6x6 recommendations; Mamiya 6?

[KenR]

As a long time user of the Mamiya 6, I would like to offer my two cents worth. I primarily use it for hiking/touring and love the fact that I don’t have to carry and bother with a handheld meter. The camera meter seems accurate enough for B&W with the need to lock the meter while angling the camera down a bit as it seems overly sensitive to skylight. I will use the “sunny f/16” rule if I am in one area under constant lighting - the meter seems to agree with that rule.
The lens are quite sharp, even hand held - again I don’t carry a tripod with me for weight reducing reasons. I use the 55mm most of the time and the 80mm the rest of the time - rarely do I use the 150 as I often leave it behind as it is the biggest of the lenses. No issues with the film advance (knock on wood) and I try to baby it by winding slowly and smoothly. It is my go to hiking camera and I recommend it highly.

 

[james.liam]

As a long time user of the Mamiya 6, I would like to offer my two cents worth. I primarily use it for hiking/touring and love the fact that I don’t have to carry and bother with a handheld meter. The camera meter seems accurate enough for B&W with the need to lock the meter while angling the camera down a bit as it seems overly sensitive to skylight. I will use the “sunny f/16” rule if I am in one area under constant lighting - the meter seems to agree with that rule.
The lens are quite sharp, even hand held - again I don’t carry a tripod with me for weight reducing reasons. I use the 55mm most of the time and the 80mm the rest of the time - rarely do I use the 150 as I often leave it behind as it is the biggest of the lenses. No issues with the film advance (knock on wood) and I try to baby it by winding slowly and smoothly. It is my go to hiking camera and I recommend it highly.

Thanks for all the incredible advice and assessments. This site is a remarkable well of knowledge. I think my inclination has moved toward the Mamiya 6 from the Rollei. KEH seems to have somewhat overpriced copies of the body along with a 50mm lens in EX+ with a hood. Those go fast so I'll research a bit more.

 

[james.liam]

Just picked up a 6 from KEH in BGN condition for just under $1300. Any specific thoughts on the individual Mamiya 6 lenses? From the images above, the 50 appears to be an outstanding optic.

 

[Deleted member 65559]

James, I know Majki doesn't care for the character of the lenses, but i think it's a little like the tonal aspects of musical instruments there's always a bit of bias or personal preference. As was said before the 50mm is an extremely fine lens as is the 75mm. I owned but didn't use the 150 much as it didn't focus close enough for portrait work. I did have some prints shown in an exhibit & 20" sq from the Mamiya 6 and 20"x24" from the Fuji GW/GSW690iii fit really well in terms of image quality.

here's one with the 50mm

Flickr

& the 75mm w HP5

Flickr

 

[james.liam]

James, I know Majki doesn't care for the character of the lenses, but i think it's a little like the tonal aspects of musical instruments there's always a bit of bias or personal preference. As was said before the 50mm is an extremely fine lens as is the 75mm. I owned but didn't use the 150 much as it didn't focus close enough for portrait work. I did have some prints shown in an exhibit & 20" sq from the Mamiya 6 and 20"x24" from the Fuji GW/GSW690iii fit really well in terms of image quality.

Lovely image. Nothing sterile about it. You sold off the Mamiya 6 kit?

 

[Deleted member 65559]

At the time was was working with the Mamiya 6 (3 lenses & 1 body) , and the Fuji GSW690iii and the Fuji GW680iii. I was feeling some redundancy since i was also doing a lot of LF. It was almost a coin toss, but the 6 system was worth much more & netted more in the sale.
Now if i were doing more MF work (which i far prefer over 35mm for the results), i'd go back to the Mamiya 6 and start buying up bodies for insurance.....

The Mamiya 6 is by far the quickest best handling MF system i've used.

 

[james.liam]

At the time was was working with the Mamiya 6 (3 lenses & 1 body) , and the Fuji GSW690iii and the Fuji GW680iii. I was feeling some redundancy since i was also doing a lot of LF. It was almost a coin toss, but the 6 system was worth much more & netted more in the sale.
Now if i were doing more MF work (which i far prefer over 35mm for the results), i'd go back to the Mamiya 6 and start buying up bodies for insurance.....

The Mamiya 6 is by far the quickest best handling MF system i've used.

Do you then recommend against the 150 as limited in utility? Shane it focuses too far precluding portraits. That’s disappointing.

 

[Deleted member 65559]

Do you then recommend against the 150 as limited in utility? Shane it focuses too far precluding portraits. That’s disappointing.

