Mamiya 6 framing and composition

Film Junkie

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I've just got a mamiya 6 with 75mm lens and wondering roughly how accurate the framelines are in the viewfinder at infinity?

I wont be shooting slides, just b+w negative film.
 
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I will give this a bump to tell you be patient. You have this thread in the right forum to get answers. Several people here at RFF have the Mamiya 6 and will be happy to answer your question.

I don't have one or I would try to answer. I have the older Mamiya Super Press 23. I don't remember from when I first got it, but I would guess I must have tested the frame lines. I suspect they are pretty accurate, but give you a bit of breathing room. Most camera manufacturers do that.
 
I have a Mamiya 6 and as was just said they are accurate and do provide a little leeway. I've had the camera for almost 20 years. The 75 is a good lens, but you should get the 50. I have all three, but rarely take the 50 off, but then again I make a lot of landscape pictures. Enjoy your camera, I love mine!
 
Thanks for the replies....

The instruction manual says;

The composition will be within the lines of
the bright frame 83% of the field of
view is visible at infinity, and 100% is visible at
the minimum focusing distance. The
appropriate bright frame area is auto-
matically selected upon lens interchange.

I'm confused by this in that I dont know if at infinity the negative will capture everything within the bright frame plus some extra. Or should I compose to an imaginery frame line about 83% the area of the bright frame lines.
 
From that info, I would say that yes, 17% of the image will be outside the framelines at infinity.

All lenses breathe. Rangefinders are obviously not the most accurate way of composing an image as you can't see the change in image as you focus and the framelines don't compensate for breathing.

That being said, I've used the Mamiya 6 along with my Zeiss Ikon and have never once concerned myself the accuracy of the framelines.

Go out, shoot, try to get a feeling for what the Mamiya does. It's a really good camera!

Example image (stolen from my girlfriend):

421645124_3f43024d62.jpg
 
I have the Mamiya 6 with all three lenses.

I would say the description on frameline accuracy is probably about right for the 75mm lens. At infinity you will get a bit more in than the framelines show and hardly anymore at the closest focusing differences. This is the normal sort of accuracy for rangefinder cameras. Lenses increase in focal legth slightly as you get closer, so you need a safety margin (plus parallax is worst even with compensating framelines) to avoid cut off..

Even though I prefer to compose in the view finder I personally don't give it much consideration with the M6 (as against some other rangefinders) as like you I'm not shooting slides. With bigger safety margins in some you get use to compensating after a while.
 
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