mamiya 6 review after 4 years

[@JTobiason]

Yes! We need more Mamiya 6 vids. It is the best camera. :)

[@atomikpi]

gets slept on too much, a great camera!

[@BarrettBaker_photos]

who is this guy? He popped up in my feed and he rarely does videos… like this video was preceded by a video from 3 weeks ago… does he realize his contents good? Like, if he put videos out; a few a week, I’d watch them all. Step up your game dude. You got great stuff to show! Your awesome!

[@atomikpi]

thank you! laziness is my continued enemy.

[@negativespaceboys]

Yeah man, totally agree. And he made me decide that Imma get this mamiya 6

[@user-is4jf8yr4z]

I owned this one for some months. Really liked the folding mechanism and the square image format. Amazing image quality. Had to sell it because personally I can work better with an SLR than a rangefinder.

[@atomikpi]

yeah, that SLR vs. rangefinder thing is almost instinctual and people tend to have a strong lean. no use fighting it

[@injeolmi6]

I prefer the Mamiya 6 just a bit over its sibling, I love 6x6! It's still not a cheap camera. I miss Pro 400H, too. :( Thanks for uploading!

[@atomikpi]

6x7 has more mass appeal, but 6x6 is great if you know how to use it and like working with it. I really like it for portraits. both great cameras.

[@southendsites]

I have and love Mamiya 6... I have 50mm and 150mm. I use a sekonic light meter as well...

[@JanPBtest]

I used the Mamiya 7 with the 43mm lens a few times (rented it) and was amazed by the quality. It's a very wide angle lens but the photos look very natural and undistorted. Very impressive. This lens is very interesting for a couple of reasons. One is that its design makes it impossible to use it with digital cameras whose sensors cannot deal with very skew rays (digital cameras require telecentric lenses which is a design constraint, so instead of true wide-angle lenses they have to use the reverse telephoto). Second thing is even stranger: the Mamiya 43mm lens is a Biogon lens (a very famous true wide-angle design) but it cannot call itself that because the name "Biogon" is owned by, I think, Hasselblad. But the design itself is in public domain so Mamiya could use it. OTOH Hasselblad make a wide angle lens called "Biogon" but... that lens is not the original 10-element Biogon design but a simplified 8-element lens. But the Mamiya 43mm _is_ the original Biogon design. So we have the funny situation in which the no-name lens is a Biogon and the lens calling itself "Biogon" really isn't 100%. Anyway, I hope one of these days digital sensors will be able to deal with skew rays so we could again use those magnificent lenses: Biogon, Super Angulon, and Hologon.

[@atomikpi]

Great info! I happen to have the ZM 35/2.8 which is supposedly a biogon and produces great sharpness and contrast. Never had a chance to shoot the Mamiya 7 43 but would love to some day - can't justify the $2000+ for one.

[@JanPBtest]

@@atomikpi Another thing about Biogon-like wide angle lenses is that they cannot work with SLRs (film or digital) because their rear element must be very close to the film plane, so no room for mirror). As for the 43mm, I feel your financial pain :-) It used to be easy to rent those things, now so many brick and mortar stores are gone, sigh. I read up on the story of this lens a while ago, and IIRC the original idea for it was by a Russian guy named Rusinov (that idea being the main lens elements surrounded by large menisci on both sides which increases the angle of view while reducing distortion if things are balanced just right) and the first high quality lens of this type was calculated by Dr. Ludwig Bertele at Wild Heerbrugg AG in Switzerland. He had worked at Carl Zeiss earlier. So while at Wild, he designed a lens called Aviogon for aerial photography, its claim to fame was very small distortion and great sharpness. BTW, this was 1950 or so, how people like Bertele calculated those lenses in those days is a mystery to me. They must have used logarithmic tables because I don't think slide rule would be accurate enough. Required the patience of a saint. I studied lens aberrations theory as a hobby, and while not very difficult (for a mathematician) in terms of the concepts involved, it's an _absolute nightmare computationally._ Later Carl Zeiss asked Bertele to design for the consumer market something along the lines of Aviogon and they rehired him as a contractor for that, the result is the Biogon. OTOH Super Angulon was a "me-too" answer to Biogon by Schneider-Kreuznach. I don't mean it pejoratively, it's an excellent lens but it's a bit different as S-K had to work around Bertele's patents. I may have mangled the chronology slightly, there is some info on Bertele and Biogon on Wikipedia.

