It has some flaws but if you know them and the cameraвЂ™s limitations, then I donвЂ™t see how any other camera tops it. ItвЂ™s not perfect but what I discovered over the years is, there is no perfect camera. The Mamiya 7II is a joy to use and it has almost everything that I want in a camera. Most reviews end with their final thoughts but I kind of want to start with it. I also recently purchased a Hasselblad 500c/m but I have put about 2 rolls through it.ДЇirst off, I love this camera. I have shot with a Pentax 67 which I sold to get this camera. Now, I donвЂ™t have that much experience shooting other medium format cameras so itвЂ™s hard to compare to other systems. I have a little more than 3 years of experience shooting with this camera and I have shot with it on a consistent basis. ThereвЂ™s something fascinating about old technology when you know that in itвЂ™s day it was cutting edge, new technology.IвЂ™ve owned my Mamiya 7II since 2016. Instead they came up with the ingenious idea of moving the entire film plane back and forth to achieve focus, and incorporated the bellows for one and only one purpose compactness. And as mentioned above, the designers of this particular model didnвЂ™t even bother using the bellows for focusing. Just compare it to any other medium format TLR or SLR and youвЂ™ll see what I mean. In the ensuing years cameras have shrunk considerably, but in the 1940s and 1950s the notion of a вЂњpocket cameraвЂќ was pretty amazing. When closed it becomes very compact and can even fit in a large coat pocket. And thatвЂ™s the primary selling feature of folders like this one. So when the camera isnвЂ™t in use it can be closed up into a much smaller unit for transport. But another advantage of bellows is compactness, because they are collapsible. For example, twin lens reflex cameras move the entire front plate of the camera to achieve focus, and it is connected to the rest of the body via bellows. So when the comparatively compact medium format became popular almost all of them initially incorporated some sort of bellows for focusing. It wasnвЂ™t until many years later that engineers designed in-lens focusing, which is much more complicated with all the moving elements incorporated into the lens itself. So why even bother with a folder from the 1950s? I guess itвЂ™s just because folders are cool! Lens bellows were a foundational component of all large format cameras, making accurate focus possible by moving the entire lens and lens board forward and back. In the mean time the current results are definitely much better than when I first got it. I think IвЂ™ve done as much as I can with this camera short of getting a completely different lens for it in better shape. The hood helped increase contrast and reduce the washed out edges. Then I finally found a hood that fits this lens as you can see from the shots above. It seemed cleaner and after redoing the light seals and the results looked better. I ended up combining one element from this lens and the rest from the newly acquired junker. It was broken but the lens looked to be a little better. I bought another camera like this one from the junk bin. The images tended to be lacking in contrast and there was uneven exposure in the corners where things tended to get washed out.

I shot a few rolls with it and the initial results were not all that great. This camera was considered a compact model in its day and when the lens and bellows are collapsed it actually does become relatively portable. 7.5cm f/3.5 and the shutter is a Seikosha Rapid. I picked it up at a local store in 2012 for about $35 and the only problem was some clouding and a few spots of mold in the lens. It was released in the spring of 1955, just a few months before my parents arrived in Japan. There are multiple versions of the Mamiya 6 and this particular one is the IVB (early version).

Everything is manual, but the winding mechanism does take care of frame spacing and there is a clever function that prevents (or lessens the chance of) double exposures by dropping a red flag into the viewfinder after the shutter is released. Focusing is achieved by moving the film plane via a dial operated by the right thumb.

ItвЂ™s a rangefinder with a lens and shutter mounted on collapsibleВ bellows. The camera featured here was part of a long line of folding cameras released by Mamiya in the 1940s and 1950s. This camera is not to be confused with the much later New Mamiya 6, which is a rangefinder with exchangeable lenses and metering, released in 1999.

Mamiya 7 ii new