Frustrated with Mamiya 7 150

[evanbaines]

Hey gang, I have a frustration with the 150mm lens on my Mamiya, but not the usual one I think.

The focus I have absolutely no trouble with, but even after two trips to Bob at PCW, the parallax adjustment is a good bit off for the 150mm lens. I have to do some major guess-work to figure out where the framing is going to wind up. Is this typical for this lens/camera? We're not just talking that the recorded negative covers more area than the framelines would suggest, we're talking offset down and to the right by a decent amount. I've had Bob adjust it twice, so I don't want to keep sending it back if this is the best I can expect, but it seems crazy that the parallax can't be any better corrected than this.

 

[brian steinberger]

I assume you're focusing closely on subjects with the 150. Close up photography is not the strong point of rangefinders. Framelines for all rangefinders are decent guesses at best. I have accepted this fact a long time ago and don't worry about it anymore, just shoot and crop later. But I don't do alot of close up work or anything where composition and framing are critical. My only real recommendation to you is to use an SLR camera for close up work.

 

[Turtle]

I've not heard of this before, but think that were it a common problem when attempting close up work, so few people use their 7s like that we would hear few reports. Most seems to use their 150 as short teles for landscape work.

I am very surprised by the large offset though. Perhaps try it on a second Mamiya 7 body and see if the problem is there also?

 

[evanbaines]

Its interesting, I think we've decided that its an issue of my eye position vs. Bob's (who has been very helpful). I've been able to work around it just knowing that I have to cheat my framing a little up and left vs. the framelines, and leave a little margin for error. I've been getting great results with the lens now that I'm used to its quirk.

 

[t.s.k.]

You're not alone. I've mentioned it before here that the framelines on my M-6 are not as accurate as any other RF I have by a large margin. This includes both MF and 35mm. It may be sample variation or wear, but it is disconcerting nonetheless. Because of this, I've stuck with the 50mm lens almost exclusively.