[@scotthullinger4684]

I had a Mamiya 6 camera which I used for many years for wedding photography. Very sweet, and a great alternative to the Hasselblad and countless others.

[@atomikpi]

agreed! hope you still have it / have a chance to shoot it every now and then.

[@scotthullinger4684]

@@atomikpi - Alas, no. I sold my Mamiya 6 because I needed the cash for my latest digital camera. It's wasn't the Nikon D850, but it might be eventually.

[@logicalparadox815]

My old boss used to hand hold his Hasselblad. But for the slow speeds, he'd lock up the mirror first... which I guess is fine if framing isn't critical and the lens is stopped down a bit.

[@atomikpi]

Bold move! I guess it's viable if you don't use slow shutters all that often.

[@southendsites]

As it is the only 6x6 camera I have ever had. I do not have to make a note... Rather wonder to find another appreciation video. Thanks

[@atomikpi]

It's a lovely camera and weirdly (thankfully?) left behind in the hype cycle compared to its sibling camera (the 7).

[@BathAcademy]

What lens design? What battery? What about case? What about shooting in the cold? Image samples 1:1?

[@atomikpi]

i discuss the wide 50mm f/4 in the video a bit and show some 100% very high res scans. i live in a warm/mediterranean climate and can't discuss cold handling. this takes very standard lithium batteries - no trouble finding them.

[@walteregbert7194]

Great video! I am looking for a walkaround/travel camera. You mentioned you might sell the Mamiya 6 to slim down your collection. What do you consider to be your core camera(s) that you will hang on to?

[@atomikpi]

For me, for medium format it's just the Mamiya 7 (walk around, landscape) and Hasselblad 503 (portraits). Feels nice to not be as much of a gear hoarder and hopefully the new owner of this camera is shooting and enjoying it! It's also just nice to not feel like I "have to" shoot all my cameras or they're just collecting dust. (I am also keeping my Leica, point and shoot, and digital camera, so I'm still a hoarder. Baby steps.)

[@maxwellwellmax878]

Thank you for the Video!, I have the 7II and I dont think I will get a 6, specially seeing how prices have gone up the last couple of years.

[@atomikpi]

Yeah, I'll be selling mine because it feels a bit redundant, but it's a great camera.

[@RYANPARKPHOTOGRAPHY]

nice man! I am shooting hassy and was dreaming for Mamiya 7 for travel.. but havent tried yet. I mean, I love square format!!

[@atomikpi]

I’d find someone to befriend and borrow it haha. You might love it, might not.

[@martiningram8799]

Hey, enjoyed this review, thanks! I have a Rolleiflex 3.5A and really like the square format. The Tessar is quite poor when wide open but is pretty good from f5.6 onwards, at least for my purposes. Mulling a step up to the Mamiya 6 or a Planar/Xenotar Rollei at some point, but not sure right now... Anyway, your videos are really helpful to get more info on these cameras, please continue making them!

[@atomikpi]

thank you! I love the Rolleis, but TLRs feel "weird" to me for lack of a better word. sometimes a camera feels like an extension of you and sometimes it doesn't, you know? The planar Rolleis are really really sharp, at least when stopped down - the Mamiya 6/7 are definitely contrastier, if you're looking for that. never shot a tessar Rollei but have shot a yashica mat, which is basically a knock off of one (lol).

