Would you buy a Mamiya 6 in 2019?

[ryca]

The meter is fooled by big expanses of sky. So when I see that there is a big disparity between metering a neutral area and my planned photo with lots of sky, I lock the exposure on the neutral area and then compose and take my photo.

a lot of people talk about inconsistent metering... this is great advice thank you. just loaded some porta400 for first walk w/ it... wish me luck!

 

[ornate_wrasse]

with that being said Mamiya 6/7 owners... any handy tips I should be aware of?

Like others, I found the metering did not produce properly exposed images for me. It got to the point that I didn't trust the meter at all and always used my own meter, relying on it rather than the camera's meter. If you have an external meter, I recommend using it when shooting with the Mamiya 6.

All in all, it's a GREAT camera which I dearly love. The results I got with the superb 50mm lens are among the very best film images I've ever shot.

Here's one of my favorite images taken with the Mamiya 6 and the 50mm lens.

 

[Rayt]

The meter is just a non TTL reflective with a broad angle of view. Definitely use a handheld meter unless the illumination is uniform.

 

[ryca]

Oh my... 4 frames in, you guys are right this meter is kinda crazy! Kinda super sensitive to light.


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[Phil_F_NM]

Take a meter reading off a medium gray zone: open sky opposite the sun, a big patch of green grass, a gray card, then transfer the reading to manual shutter speeds. Or use your left hand to shield the viewfinder from the sky, you can get it pretty close. That meter is very sensitive and very accurate but as you've found out, it will get fooled by stray light entering the viewfinder.
Phil Forrest

 

[ryca]

Take a meter reading off a medium gray zone: open sky opposite the sun, a big patch of green grass, a gray card, then transfer the reading to manual shutter speeds. Or use your left hand to shield the viewfinder from the sky, you can get it pretty close. That meter is very sensitive and very accurate but as you've found out, it will get fooled by stray light entering the viewfinder.
Phil Forrest

thanks for this!

 

[FujiLove]

Re. the meter: The built in meter is completely usable, but you need to be very aware of the way it is fooled by bright skies. So either shade the finder to block out the sky or get in close and take a reading off something that will give you a reliable exposure.

Having said that, I use a handheld meter most of the time. It makes things simple.

 

[ryca]

Would you buy a Mamiya 6 in 2019?

Re. the meter: The built in meter is completely usable, but you need to be very aware of the way it is fooled by bright skies. So either shade the finder to block out the sky or get in close and take a reading off something that will give you a reliable exposure.

Having said that, I use a handheld meter most of the time. It makes things simple.

Ok so just got back my first quick test roll i shot last Friday (all w/ internal meter). They came out ok I think.. I used AEL and ensured to meter off shadows or darkest part of frame as advised here. Tried to shoot various situations that day: indoors, outdoors, overcast.. looks ok... maybe could use another 1/3 - 1/2 stop exposure.. but all in all happy w/ it. (M6MF x Portra400)

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[KenR]

Congrats on the purchase - you won't regret it. I probably would have given the girls at the inside table an extra stop because they were indoors. The garage looks like the meter underexposed 1 or 2 stops. I would have locked the exposure on the neutral pavement and then taken the picture as the bright lights probably caused the camera to stop things down a bit much.