What could be better than this?
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| CC Image courtesy of entropiK on Flickr |
When one simply talks about rangefinders, Leica would be the first thing to pop up into mind. But photographers and film enthusiasts alike will instantaneously recognize the fame and glory of the Mamiya 6 and it's ever growing popularity amongst lovers of medium format and rangefinder photography.
For those who don't know, the 'New' Mamiya 6 is not an update or a new version of the old folding Mamiya Six camera. In fact, the Mamiya Six is a very different camera altogether; with a fixed lens and mechanical inner workings, a technology reminisce of the early 40s.
Introduced in 1989, the Mamiya 6 came out with three lenses; the 50mm, 75mm and 150mm. All three lenses for this system are incredibly sharp from corner to corner, producing images similar, or even better than the Zeiss lenses on Hasselblad V bodies.
So what is special about the Mamiya 6? Well, as a travel and street photographer, traveling light is key. No matter what destination it may be, lugging huge medium format SLRs with a set of lenses and backs is not ideal, and so the Mamiya 6 comes into play. The rangefinder design of Mamiya 6 is incredibly compact for it's category, and with the ability to collapse it's lenses, the size of the whole system can be as small, or perhaps even smaller than today's DSLRs.
The another advantage of the Mamiya 6 over many other cameras of the same league is the image quality. This is driven solely by the lenses, which like Leica, can surpass the quality of SLR lenses because of the fact that the rear lens element can sit closely to the film giving extremely sharp results. This makes the Mamiya 6 one of the best cameras out there you could possibly buy.
The Mamiya 6, rather than having a spot meter like the 7, has a center-weighted average meter which reads light through the viewfinder. This is incredibly sensitive and therefore is much more accurate than the readings from the Mamiya 7.
The Mamiya 6 also boasts excellent flash capabilities where any flash possible, including flashbulbs can be used with the camera without the fuss of TTL modes. Flash sync speeds on this camera can go up to 1/500 seconds which surpasses many of the cameras from the same era. Electronic flash on Auto can also be used with this camera with no problem at all. The viewfinder of the 6 is an absolute killer feature on this camera. It's extremely big and bright, a definite joy to use. The frame lines on the viewfinder corresponds to the lenses; where the 50 would fill almost the entire finder and the 150 filling just a small square in the centre - showing an accurate representative of what your going to get on the film.
So you see now why the Mamiya 6 is so special? If you don't, go ahead and ask any photographer and he/she will tell you how magnificent this camera is. It's simply is the best camera you could possibly find in this day and age. Even amidst the ever growing advancement of photographic technology, you could and still find this little gem a place in your photographic collection. So go ahead, if you have some cash to splash, why not take some chances and splash it on the Mamiya 6?
For those who don't know, the 'New' Mamiya 6 is not an update or a new version of the old folding Mamiya Six camera. In fact, the Mamiya Six is a very different camera altogether; with a fixed lens and mechanical inner workings, a technology reminisce of the early 40s.
Introduced in 1989, the Mamiya 6 came out with three lenses; the 50mm, 75mm and 150mm. All three lenses for this system are incredibly sharp from corner to corner, producing images similar, or even better than the Zeiss lenses on Hasselblad V bodies.
So what is special about the Mamiya 6? Well, as a travel and street photographer, traveling light is key. No matter what destination it may be, lugging huge medium format SLRs with a set of lenses and backs is not ideal, and so the Mamiya 6 comes into play. The rangefinder design of Mamiya 6 is incredibly compact for it's category, and with the ability to collapse it's lenses, the size of the whole system can be as small, or perhaps even smaller than today's DSLRs.
The another advantage of the Mamiya 6 over many other cameras of the same league is the image quality. This is driven solely by the lenses, which like Leica, can surpass the quality of SLR lenses because of the fact that the rear lens element can sit closely to the film giving extremely sharp results. This makes the Mamiya 6 one of the best cameras out there you could possibly buy.
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| CC Image courtesy of Zekio 'Zokyo Lab' on Flickr |
The Mamiya 6, rather than having a spot meter like the 7, has a center-weighted average meter which reads light through the viewfinder. This is incredibly sensitive and therefore is much more accurate than the readings from the Mamiya 7.
The Mamiya 6 also boasts excellent flash capabilities where any flash possible, including flashbulbs can be used with the camera without the fuss of TTL modes. Flash sync speeds on this camera can go up to 1/500 seconds which surpasses many of the cameras from the same era. Electronic flash on Auto can also be used with this camera with no problem at all. The viewfinder of the 6 is an absolute killer feature on this camera. It's extremely big and bright, a definite joy to use. The frame lines on the viewfinder corresponds to the lenses; where the 50 would fill almost the entire finder and the 150 filling just a small square in the centre - showing an accurate representative of what your going to get on the film.
So you see now why the Mamiya 6 is so special? If you don't, go ahead and ask any photographer and he/she will tell you how magnificent this camera is. It's simply is the best camera you could possibly find in this day and age. Even amidst the ever growing advancement of photographic technology, you could and still find this little gem a place in your photographic collection. So go ahead, if you have some cash to splash, why not take some chances and splash it on the Mamiya 6?
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