[@martiningram8799]

​@@atomikpi Thanks! Yeah I understand. I find the TLR experience a bit mixed too -- the mirrored image is a bit weird, I've got used to it but it's still not 100% natural. That said, I _love_ the big viewfinder; I actually compose with the magnifier down which is probably not the intended use but I get a terrifically big image, and I love composing with that. Mostly I don't mind the vintage rendering, just sometimes I've noticed some haze in bright lighting, but I got a lens hood now which might help. So I guess that's all in favour of the Rollei. I'm a bit conflicted about rangefinders. I have one that I love (Canonet QL17 G-III) and one I'm starting to regret buying (Fuji GS645S). My problem with the GS645S is the viewfinder, which is dark, has a colour cast, and barrel distortion. It's a bit depressing that my Canonet has a (much) better viewfinder, despite costing a fraction of the Fuji. It's bad enough to put me off shooting with it, despite its lens actually being pretty good. I'd just stick with the Canonet but I'm definitely a bit of a pixel peeper and love the medium format sharpness and overall look. How do you like the Mamiya 6's viewfinder?

[@atomikpi]

@@martiningram8799 yeah I find viewfinders kind of hit or miss. honestly, they mostly ruin point and shoots for me. I'm used to nice SLR and Leica rangefinder, so composing through a little keyhole feels un-fun. mamiya 6 viewfinder is great but the framelines are a little low-contrast (compared to a good rangefinder like a leica). i'd say don't waste your money and enjoy your current cameras, or maybe buy a higher end rollei if you are OK with the TLR left-right swap and other minor weirdness.

[@martiningram8799]

@@atomikpi Yeah seems like good advice, thanks. Certainly not buying more would be the reasonable thing to do, but I'm not sure I'll be able to do that lol. Seems like viewfinders are something to pay a lot of attention to, and maybe if I do think about investing in a Mamiya 6, I'd first see if I could try one in a shop / borrow one. Thanks again for your help :)

[@atomikpi]

@@martiningram8799 yeah np. i'm very bad at taking my own advice. buying cameras is fun.

[@TheEyao]

any problems with your film winder being wobbly / loose on the Mamiya 6? I love mine, but it just seems fragile and I worry about its durability.

[@atomikpi]

No issues here. I had an advance issue on my mamiya 7, but due to an internal issue, not the advance. Last I heard these can still be serviced, but it's not cheap

[@MegaTalhamalik]

There's an easy fix to this, you can lift the plastic cap on the winder and use a screwdriver to tighten the winder!

[@kieranbray197]

Bought this camera two months ago and I’m obsessed with it. Managed to acquire both the 50mm & 150mm and their quality is phenomenal. I might be tempted to upgrade to the 7 in the future but the prices are just outrageous now haha. Great review 👌 Do you scan yourself? If yes, which scanner do you use?

[@atomikpi]

Yeah, 7 is really a sidegrade - if you like square format, no need, plus 7's cost a bit more. I scan myself with a digital camera - little bit of a pain but really high resolution and pretty fast once I get it set up. (tend to batch out 3-6 months of scans at a time for this reason!)

[@yahyamuamer1]

@@atomikpi can you tell us more about this process? Been debating getting a scanner- are you mounting your digital camera and sliding the film through kind of thing?

[@atomikpi]

@@yahyamuamer1 I have a video explaining it a bit! basically mount film in a negative supply holder, mount camera on copy stand, use mirror to get level and parallel, and then pull frames through the holder.

[@9uidin9li9ht2]

What is the first song? Thanks!

[@atomikpi]

right here - soundcloud.com/gimmick-mask/foreground-02-riemann

[@blakeandrew2158]

im back bc we have the same camera taste

[@atomikpi]

team rangefinder!

[@inikphoto]

Great Camera, Had one myself and sold it after encountering the following problem! The design of the film advance mechanism is flawed, it is extremely weak and the single stroke isn’t strong enough to last. Once it goes it is very hard to fix, as the parts for these are getting vey hard to find now! Stay away from this camera!

[@atomikpi]

Good to know. I had an issue with the film advance in my Mamiya 7, but it was fixable. Hopefully the parts remain available for a while, but I realize they’ll probably become bricks eventually.