please help me getting started with Mamiya 6 and MF!

[zwarte_kat]

Hi there!

Just got a Mamiya 6 and have a few beginners questions about the camera and medium format:

1. Lenses
I have found 35mm equivalent information on the web, but not sure what it exactly refers to. Is it just how much you get in your image, the "crop", or does it also apply to distortion? For example, will my 75mm Mamiya 6 lens distort more then a 75mm lens on a 35mm rangefinder, when shooting close? Or is it just like a (reverse) cropfactor when going MF.

2. Meter
I heard it is unreliable, is it really a big deal? I shoot negatives mostly, seldom slides. How do you usually tackle metering on this camera?

3. Any things I should think of when shooting street handheld, can I hold it at the same shutter speeds as a 35 mm? They say don't put your shutter speed below your focal length on 35mm, does the same apply to MF?

4. Any other advise for someone coming from 35mm rangefinders?

Cheers!

 

[sleepyhead]

Great camera. Most of your questions will answer themselves once you go out and shoot a few rolls of film.
Try not to obsess on the camera, and focusing on seeing.
Enjoy!

 

[jbielikowski]

75mm on 6x6 is approx. equivalent to 40mm on 35mm. Divide FL by 2 and add couple mm. Also, with leaf shutter you can go down to 1s handheld with some practice.

 

[ColSebastianMoran]

1. 35mm equivalent... It's like a reverse crop factor. It's about the width of the view. The correspondence isn't exact because the aspect ratio is different.

2. Metering... For negative film, it's doesn't need to be as exact as for slides or digital captures.

Google and read for lots more information and opinion. Enjoy the new camera. Have you worked out what you will do with the larger negatives? Processing? Scan? etc.

 

[Spyro]

4. Any other advise for someone coming from 35mm rangefinders?

Cheers!

No nothing really, it's a super user-friendly camera, just enjoy the quiet shutter and the glorious viewfinder! The meter might be fooled and underexpose a little at times but no big deal unless shooting slides. Just get some c41 or B&W film and fix it in the scan if it happens. I used to love this camera for street until I decided I was probably shooting too much for medium format.

 

[Robin Harrison]

Super camera. Not sure if you've got either the 50mm or 150mm lenses too, but one thing to note is that because the metering is not TTL, the effective metering area 'changes' with focal length - with the 50mm it is nearly a spot meter, and with the 150mm if is a broad center-weighted meter.

Get the hang of the AE lock and avoid strong direct light, and the meter does the job just fine.

Great shots, Spyro.

 

[newsgrunt]

No distortion and I've never had problems metering with the 50 or 75.

 

[nksyoon]

I hold my left hand above the meter window to block bright skies from affecting the reading.

 

[kuzano]

Pay close attention to loading film properly...

Pay close attention to loading film properly...

Unlike 135 film (35mm), 120 roll film is not protected by a canister and wants to unroll as you load it. It will load loosely in the back of the camera if you do not maintain some tension on the roll with the advance lever as you close the film door. Hold the feed roll from turning while holding this tension.

Loosely loaded 120 film will bunch up on the takeup roll as you shoot frames and may jam mid or late roll.

This problem is not only a Mamiya problem, but all horizontal transport medium format cameras. I only post this as it appears this might be a new format for you, based on your post.

The camera seems to have a good reputation.

NOTE: Added Later

Also note that incorrect film tension (film loose) on loading 120 and more specifically 220 film can have a bad effect on frame spacing. Properly tensioning the film at closure of the door enhances film transport through the camera AND proper frame spacing.

 

[zenza]

I primarily shoot negative film and generally trust the meter, however when in doubt I err on the side of over-exposure. The 75mm is a fantastic focal length somewhere in between standard and semi-wide.

 

[dom2465]

I use to take care in incident light when huge part of sky.
Out of that it is a great camera, silent, not so heavy and which you can get with you everywhere.
I own the 50mm and I appreciate the angle.
You make a very right choice buying this camera.

ps:Zenza, I like very much your photography above with the two guys and heir boat!

 

[RFH]

I've only had mine for about a week, but I can confidently say that the in-lens shutters make slow handheld shooting easy. I shot on 1/8s indoors the other day, and to my surprise that image came out very sharp.
From my limited experience using its meter, it seems like a bit of overexposure does the trick.

 

[PMCC]

The angle of view for different focal length lenses as typically shown in tables is a somewhat imprecise basis for comparison between formats. This is because the angles measured are of the diagonal of the frame, which is the diameter of the lens image circle. But for many photographers, the horizontally measured angle of view is more useful than the diagonal for purposes of composition, and this dimension will vary from the frame diagonal depending on the aspect ratio of the format. So the tables are most useful when comparing formats of the same aspect ratio, e.g., 6x9 with 35mm, or 4x4 with 6x6. Personally, I just see differently in the square than I do in the rectangular 2:3 aspect ratio of 35mm.

