Mamiya C3 pictures

Allan Reade

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This is from my second roll of film shot with the C3. Still getting used to the square format.
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Allan Reade
 
The Mamiya C-Series cameras are great. The lenses are extremely sharp in the centers, though the ones i had were a bit soft in corners. I Liked my C330f though. Used it for my graduation project for art school back in 1999.

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These were all done with the C330f with the 80mm f2.8 lens. The last one shows the close focusing capability that these cameras have, and which is an incredibly nice feature that I miss from my medium format SLRs.
 
Chris, great pictures. I was attracted to the Mamiya for the close-focussing ability, too. My budget limited me to an older C3, but I got it with the 65mm and 180mm lenses, old series.

Keith, thanks for your comments. I'm enjoying the camera but it will be a while before I can compose and focus fast enough to get reasonable hand-held shots.

Allan
 
Chris, great pictures. I was attracted to the Mamiya for the close-focussing ability, too. My budget limited me to an older C3, but I got it with the 65mm and 180mm lenses, old series.

Keith, thanks for your comments. I'm enjoying the camera but it will be a while before I can compose and focus fast enough to get reasonable hand-held shots.

Allan

Allan,

Your photos were great too. I liked the spiral stair a lot, but my favorite was the last one. I like unusual scenes like that.

Look & see if you can find an accessory called a Paramender. They go for about $60. It lets you compose in the viewfinder without compensating for parallax.

I always had trouble handholding my C330. Just too big and heavy for me....a Rolleiflex or a Yashicamat is much easier to handhold, but you lose the interchangeable lenses and the close focusing.
 
Chris, I've made my own paramender out of a 50mm length of aluminium tubing with a wide slot cut out lengthwise so it fits around the shaft of the tripod head. Once I've composed close shots I raise the head till I can fit the tubing, then lower it so it sits snugly on the tubing. Now all I need to do is master the photography side :)
Allan
 
Chris, I've made my own paramender out of a 50mm length of aluminium tubing with a wide slot cut out lengthwise so it fits around the shaft of the tripod head. Once I've composed close shots I raise the head till I can fit the tubing, then lower it so it sits snugly on the tubing. Now all I need to do is master the photography side :)
Allan

Cool! I never thought of that
 
Sonofdanang, great photos, I particularly like the portrait. My first 3 hand held shots only had one in focus. It was of my daughter with a fidgety horse, wrong choice of camera. Allan
 
Allan, you're doing splendidly :)
Those are beautiful compositions!

I got an C330 to replace my Yashica Mat and was amazed but not surprised at the lens quality. Here's a couple recent shots to participate in this fine thread :)

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Is this the tlrforum? This subject matter belongs there.
 
I really enjoyed touring your website, Chris. Good pictures. There is a spaciousness in them that I find evocative. Here are a couple more from the C3 80/2.8.

The streaking is very apparent in the sky portions. I've taken the negs back to the lab (Toronto Image Works) so they can trouble-shoot.

Thanks for the compliment. About your streaked negs, I had that happen with some Ilford XP2 in 120 last year. I had 5 or 6 rolls of it ruined by a lab in Albuquerque by such streaking...looked just like yours. They swore on the bible it was not their fault and that the camera caused it. Funny that the same camera didn't screw up any of the Kodak transparency film I shot in that same Mamiya 645 at the same time as the XP2. The transparency film was processed at a different lab. Gotta love how labs never make mistakes. After that I never shot anymore XP2...I need to be able to do my own processing, its the only way I can get consistent results because labs have been so bad in my experience.
 
Thanks Will. It's great to see all these Mamiya photos, I was beginning to get some performance anxiety after seeing all the photos of beautiful Rolleiflexes. I don't think anyone could call the big Mamiyas beautiful. Characterful, maybe.
 
Absolutely. I swore up and down myself about five years ago that I wouldn't go back to a darkroom. Here I am now, souping another set of HP5+ in 120. At least I'm not wet printing. Oh. I can't believe I just said that out loud. There is a Beseler in the basement somewhere. Nahhh... If I can keep the chemical process to HC-110 and a couple of daylight tanks and then digitize the negs.... I can deal with this....

Thanks for passing on your experience with the Alb. lab. I know that when I see these guys tonight I'm likely to get a similar response as you did. Even though I showed them some Velvia shot in the same camera that they processed on the same day....

Ah well. At least I can deal with the B&W processing on my own.

Those SOBs at Picture Perfect in ABQ claimed it was caused by humidity in the camera. In NEW MEXICO. Sure, and Hell just dropped a few degrees in temperature. I spent most of my life in Indiana, where it rains all the time and is humid in the summer and NEVER had humidity cause problems with film...ever.
 
I'm very interested in square format myself at the moment and a friend has offered to lend me his Mamiya C330 with a few lenses to give me a chance to evaluate it against my two Rolleis, a Cord and a T.

Faced the same choice myself a few years back, and went with a Mamiya C220. Love the interchangeable lenses of the Mamiyas', but be aware that the C330 (or C220) are substantially bigger and heavier than either of the relatively svelte Rolleis'. For me, having interchangeable lenses trumped size.

Jim B.
 
Hi Alan,

Nice photos! I like the lighting in the first photo quite a bit. The shapes in the second dphoto are cool also.

I find the square format has actually helped my photography a lot. It's hard to explain, and I am not exactly sure the reason. IMy theory is that I am framing my photos better using the waist level finder and that is lending to better photography in general. I thought I loved looking through my OM2 viewfinder but once I used a TLR for the first time, it changed everything.

I have recently bought a Exakta 66 to accompany my TLR collection so that should be fun.

Cheers,

Scott
 
Hi Alan,

Nice photos! I like the lighting in the first photo quite a bit. The shapes in the second dphoto are cool also.

I find the square format has actually helped my photography a lot. It's hard to explain, and I am not exactly sure the reason. IMy theory is that I am framing my photos better using the waist level finder and that is lending to better photography in general. I thought I loved looking through my OM2 viewfinder but once I used a TLR for the first time, it changed everything.

I have recently bought a Exakta 66 to accompany my TLR collection so that should be fun.

Cheers,

Scott

Did you get the modern rubber-covered Exakta 66? Those are interestig cameras. They really aren't Exaktas, the name was just used by the West German marketing company that sold them. They were really Pentacon 6 cameras covered in the modern rubber material to obscure thier true origen. They take good photos...the marketer had Schneider lenses made for them!
 
This is from my second roll of film shot with the C3. Still getting used to the square format.

Hi Allan,

nice pictures. I quite like the square of my camera, if a square works, it really works. Though often I treat it like a 645 which doesn't need to be tilted for portrait, reads: I crop it to oblong. Ok a 66 is 12 shoots/roll, while a 645 would offer 15 or 16 depending on model - though 645 with a waist level is a pain.

Below is my contribution to the square party in the gallery: http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=95785
unfortunately I failed to link the picture into here :(
 
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Did you get the modern rubber-covered Exakta 66? Those are interestig cameras. They really aren't Exaktas, the name was just used by the West German marketing company that sold them. They were really Pentacon 6 cameras covered in the modern rubber material to obscure thier true origen. They take good photos...the marketer had Schneider lenses made for them!

I had the modern rubber covered Exakta for many years and the Schneider Kreuznach lenses (80 and 150) were very good. I also had an East German Pentacon 50mm Flektogon which was amazing. I sold the whole system as I was getting on a bit and did not want to carry a whole system on holdiays. I do miss it.
 
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