RZ67 AE Prism Questions

[n2mf]

Been shooting an RB67. However, just picked up an RZ67 that came with an AE prism finder (first model with adjustments on side) and I'm having trouble understanding it's operation. I have the RZ owners manual, but not the AE prism manual. I did find a manual for it on line, but the manual seems vague and doesn't explain the operation of this finder well enough for a lug like me to understand fully. First of all, in using the AE, with the camera dial set for AE, this only controls what shutter speed the lens fires at...correct? You still have to set the aperture to manually match the LED readout inside the finder for correct exposure..right? If I want to set both manually, I turn the knob on the finder to the speed I want...right? And the knob on the camera stays set on AE...or not? Also, is there a better user guide for this RZ67 system? Owner manuals seem to be short on instructions. Another thing, I also got the double cable release with this camera, but It seems to me that I get better results in using two separate releases. Sorry for the long post. Your help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[atlcruiser]

i am a new owner as well...maybe some help here..

looked at the dbl cable release. waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to complicated for me

I have been using one finger to lock the mirror then a single release to fire the shutter. Dont see any need to get more complicated

i have the later AE finder. no idea how yours works ....just test it out a bit with a handheld meter.

 

[Jeff L]

If you go to the Mamiya.com website you should be able to download the manuals you need for free. That's were I got them. Or Google mamiya RZ AE prism finder manual.
I don't have the stuff handy to pass the info on. Hope this helps.

 

[TimmyMac]

I have the same prism.

You have to turn the shutter knob on the RZ to the red circle thing if you want to power up the prism. Once it's set there, the shutter speed is controlled by the prism and you get an indication of the metered speed as well as the speed you've selected. If the RZ is set to anything else the prism isn't powered and it works just like an RZ with a plain prism.

Once you set it to the red circle, you can either choose a shutter speed manually on the prism, or set it to A which is aperture-priority autoexposure. AEL is the same thing but with AE lock as long as you hold down the shutter halfway.

I'm too cheap to buy the double cable, so I just use a regular cable screwed into the lens and trip the shutter button with my finger.

 

[eunkefer]

You can get the manual at www.orphancameras.com.
Regards
Ed

 

[jmtrombley]

Hey, I'm bumping this thread up to see if anyone can help with my problem. I've looked all over and tried every google search term I can think of but nothing comes up with this specific issue, so I hope someone out there can help me.

I recently bought a nice RZ67 on Ebay, and got an AE prism finder along with it - the first one with the single dial on the side. It seems to work perfectly - I have to wipe off the contacts now and then to get the LEDs to light up inside, but generally it seems to be reading light and metering accurately. The problem is that it doesn't seem to have any effect on the shutter speed of the camera. I set it on "A" (and have the dot selected on the body's shutter speed dial), press half-way, the LEDs light up showing the selected shutter speed and then I push the button and the shutter goes off at 1/400 regardless of how it was set in the finder. I've also taken it off the "A" setting and set it to a manual shutter speed - 2 seconds, for example - snap the picture, and it still seems to be going off at 1/400 instead of 2 seconds. If I go back to using the body's shutter speed dial, everything works fine except I can't use the prism's metering functions, obviously.

Did I get a bad finder? Is there anything I can do to fix it or some setting I'm forgetting to check? I could still use it to meter and then adjust the shutter speed with the body's dial, but that kind of defeats the purpose of having an AE finder. Any ideas?

Thanks!
Jeremy

 

[Jeff L]

Mine has started acting up in a similar way. Is it worth the cost to sort it out is another question.