Hope I got this right, it hurt my head a iittle to articulate this seemingly hair-splitting point.

Back on topic, I love the Mamiya 6. It's a handy collapsible take-with you camera with great lenses, the 50mm being my favorite. Have fun, just don't go crazy with the internet-anecdotally-less-than-robust film advance lever -- it's probably prudent to not to treat it as a high-speed rapid-fire street shooter, like the Leica. For various reasons alluded to above, the 50mm lens feels a lot more like a "normal" than a "wide" to me than does a 28mm on a 35mm camera. Just go out and burn some film and see for yourself.

 

[historicist]

The meter is not unreliable, but it meters through the rangefinder window, not the lens. Thus it is oversensitive to bright light sources (i.e the sky) in the top of the frame.

The behaviour is predictable so you just compensate manually, or shade the VF as sugested.

 

[zwarte_kat]

Wow, thanks for all the replies! Just filled my 1st roll and hope to have it developed soon (working about 10-12 hours a day lately, including many weekend days)

As for my workflow I will have the negatives developed, and then... not sure yet, but I guess I will get a V700. Or I could just have those index sheets made, and only print the very best couple ones big in nice quality. My goal is to have some exhibitions, so bigger is good. Printing/developing myself, just don't have the time and space.
And I shoot too much (35mm until now).

I am now drowning in film to scan, so I figured to split out my 35mm work out to digital and MF film, to keep scanning and costs down.

If I were to have a nice big print made, what type of print (scan or wet, etc.) and size would you recommend to have something that is big, yet not obviously reduced quality?

Or would you recommend requesting a HQ scan, and then do my own post processing? As opposed to printing and developing, CC is something I am couple of doing quickly and well.
Anyway, cheers for the overwhelming amount of helpful responses!

 

[Hamel]

Wow, thanks for all the replies! Just filled my 1st roll and hope to have it developed soon (working about 10-12 hours a day lately, including many weekend days)

As for my workflow I will have the negatives developed, and then... not sure yet, but I guess I will get a V700. Or I could just have those index sheets made, and only print the very best couple ones big in nice quality. My goal is to have some exhibitions, so bigger is good. Printing/developing myself, just don't have the time and space.
And I shoot too much (35mm until now).

I am now drowning in film to scan, so I figured to split out my 35mm work out to digital and MF film, to keep scanning and costs down.

If I were to have a nice big print made, what type of print (scan or wet, etc.) and size would you recommend to have something that is big, yet not obviously reduced quality?

Or would you recommend requesting a HQ scan, and then do my own post processing? As opposed to printing and developing, CC is something I am couple of doing quickly and well.
Anyway, cheers for the overwhelming amount of helpful responses!

Printing is personal preference but I prefer to print my photos in the darkroom. I don't have experience wet printing negatives from my Mamiya 6 since I shoot mostly color negatives. That being said, I C-Print them up to 15x15" on 16x20" paper with no apparent loss in quality if they were shot at 1/125s or faster. Printing 7x7" on 8x10" paper I can use frames that were shot at 1/30s. The larger prints show the camera shake that wasn't apparent in my scans and smaller prints.

 

[zwarte_kat]

Cheers!

Cheers!

Thanks everybody!
Had my first roll developed and scanned. I was happy to see there were no issues with the pictures. They were only scanned at 2000:2000 pixels, and I am curious to see how a bigger scan turns out. So now that I know I like this camera and format, it's time to get an Epson V700.

Here are the images on flickr BTW, if anybody wants to see. Of course comments and advices for improvement are greatly welcomed!

It's definitely a great camera. i feel I have the ultimate rangefinder for street shooting now! (though I guess an M9 would compete if I could afford it!)

 

[wolfpeterson]

I just bought one, now the wait as it travels from sweden to canada 😀

I've held one before but I'm really anxious to see how well it travels in my bag (weight/size) which is essentially why I bought it.

I'm really a TMY2 and 160NC/400NC man in 35mm, but I've realized they stopped making NC in 120 a while ago and most of the stuff on ebay is expired. Should I stick with my current combo for 120, substituting for the new portra or should I be looking at other film? (No slide film)

 

[zwarte_kat]

Not sure I'm the person to ask this, I don't even know what TMY2 is!
I've been using most of the Portra film interchangeably, I like the tone in all of them. I think you will be fine with the new portra, but I am also curious if others know of film that gives the nice soft colors and skin tones like portra.

 

[john_s]

Not sure I'm the person to ask this, I don't even know what TMY2 is!

Kodak T-Max 400 a new technology 400 speed black and white film. Finer grain than Tri-X their other 400 film, and a somewhat different look.

TMX is the 100 speed version, TMZ is the "3200" speed version, in reality about 1200 speed if you want shadow detail.

The "2" refers to the second (current) version.