My honest thoughts on the Mamiya 7...is it the best medium format camera? I’ve had this camera since January this year, which is about 6 months at the time of this recording, and have put about 15-20 rolls through it since then.
So I hope you enjoy this casual discussion and by the end of this video, and have a better understanding of whether this camera might be best suited to you and your photographic needs.
The Mamiya 7 is a medium format camera which uses a rangefinder system. If you are not familiar with this way of shooting, it involves focusing through the viewfinder, rather than the lens like an SLR camera which can take some time to get used to. If you’ve ever used a Leica or Voigtlander you might understand where I am coming from, however, don’t let this put you off.
Out of all the rangefinders I have used the Mamiya is definitely one of the easier ones to work out, it just involves lining up two little boxes and then your focus should be good. I think this point is useful if your planning on buying a 7 but have never used a range finder before, as it might be an adjustment your not overly keen to make. Even though, I have gotten used to it, I still prefer an SLR system if i am being honest but its probably because thats what I have always shot with. So if you have never used a range finder before, I would possibly recommend testing out a much cheaper 35mm version first, and then decide whether this camera system is for you, before you splurge on a camera you might not feel completely comfortable with.
Being a 6x7 medium format camera, you are limited to 10 frames per roll, which can become quite expensive if you are shooting a lot. But if you’ve been shooting film for a while, I’m sure you’ll be all ready aware of this, but a cool feature with this camera which I am yet to use is it has the option to shoot 110 film and also 35mm using an adaptor. I can’t comment on this too much as I haven’t played around with it? But from what I have seen, the results are very interesting and if you look at it this way, it’s technically three cameras in one, which is kinda cool.
So a question I always ask when I am buying a camera, is what will this camera be used for? It’s worth noting that some cameras are more suited to certain areas of photography like portraits or landscapes, and knowing which camera fits each situation is a useful piece of information to have. Before buying this camera, I already owned the Mamiya RZ67, which is another medium format camera, that I mainly used for portraits. I always found it to be such a pain to travel with and shoot landscapes due to its size and heavyweight, so I really wanted a camera that would be most ideal for landscapes and would be nice and easy to move around with.
So in my case, the purpose of buying the Mamiya 7 was to shoot high-quality landscapes that would improve my work as a documentary photographer which often involves a fair bit of travel. Although I have seen some amazing portrait work on this camera, I haven’t really achieved the best results myself. I often find I am missing focus due to it being a range finder, and also having a wide-angle lens which just makes it that much more difficult. Its also worth mentioning, that the lenses available for the Mamiya 7 often have a maximum aperture of f4 which is still okay, but if you really want that soft and dreamy bokeh you would be much better off opting for an RZ or Pentax 67 as their lenses can down to f2.8 and sometimes lower.
So speaking of lenses, one of the best parts of this camera is the variety of lenses that are out there. So currently I own the 65mm but the 80mm is also very popular. I would say these are two of the most common lenses but there are also the 43mm, 50mm, 150mm, and 210mm which are equivalent to around half of that on a full-frame camera and are all equally as sharp. Although these are all fairly expensive, it is assuring knowing that there is a lens for everyone no matter your photographic style.
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'Mamiya 7 - Honest Thoughts (Best Medium Format Camera?)'
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16 сен 2024
