mamiya 6 w/75 -vs- mamiya 7 w/80

[Gary Briggs]

Has anyone compared these two ?
I have heard that the 6's 75 is a little better lens, hard to define that, but just in general a little better (little sharper, tones...).
I seem to remember hearing something along these lines as a disappointment when the 7 came out.

 

[rlouzan]

Hi Gary,

The prints that I've seen from the M7w/80 are plenty sharp.
The M7 is newer and has a more accurate meter pattern, however, having said this, the film advance mechanism is the achilles hell of both M6 and M7 systems.

Regards,
Robert

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[benlees]

I doubt anyone could tell any difference, if there is one- which I doubt there is- when looking at prints. The reason to go with a 6 is the square. Another reason might be the lens mount collapses into body making for a smaller storage size. The 7 has a bigger neg and more lenses. The 6 has a bit of cult with it so costs more on the used market than the 7.

 

[Matus]

I would not try to decide on the "sharpness" of the lenses. Both belong to the best out there. I would decide on format (6x6 vs 6x7), age (Mamiya 6 may be hard to get repaired in some cases) and on the built-in meter. The one in Mamiya 6 measures pretty much the whole viewfinder and is sensitive to light from "above". Mamiya 7 is supposed to have much narrower metering zone.

And if I should talk about the lenses - I do not find neither of the two mentioned produces particularly attractive OOF areas. Just my personal impression and taste (and I do not find the new Bessa III with 80/3.5 lens much better). Based on what I have seen - the "best" (from my point of view) compact medium format camera for portraits (at or close to wide open) would probably be Plaubel Makina 67. Or the 75/3.5 Tessar lens in Rolleiflex, but that is entirely different camera.

I have the Mamiya 6 and only thing that bugs me is the metering (and so I use hand-held meter most of the time) - but there are some tricks and ways around.

 

[t.s.k.]

You're splitting hairs if you ask me...and I'm bald!

My guess is some people have voiced a preference in the collapsibility of the 6
or a preference in format, not the lens itself. Curious where you "heard" this.

 

[brian steinberger]

The lenses for the Mamiya 6/7 systems are the sharpest lenses available in medium format. You will not be disappointed. The results I get from my 150 for the Mamiya 6 blows be away every time. I agree with Matus though, the OOF areas are certainly not as nice as an SLR or TLR but you need to decide what you're going to shoot before you choose your camera system. I prefer sharpness, and I chose the 6 because it's square, and I like square.

 

[Bob Michaels]

Remember that it is very simple to crop a 6x7 neg to a square or 6x6 format.