro II, nor can it be modified for this use.

Take care when using the 'fine focus' knob.
This knob is only to be employed for the final, fine focus 'conformation' adjustment.
Obtain focus using the normal knob, then, very easily, only use the fine focus knob to confirm focus.
If you use the fine focus knob to rack the bellows through a long throw, you could strip the fine gears,
rendering the fine focus inoperative. A very expensive repair.

The RZ Pro II, (all RZ's IIRC), have a flash 'trigger voltage' limit of 12 volts.
The RZ's are an electronic camera, so if you don't know the trigger voltage of your flashes,
use a 'safe sync' device, or wireless triggers...both of which, will not allow the high
trigger voltage to travel back through the camera's electronics.

Marc

 

[robbalbrecht]

It's here!
http://instagram.com/p/Oj5LAMlNCf/ (yeah Instagram.. Sorry)

Everything looks to be in great shape. Only one surprise though. One of the backs popped off when I rotated it. Good thing I didn't have it loaded with film. Tried it with and without the dark slide in and it randomly popped off both times. That's a little disconcerting.... The other one seems to be fine and it's loaded up with Delta 400.

Thanks Marc for all that info. Much appreciated.

 

[polyglot]

Backs should never just pop off.

Assuming you have the big black plastic tab at the bottom of the back in the locked (clockwise viewed from rear) position, it should absolutely stay on. It should not be possible to unlock that black tab with the darkslide removed unless you push the tiny metal override tab next to it, so check the position of the override tab and fiddle with it a bit. While it's unloaded, check that the darkslide interlock is working on the locking tab and that the locking tab isn't drifting open. If you have a second back (get one anyway; one reason to have such a chunky camera is the flexibility of having a bunch of loaded backs laying around and they're damn cheap now), see if it behaves any better. If backs are randomly falling off, there's something very wrong and you need to return something, probably the back.

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

If you have a choice, get the silver oxide versions of the battery. Or a variety - some alkaline and some silver oxide. The silver oxide versions (4SR44 and other designations) are more expensive, but they last a lot longer than the alkaline ones.

Thanks for the tip. I've used the old Duracell 4LR44 for years at $6 each. I think they were alkaline. Didn't know they made silver oxide batteries that size. I'll give them a try.

 

[robbalbrecht]

I found the problem. It's the back it's self. Thankfully I got two of them. The problem is the lock lever hits one of those little silver buttons on the back of the camera when it rotates and gets pushed to its unlocked state. I'll be returning it for a new one this week.

 

[polyglot]

Thanks for the tip. I've used the old Duracell 4LR44 for years at $6 each. I think they were alkaline. Didn't know they made silver oxide batteries that size. I'll give them a try.

4LR44 is alkaline, 4SR44 is silver. You can get the former for under $1 on eBay and the latter are more like $7-10 each shipped. The silver has much better shelf-life in-camera and about 2x the capacity.

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

Ooh. Gotta get those silver oxide batteries. Those doggie shock collars made those batteries cheap.

 

[EdSawyer]

re: various use of prisms and finders on RZ II vs RZ I as mentioned above - there's conflicting data on this. I am pretty sure the AEII prism will work fine on an RZ I. I think PD prism will work on RZII also. AEII prism is definitely the best of the prisms, in any case.

It's a bit of a non-issue for this case, as you have an RZII, and the II-series stuff like prisms and winders are the most common anyway. And it's all cheap.

(I have both an RZI and II, and a PD prism and AEII prism, so I could test all those combos but I don't really have time for that right now.)

Ed

 

[MattKing]

The Reznitsky Compatibility chart is what I tend to refer to: http://www.reznitsky.info/Mamiya/Comchart.htm

 

[Marc B.]

I think PD prism will work on RZII also.

Nope.
The prism can be mounted...obviously, but the meter will not activate nor register/indicate any values.

"The RZ PD Prism Finder will not function on the RZ II."
"It cannot be retrofitted."

Page 40, RZ II, Operators/Owners Manual

So...the RZ/PD prism finder, mounted on the RZ II, just becomes a
2.4 pound(?), horizontally oriented, very heavy, non-metering view finder.

Marc

 

[robbalbrecht]

Well I ran a roll of Delta400 through the RZ a couple days ago and I'm in love. I processed the film and looked at the negs on the light table and, yeah I'm in love. I can't wait to print this stuff!
Overall working with the RZ is a joy. I'm not totally comfortable with it yet but it sure is a nice camera to use. I was surprised at how quiet it is, my Bronica makes a hearty KERPLANK when the button is pressed, the RZ makes a nice pleasant kafump.
I'll post pics soon. Thanks again for all the great advice APUG.

 

[robbalbrecht]

And from the first roll....


Tidelands by Dead Link Removed, on Flickr

If I remember correctly this was with the 110mm lens. Film is Kodak TriX400, developed in R09 @ 1+50 for 18mins, then scanned with my Epson v500. I'm quite happy with the results.

 

[polyglot]

Can't complain about that

 

[robbalbrecht]

Thanks, polyglot.

 

[TareqPhoto]

I have RZ Pro II, and......

I love it because it gave me amazing sharp negs/slides, high quality results.

I hate it because it is so heavy like a tank or similar, and the battery is exhausting anytime i can't expect, i really like my mechanical cameras for that purpose, but this RZ is strong enough to keep me using it even with those issues, it was my first ever MF film camera i used, i feel confident using RZ always, if something wrong then it will be not the RZ.