Shoulda bought a Mamiya?

[Volition]

Hello all,

I'm looking for your input on handling and shooting differences between the Bronica rf645 and Mamiya 6.

Context: I normally shoot film with a Pentax 67, but was looking for a small camera that I could easily carry, and that had a reasonably modern set of features (i.e. a built in meter).

I didn't realize the Mamiya 6 lens collapsed, so never really looked at it. I figured the best choice was a Bronica rf645, and bought one in great condition (no film advance issue, late serial number). While I absolutely love the camera, I didn't realize how... uncomfortable I'd be with the 6x4.5 format.

So now I'm looking at the Mamiya 6, and I'm looking for your input on the following:

Handling -
The rf645 is an impressively tight, solid feeling camera. The viewfinder is bright, uncluttered, with easy to see frame lines. My only real dislike is the stiff focusing (I can't one finger focus)

How does the Mamiya handle in comparison?

Metering -
I'll admit, I completely spoiled by modern matrix metering. The rf645 seems to have a center-weighted meter, which works reasonably well. Slides come out well exposed, if consistently ~.5 stops underexposed.

From what I've been able to read, the Mamiya has an averaged meter over the whole viewfinder? How does well does this work in practice (with e6 vs c41)?

-Atif

 

[brian steinberger]

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Great thread.

I have both cameras and talk about them a lot in the thread above. The Bronicas metering is better, hands down. I almost always use a hand held spot meter with my Mamiya. It l always wants to under-expose, and to this day still do not know if the electronic shutter fires in anything other than whole stops.

Handling wise, they are about the same, the Mamiya a little bulkier. The Bronica is my go to hiking camera. Very nice. Both cameras have incredibly sharp optics. Basically I'd say it comes down to which you prefer, rectangle or square.

 

[M Carter]

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)
It l always wants to under-expose, and to this day still do not know if the electronic shutter fires in anything other than whole stops.

Do you mean manually or when in AE mode? (Don't own one myself). Seems like it could be easy to test with film or polaroid though?

 

[flavio81]

Two days ago I handled a Mamiya 7 and found the handling very very good. I know it's not exactly the same camera, but hey, it's similar.

 

[brian steinberger]

Do you mean manually or when in AE mode? (Don't own one myself). Seems like it could be easy to test with film or polaroid though?

In either mode. All that shows in the viewfinder is 8,15,30,60 etc. someone told me once that in AE mode the camera would fire in half stops if it needed to but it still shows the above numbers so I was never sure. The aperture ring on the Mamiya lenses allow any aperture setting so that is nice.

Yes the Mamiya 7/7II is very similar to the 6. It's slightly larger obviously and the lens mount does not retract like the 6.

 

[flavio81]

Metering -
I'll admit, I completely spoiled by modern matrix metering.

Well, un-spoil yourself. Medium format camera users don't care for in-camera meter. Serious, really serious cameras have no meters. Leave in-camera meters to the 35mm kids , and matrix meters to the illiterate

Of course when I used the Mamiya 7 i mentioned above, i ignored the meter reading and used my own handheld Gossen meter.

 

[destroya]

i have both a pentax 67 and mamiya 6 which i bought for the same reasons are you are thinking of. it took me a few rolls of film to understand the way the 6 meters. 3 rolls of both B&W and slide film. I agree that it does want to under expose. but once you learn how to use it, assuming you want to use the in camera meter over a hand held one, then its not that hard.

its the only camera I have that I dont expose velvia 50 at 50 when using the n camera meter, i use 40. compose and then metering with no sky using the meter lock mode, recompose and shoot. I prefer to use handheld meter for it. in fact, I prefer handheld meter for all my rangefinder cameras and in camera meter for SLR's, just cuase thats what Im used to

john

 

[Volition]

All, thanks for your input, it helps a lot.

Brian, thanks for the link to that thread. Your pictures are a perfect resource for anyone with the same question.

flavio81, yep, I hear you I learned photography on a old Petri and a handheld incident meter (selenium cell no less!), and my studio shoots are hand metered of course. So metering won't be that much of an issue. Sometimes it's just nice to be lazy and focus on composition.

destroya, I'll probably what you said--burn through a few rolls of e6 to get a handle on it's metering. Or, just break down and get a spot meter; or, see if any of the phone app meters actually work.

Again, thanks everyone. It looks like I'll be getting another camera My poor bank account...

-Atif

 

[frank]

I've owned and used both cameras in the past, including using them for weddings. Both worked perfectly well. I used a Nikon F4 for 35mm colour neg film, and used a medium format camera (several different ones, serially) for B+W neg film. Clients got the edited colour prints and B+W contact sheets.