Oh no, I dropped my Mamiya 6 on the concrete

[mrisney]

Cracked the hand grip, and smashed in the 75mm lens ring. I sent it to MAC in Elmsford NY. What are the odds that it can be fixed. I love this camera, and the Mamiya 6's seem to be less available on EBay these days. I bought a second one for parts, and may send that one along to MAC - to Frankenstein one working camera together. Heartbroken, any comments on Mamiya repair for the Mamiya 6 ?

 

[Ranchu]

They'll fix it, man. It'll be back to you in no time, the shutter release will even feel a little smoother than it was before. Don't worry!

🙂

 

[FrankS]

A neighborhood kid knocked mine off the motorcycle seat I left it on. It fell on the retracted lens breaking the filter. No other damage. There is a saying that anything placed on a Motorcycle seat WILL fall off.

 

[atlcruiser]

I can not see why it could not be fixed especially if you have a 2nd body for parts.

 

[Ranchu]

A neighborhood kid knocked mine off the motorcycle seat I left it on. It fell on the retracted lens breaking the filter. No other damage. There is a saying that anything placed on a Motorcycle seat WILL fall off.

Funny how people only tell you that AFTER it happens though. I got a chip in my Arai.

 

[smiling gecko]

ouch!!!

ouch!!!

ouch!!!
sorry to hear about the tumble. the mamiya 6 is a pretty hardy camera, but...
i dropped mine onto a rubber mat coated floor and the lens wouldn't extend at first. i fiddled with it a bit and managed to ease it out and it's worked fine after that. pure dumb luck, my friend.
i bet yours will repair just fine. fingers crossed for you.
breathe, relax and enjoy.
sg, aka smiling gecko, aka kenneth

 

[dtcls100]

Sorry about the damage. Hopefully MAC can fix it, although it might make more sense from a financial viewpoint to simply buy another one given the extensive work that may be required, if it can be done. I see a few Mamiya 6 cameras being listed on Ebay, although they aren't cheap, including an unused full outfit (w/all three lenses and hoods) that is presently bidding for about $2600+. The cameras do appear to be coming up for sale on Ebay, KEH, B&H, etc. less and less frequently.

 

[mrisney]

Update:

Spoke with Mamiya (MAC) in Elmsford they have body casing parts for the Mamiya 6 MF, so they can replace the exterior,
replace the right hand grip, the dented body panels with Mamiya 6MF parts.
They said they have a declining supply of these parts
but they can replace them. The infamous winder assembly issue came up, and they said in most cases they can replace the winder
springs - which they will recondition mine, and it will be as good as new. The winder assembly only gets broken from severe stress
fatigue (something they imagine could potentially occur in a situation where a camera has had over 500K windings), over cocking the winder, or maybe extreme variations in weather.

So the winder assembly issue, that seems to spook some from getting into Mamiya 6, can be remedied with new springs and CLA.

All in all, its not cheap to repair, but Mamiya 6's can be repaired as of 2011.

$566 - ouch !

 

[dtcls100]

$566 is alot of money, but not too bad given the extensive damage. I just paid $400 to have a sticky magnet cleaned and new winder assembly put into one of mine. My old winder wasn't really bad -- it still spaced the frames well, but it was starting to go bad (I got the camera body well used, but cosmetically in quite good condition for $350) and I wanted to repair it as it was just about the shop's last new winder assembly. I figure the $750 total I paid for the camera (including the repair) for a nice looking and perfectly working body wasn't a bad deal.

 

[barnwulf]

Dropping any camera on the concrete is a horrifying experience. It's often an expensive fix. I dropped my Leica M4 on the concrete from shoulder height from a tripod. I felt nauseous and dreaded to take a look. The bottom corner of the body is bent and the base plate is pretty much trashed. I am lucky that it didn't fall on my $1,100 Zeiss lens. Used base plates around a hundred and I don';t know if they can bend the body back into shape or not. I may need to have a used body and that will be expensive. I need to get it out for an estimate. Jim

 

[mrisney]

Repaired. They replaced the top plate with a Mamiya 6 MF, and covered over the "MF" with a small amount of black paint. The winder assembly actually feels and sounds better. Overall looks good. I need to test out the RF alignment, apparently I caused enough damage that internal adjustments had to be made to the focusing system. Some springs were replaced, and it had a full CLA. $566 later, I have my Mamiya 6 back in pretty good condition. Won't do something that daft again. BTW, I have an extra Mamiya 6 that I bought - with a perfectly good winder assembly, excellent body - I bought for parts, anticipating the worst. However it's printed circuit board is not fixable, so it's strictly a parts camera. PM me if you are interested.

 

[mbohara]

Good deal. Hope it feels like new, and I'm sure they got the rangefinder dialed in well for you.

I had a friend drop my Mamiya 7 on a brick walkway. Too many broken pieces to list. Cost around $380 to fix. Luckily I have insurance and only had to pay the deductible.

 

[bwidjaja]

mbohara, would you mind sharing what kind of insurance and at what cost? i might need to do that.

 

[Carterofmars]

Congrats my friend. Every shooters nightmare.