P Lynn Miller's Norita 66 and the MF Noctilux

[Keith]

When I caught up with esteemed RFF member and lens hacker supreme, P Lynn Miller recently in a Queensland country town while he was up here on holiday from Sydney, he presented me with a well used and much loved Norita 66 and 80mm f2 lens to have a play with for a while!

Well it's taken me a bit to get around to running a film through it but I finally did so at work last Friday. It's quite a camera I have to say ... it sort of looks like a Nikon F on steroids and is very easy to shoot with for such a chunk of a camera. On Dante Stella's site he muses that the standard lens on this rather rare beastie is as close to an MF Noctilux as you can get with the way it renders OOF areas ... and I sort of have to agree!

Both of these shots were hand held at 1\30 second at f2 ... there doesn't appear to be a huge amount of shutter or mirror shock from the Norita which surprised me ... another shot taken later in the day at 1/15 sec was surprisingly sharp.

Thanks mate ... you just keep messing with those Noktons and I'll look after your Norita for a little while longer! 😀

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

I have the 80mm f1.9 for the Mamiya 645 system, now that is a great low light lens, and very common used at low prices.

 

[back alley]

i had a rush on the norita 66 when i was a youth...nice shots keith.

 

[thomasw_]

I have the 80mm f1.9 for the Mamiya 645 system, now that is a great low light lens, and very common used at low prices.

Well, Chris, you just stay the course with your 35/2,8 on your M4 in daylight...some fine work you are doing with that kit!

 

[Keith]

I have the 80mm f1.9 for the Mamiya 645 system, now that is a great low light lens, and very common used at low prices.

I've always though it was a tragedy that the RF645 Bronica came with such slow lenses ... but average for leaf shuttered MF I guess!

Apparently the depth of field of the Norita's 80mm lens is almost identical to the 105mm f2.4 Takumar of my P67 at minimum focus distance. The Norita's 80mm is also very useful in it's ability to focus down to just under .85 meter!

 

[Keith]

i had a rush on the norita 66 when i was a youth...nice shots keith.

Thanks Joe ... did you ever actually get to use one?

According to Dante the shutter is a weak point ... known for bounce due to a pretty ordinary damping system!

 

[P. Lynn Miller]

Nice work... Keith!

I thoroughly enjoy using my Norita 66's... very user-friendly and intuitive. Bad news for the film budget as you can rip through a 120 roll in a blink. Never had trouble with shutter bounce, but have had trouble with the mirror hanging.

Weak link of the camera is the transport system. But the Norita 66 is a simple camera, I can field strip one almost as fast as a Nikon F. Not to take anything away from Keith's images, but a quick check of the tags at my Flickrstream under Norita 66 will reveal many scans.

I was going to sell my kit, but now I may have to hang on to it.

 

[Wayno]

Nice work Keith - that Bultaco shot is a cracker, it fills the square very nicely.

 

[Chris101]

Keith - I've been jealous of Lynn'a Norita for quite a while now. Not only is it a beautiful camera, but the photos have such a unique signature.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Well, Chris, you just stay the course with your 35/2,8 on your M4 in daylight...some fine work you are doing with that kit!

Thanks Thomas. The Mamiya 645 is an old friend. Got it 16 years ago when I was in high school and used it for most of my work until about 4 years ago when I got my old Olympus OM-4T out and began doing a lot of street and documentary work in New Mexico, where I lived. I still shoot the 645 often though, despite falling totally in love with my Leicas.

My grandpa in 1995

This was shot at f2.8, so near wide open on the Mamiya 80/1.9

87 year old Richard Youse with one of his cats in 2000

Good for landscapes too!

All of these photos were done with the Mamiya 645 80mm f1.9N. None of the pics I showed were shot Wide Open, the closest is the woman I noted above that I shot at f2.8, but the wide aperture made focusing in low light very easy. Her portrait was shot at 1/15 at f2.8 on Tmax 400