Mamiya 6 metering

[philipus]

I wish to add 6x6 to my camera bag and have considered options based on what I shoot, which is street and generally candid photography (as opposed to studio or landscape). So portability as well as ease and speed of use are important and I have slowly figured out that a Mamiya 6 is likely what I should get (eventually).

Since I'm very much a 50mm shooter in 135 I think I would like the 75mm lens. I am wondering about metering on a Mamiya 6, though.

As I understand it the meter is located in the viewfinder and corresponds to the 50mm lens.

If I don't use a light meter, I guess I'd have to assess how the light in the overall scene corresponds to what is within the 75mm framelines and adjust speed/aperture accordingly? Is that how people use this camera, or are there some other tricks?

Very grateful for any insight
Cheers
Philip

 

[edge100]

I can speak to my experiences with the Mamiya 7, which should be nearly identical.

The meter is very good, as long as you know what it's doing.

With the 75mm (80mm on the 7), you have basically a centre-weighted meter. You can easily test the precise location of the meter by pointing the camera at a light source and then slowly moving it away. When the metering changes, you'll know you're reaching the edges of the metering spot.

With longer lenses, the meter behaves more like an average meter, since the spot takes up most of the frameline area. With shorter lenses, the meter is closer to a spot.

In practice, it becomes very easy to use. A lot of people simply use an external incident meter, and bypass the whole issue, but I've found that, even when shooting high contrast chromes, the Mamiya meter is more than adequate. And if you're shooting negative film, you've got enough latitude to make up for slight metering errors.

These are really incredible cameras; I highly, highly recommend them.

 

[vytasn]

Metering on the Mamiya 6 is radically different from the Mamiya 7. Mamiya 7 is a spot meter, whereas the Mamiya 6 is a centre average meter. The Mamiya 7 meter was relatively straight forward to use as a spot meter, but the Mamiya 6 meter I found far more tricky. It seems to overly compensate for any sky, I have read that it was originally designed for slide film, not sure if that is true but it sure seems that way. I pretty much have it set to +2/3 exposure to compensate or I use a pocket meter.

 

[john_s]

Metering on the Mamiya 6 is radically different from the Mamiya 7. Mamiya 7 is a spot meter, whereas the Mamiya 6 is a centre average meter. The Mamiya 7 meter was relatively straight forward to use as a spot meter, but the Mamiya 6 meter I found far more tricky. It seems to overly compensate for any sky, I have read that it was originally designed for slide film, not sure if that is true but it sure seems that way. I pretty much have it set to +2/3 exposure to compensate or I use a pocket meter.

I agree completely. For black and white negative film I use the AE lock function (shutter release half pressed) and point the camera away from the sky to set exposure, then recompose. I like shadow detail, so in addition I set the film speed to half the box speed (but I do that with all cameras unless i'm pushing).

Apart from learning the quirks of the meter, it is The Ideal Camera for me.

 

[xcube]

Another thing to know is that the metering is not through the lens so if you put a filter (e.g. red/yellow for b&w) on, you have to adjust manually to compensate.

 

[ornate_wrasse]

After some early bad experiences using the Mamiya 6 meter, where my pictures came out improperly exposed, I realized that I could not trust the meter when taking pictures with this camera. I always use my Sekonic meter and I've been very pleased with the results.

In the future, I may try different techniques, such as those described in the above posts, using the camera meter, but, as it stands now, I can't see myself relying on it.

Ellen

 

[philipus]

Thanks very much everyone for your insights. It's great to learn the tricks from those of you who already use the camera.

the Mamiya 6 is a centre average meter.

So this would apply to all three lenses, then?

About the sky issue, I've read somewhere that some cup their left hand over the viewfinder to block out light which can throw the meter off. Is this really necessary?


Cheers
philip

 

[KenR]

I concur with vytasn and john s that the meter overcompensates for any (normal) backlight or skylight. So if the sun isn't coming from over your shoulder, as in an old Kodak instruction sheet, you are going to find that you are a couple of stops underexposed. So, like john s, I generally point the camera down at something neutral, lock the meter and snap the photo. As I often use the 6 while hiking, I don't usually carry an auxillary meter, but this method seems to work fairly well.

 

[edge100]

Metering on the Mamiya 6 is radically different from the Mamiya 7. Mamiya 7 is a spot meter, whereas the Mamiya 6 is a centre average meter. The Mamiya 7 meter was relatively straight forward to use as a spot meter, but the Mamiya 6 meter I found far more tricky. It seems to overly compensate for any sky, I have read that it was originally designed for slide film, not sure if that is true but it sure seems that way. I pretty much have it set to +2/3 exposure to compensate or I use a pocket meter.

Did not know this. Interesting.

 

[__jc]

I had a Mamiya 6, now have a Mamiya 7II and concur that the metering in the two cameras is vastly different. I found I had to use a hand-held meter to get accurate results with the Mamiya 6. There are other field tricks like wearing a baseball cap so that the meter cell is shadowed when you make the reading at eye level (this actually works pretty well!). But in the end I found I didn't want a camera that I effectively had to carry a separate meter for and that is why I ended up selling it. The 50mm lens though is absolute magic - much better in my opinion than the Zeiss 50mm FLE lens I had for my Hasselblad.

 

[waileong]

M6 metering is awful. Don't use it. Use a hand held light meter instead.

IF you have to use it, learn to shield it.

 

[Joe Vitessa]

I use the baseball cap trick and it works very well. The system's incredible set of lenses more than makes up for the challenging meter.

 

[john_s]

With all meters, how you use them requires some experience. For slide film, the Mamiya 6 meter might be inadequate, but for negative film it has been fine for me, but only after I started doing what I referred to in my post above.

 

[philipus]

Thank you very much for all this info.

Do I understand it correctly that the 6 has a kind of centre-weighed metering regardless of which lens is attached (as opposed to the 7 the meter of which seems to behave differently depending on the lens used)?

cheers
philip

 

[waileong]

Yes. It's basically the entire rangefinder patch. So with a 50 mm lens, it's almost a semi-spot meter, while the 150 mm lens turns it into a centre weighted meter.

However, the flare throws off all readings. Be warned. If you don't know how to shield it, your negs will be hopeless under.