The Mamiya is cumbersome and top heavy but it's a beautiful piece of engineering. It's like a steam locomotive, with a lot of the moving parts on the outside. You can do roadside repairs if it breaks down. The Hasselblad feels more at home in the studio, it recoils like a shotgun, needs a tripod. I love both, the square format is so good to compose. I took my best 6x6s with a Pentacon Six - amazing lenses, gentle mirror bounce - and a Mamiya 6 rangefinder that has great ergonomics plus a Leica M-3 grade rangefinder.
Good morning and thank you for the comment! Yes, she's cumbersome, and compared to other TLR cameras, she looks like an "ugly duckling". But actually on low light situations, just like subwaystations and inside the train itself, the extra-weight is actually very practical as it helps stabilizing the camera more than another more lighter.
Great comparison and very informative! I was in Portugal a couple of weeks ago with my C330f. I had a great time with it! Works very well on streets and for travel stuff. I find myself wanting a hasselblad though for my stilleben stuff. One of these days I will have both :)
Good morning and many thanks for your comment :) I will warn you that you will not see any difference between THE FINAL RESULT of yours C330f and a Hassy 500... The Hasselblad might make you look more visible, as people recognise it from "the movies" almost as much as a Rolleiflex. But in the end you will not notice a big difference between comparable lens, this meaning the SEIKO/Mamiya 80mm f2.8 and the Hassy's Zeiss 80mm f2.8 as they are both incredible and extremely sharp lenses. And if you look at the price level of both, with a Hassy in-between 900 to 1300 and the Mamiya C in the region of 200 to 350€, its practically a "no brainer". As mere curiosity, I also use the Mamiya on another project I ocasionally do, which is to use a 135 film, with adapters, on this medium format, taking full length images 24mm x 600mm .
Great video. I have somehow become a Mamiya shooter. I own a C3 and it is one of my favorite cameras I have ever owned. I also have a Mamiya Universal. I don't seek them out, but Mamiyas just seem to find me. They have great optics and are surprisingly affordable.
Good afternoon and many thanks for the comment! Yes, they are surprisingly cheap given the ratio price quality. I guess that it's like buying a Harley-Davidson, where 50% of the price paid goes only for the name itself rather than the product. I have several Mamiya C lenses who are extremely sharp and contrasty, that do rival directly with the Zeiss lens of the either Rolleiflex and Hasselblad. However being bulky and "fatty" (The Mamiya I mean) is not always a bad thing as shooting in low light, which is the case of the Subway in Lisbon, is an added "Bonus" turning it more stable :)