James, it was for me..... i don't really do distant landscape stuff, i prefer to get closer. i could easily work with 2 bodies and 50mm & 75mm

 

[james.liam]

Any thoughts here on the Rollei 6008?
The Mamiya arrived and a roll of Tri-X uncovered the RF a bit off and wind mechanism wonky. Back to the drawing board.

 

[james.liam]

Any thoughts here on the Rollei 6008?
The Mamiya arrived and a roll of Tri-X uncovered the RF a bit off and wind mechanism wonky. Back to the drawing board.

 

[Wenge]

The Mamiya 645 film boxes are still excellent..i learned with a Mamiya 645 1000s for years on a tripod; it gives a few more shots than the 6x6 so sold the Hasselblad then. for me it was worth it getting those few extra shots per 120 roll.

 

[Richard G]

Convenience may not be what it's about but neither is lugging around a 2+kg behemoth and tripod either (to me at least). In re: resolution, isn't that why you want large negatives??

For me it is really about the camera and film experience and what that leads to. High resolution I can get with one of the modern digital Leicas, if I need that. The perspective and the subtlety of tone mean more to me. The square format, and the limitation of 12 shots to a roll all lead to something different. The lower angle WLF with people is a very different photograph. I use 35mm from the waist too for the same reason. And I like the resolution too.

 

[ediz7531]

Any thoughts here on the Rollei 6008?
The Mamiya arrived and a roll of Tri-X uncovered the RF a bit off and wind mechanism wonky. Back to the drawing board.

Won't KEH repair it for you? They've given me the option of a repair instead of a refund in the past.

 

[james.liam]

Won't KEH repair it for you? They've given me the option of a repair instead of a refund in the past.

Didn’t feel like waiting

 

[chipgreenberg]

Didn’t feel like waiting

Hi James:

I shot with my Rollei 6008af yesterday. I really like it and there's a lot to recommend it.

I use an external meter but it has a variety of metering modes. It could even be used in P mode if I wanted. The Rollei doesn't need a prism for the meter so while it's bigger and weighs more than a 'Blad, you don't need a prism for the meter so it kinda evens out.

I typically use a tripod but with the camera is quite hand holdable with the hand grip.

The Rolleis are also newer than many other options and can be factory serviced.

Eric @ rolleiflex.us has a couple options for sale right now.

 

[davethesnapper]

Hi James I've had a Hasselblad outfit for over 30 years and a Mamiya 6 outfit for about 20.
They are both or me pretty much perfect in different ways. The Hasselblad being a system camera can pretty much do anything with the right accessory/ lens combination. The Mamiya is a great travel/landscape, environmental portraiture, street camera. It can't shoot a very tight head shot but you can crop into the neg. Changing lenses is sometimes a pain with the baffle curtain but you get used to it.

The lenses on both outfits are to be honest are fantastic. As far as I'm aware the cowboy project by Adam Jahiel was shot on both camera systems.

As a working still-life photographer I have used the Hasselblad with digital backs and the lenses stand up to the scrutiny of 80+ megapixels with out any problems.

I like the Mamiya particularly for the fact that once you have the camera and the 3 lenses that's it there's nothing else to buy. No hunting the internet for elusive accessories.

The Rollei is a technically marvellous camera but there are a lot of electronics in it and they never had a bullet proof reputation for reliability. I've had the wind on mechanism changed on one of my mamiya's a few years ago. I was told it was the last new part in the UK so if either goes again I'll have to find a donor for parts. The Hasselblad just goes on and on. I've changed the light seals on the magazines I bought new in 1989 once. if used regularly the lenses don't really need any work on them.

I think the 2 systems compliment each other well.

As an aside I did think that adding a Hasselblad super wide to my mamiya kit would give the option on a wider lens which is the only thing I really crave.

Dave

 

[RObert Budding]

Do you then recommend against the 150 as limited in utility? Shane it focuses too far precluding portraits. That’s disappointing.

The 150mm definitely isn't a lens for tight head shots, but it's wonderful for environmental portraits.

 

[_lou_]

I think the driving factors for choice should be price and most importantly weight.

Hasselblads are nice, but heavy, even more so if you plan to carry more than one lens. Optical performance is adequate, but not great (80mm CF has a lot of distortion and only 5 aperture blades).

I would go for a cheaper Rolleiflex 3.5 (not the white face with insane prices, more something like MX-EVS model) which has good optics and is relatively lighter weight.

Bronicas are very nice, but the early ones (EC, S2...) are very heavy and bulky. Later SQ should be a good option for a more extensible system.

 

[Pál_K]

An enormous amount of data (specifications and performance) about Hasselblad’s Carl Zeiss lenses can be found here:

http://hasselbladhistorical.eu/HW/HWLds.aspx