Mamiya Six - which do I have?

I've tried to figure this out by reading and watching multiple Youtube videos but I cannot figure out which version of the folding Mamiya Six I have. I bought this from an Ebay seller who posted nice images they had taken with it and described it as Mamiya Six Automat, Zuiko 7.5cm.

After initially misloading the pressure plate and trying again, I took a roll of 12 using the red window and pressing the little lever on the upper left when the film didn't seem to want to move. The roll came out and was spaced normally but none of the images looked sharp.

Then I thought Oh I have the automat and you have to wind to the little numbers on the upper left top. I did so for a whole roll, stopping when it reached each number on the wheel and got a bunch of overlapping photos, 8 instead of 12 and a lot of blank space on the roll. The negatives do appear sharper though from a quick look at them.

So can anyone tell me or guess, do I have an Automat? I will say that the shutter lever definitely does not cock automatically, I have to move it myself.

Thanks for any help!

Yours is not an automat.
The automat has a self cocking shutter.
Looks nice tho!

Yours is not Automat, since I have one and like Melvin said has the automatic shutter cocking.

Yours have the square rangefinder, so probably the model before Automat.

Your lens is the same as mine, and should produce sharp images when properly calibrated.

Thanks everyone that is what I thought. However I see in some videos that I am supposed to wind to number one in the red window and then use the counter wheel on the upper left and the camera will adjust the framing?

Anyone have experience with this? I may run a spare roll through it to see if that works.

These cameras exist in a lot of variants but there are some general similarities. Have you read a manual? There is one at IanBFoto: https://ianbfoto.com/downloads/Mamiya 6+7/Mamiya 6 (1955).pdf
This many not be your exact camera, but it should get you close.

You have two issues, one is the poor focus, which could be incorrect film loading or rangefinder out of adjustment. The other is frame spacing, which from your description I think is that you aren't starting the film and counter correctly.

For the film loading, you have to understand how to route the film under the removable plate. To check the rangefinder, you should probably do something like improvise a focusing screen and magnifier (for ex a piece of translucent plastic laid across the film rails) and use it with the back open, so you can see if distant objects are in focus when the focus is set to infinity.

For frame counting, the manual above describes it. Basically you need to wind the knob and counter wheel to the position where the knob stops at or just before 1, load film, close back, wind it until you see 1 in red window, take picture. Then flip the little wind release lever, wind until it says 2 on the knob (you can check this in the red window), take 2nd picture, flip lever, wind to 3, and so on. This is pretty typical for a camera that has automatic frame counting but not wind/shutter interlock. That's why you need the little release lever.

reddesert said:

You have two issues, one is the poor focus, which could be incorrect film loading or rangefinder out of adjustment. The other is frame spacing, which from your description I think is that you aren't starting the film and counter correctly.

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Indeed, and it's important to note that there's no relationship between which numbers you use when transporting the film, and any focus/blur problems.

Roseha said:

none of the images looked sharp

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Can you please provide a sample of these unsharp photos? Preferably an example of the first roll but also one from the second roll that seemed better to your eye. By looking at the nature of the unsharpness, it may be possible to tell what causes to look out for. It would help if the examples consist of a full image frame as well as a magnification of the sharpest place of the image.

Thanks everyone. Here are the images from both rolls. the color roll I took while using the red window and pushing the lever when the rolling stopped which I am sure now was wrong. The second roll, in black and white, I attempted to follow the counter but somehow the results were way off with the spacing. I believe that the description @reddesert wrote above is what I should be doing: "The film must be loaded only when the dial picture counter indicates number 1". However I am maybe doing something wrong because the dial seemed to move past one as I loaded the film.

Thanks for the manual. I think I may have the IVB model and I have emailed Mike Butkus to see if he has one. Also I think I will email the Ebay seller and ask how they loaded the camera.
As far as the sharpness it may be user error but I will see about the loading first.

On the color shot, you seem to have missed the focus. It's a couple of ft in front of the subject (assuming the woman reading is what you intended to focus on). The B&W frames look better; I think (but it's hard to tell) that the plane of focus on the right-hand shot is at about the last bench before the gazebo.

If you notice that your focus is consistently off with this camera despite using it correctly and the focus is moreover always off in the same direction (i.e. near or far), then it would make sense to recalibrate the rangefinder.

koraks said:

On the color shot, you seem to have missed the focus. It's a couple of ft in front of the subject (assuming the woman reading is what you intended to focus on). The B&W frames look better; I think (but it's hard to tell) that the plane of focus on the right-hand shot is at about the last bench before the gazebo.

If you notice that your focus is consistently off with this camera despite using it correctly and the focus is moreover always off in the same direction (i.e. near or far), then it would make sense to recalibrate the rangefinder.

Click to expand...

I had huge problems with my Mamiya Automat and poor focus.
The problem turned out to be the focus wheel was slipping on the mechanism that moves the film plane forwards and backwards.