[editor's note: see also the alternative review with gallery by Bob Shell]
This is going to be a short review because while the Mamiya 645AFd is a very
nice camera and capable of producing professional-quality images, it is not a
viable competitor against the similarly priced
Contax 645. If you have an extensive Mamiya 645
manual focus lens system you might be interested in the thoroughly modern 645AFd
body but photographers starting from scratch looking for this type of camera will
prefer the Contax. (As of the January 2002 time of this review, a Mamiya package
with 80/2.8 lens and 120/220 back was about $3500; the Contax 645 package
included a faster 80/2.0 lens and sold for around $3650.)
The Mamiya 645AFd produces 6x4.5 cm images on 120 (16 exposures) or 220 (32
exposures) film. The viewfinder is a fixed pentaprism for eye-level viewing. Film
backs and lenses are interchangeable. The 645AFd is a single-lens reflex camera
with an autoreturn mirror in front of a focal-plane shutter.
Eye-relief is adequate for an eyeglass-wearer to see the entire frame plus the
LCD display underneath. There is a built-in -2.5/+0.5 diopter adjustment.
Lens/camera interface is similar to the pioneering Minolta Maxxum system. A
screwdriver-like blade on the lens mount is driven by an autofocus motor inside
the camera body. This blade couples to a receptable on the back of the lens and
drives the lens focusing mechanism back and forth. There is no aperture ring on
the lens; aperture is set from a control wheel on the camera body. Autofocus
operation is reasonably fast with the standard 80mm lens but noisy. Compare to
the Contax: each lens has an aperture ring for traditional adjustment of f-stop
and each lens contains an internal nearly silent ultrasonic autofocus motor, just
like the Canon EOS system lenses.
How about manual focus? The standard focusing screen has a reasonable amount
of snap-into-focus and there is an electronic rangefinder display to confirm
correct focus. Sadly the particular 80/2.8 lens that we tested had a narrow and
plasticky manual focusing ring. It is not possible to adjust focus manually when
the camera is set for autofocus.
Exposure control is similar to other modern cameras: metered manual,
shutter-priority (camera picks aperture), aperture-priority (camera picks shutter
speed), and program autoexposure (camera picks both aperture and shutter speed).
In metered manual the in-finder LCD provides a digital display of how different
your set exposure is from the camera's recommendation. For example, the camera
may say "+1.7" to indicate that you're overexposing by 1.7 f-stops. I greatly
prefer cameras that show an analog needle or segmented bar-graph display (e.g.,
any modern 35mm SLR body from Canon, Minolta, or Nikon). The top-deck LCD
displays aperture and shutter speed but not deviation from recommended
exposure.
Wedding photographers are important Mamiya customers so the 645AFd includes
the Metz SCA 3952 dedication that you'd expect. Flash sync speed is 1/125
second.
Mamiya includes as standard a data back that can print date or exposure
information plus camera exposure mode setting and an index number, all in between
frames (i.e., you're never at risk of inadvertently ruining a picture with some
big ugly numbers in the bottom right corner).
Battery life is 340 rolls with lithium AAs. If you're in the field and the
batteries die, pick up 6 alkaline AAs and you're good for another 140 rolls of
120. This is a very photographer-friendly feature. The film back design is
unusual in that each film back has its own battery and LCD display. The battery
is used to retain ISO and exposure counter information when the back is off the
camera. When the back is on the camera it draws power from the 6 AA cells in the
camera grip.
The camera includes lots of other thoughtful features. It accepts mechanical
and electronic remote releases. It is easy to lock up the mirror. There is a T
mode for long time exposures (press release once to open the shutter; change
modes to close). A backlight button illuminates all the LCDs. The self-timer
delay is adjustable from 3 to 60 seconds to facilitate vibration-free tripod
photography when you've forgotten a cable release. The depth-of-field preview
button is ideally placed at the bottom right of the lens mount. The fragile
shutter is automatically opened when the film back is removed so that you can't
damage it with a clumsy finger.
The big pentaprism, 1.2 frames per second motor drive, interchangeable
everything, and high battery capacity all tend toward increasing the weight of
the camera. And with 80mm lens, battery, and strap, the complete camera weights
nearly 5 lbs. For comparison, the Mamiya 7 rangefinder weighs only 2.6 lbs with
its standard 80mm lens and you get negatives that are twice as large (6x7 cm).
The old Fuji 645 rangefinders are down closer to 1 lb. So enjoy your fancy
autofocus and motordrive but recognize that your neck won't thank you at the end
of the day.
Bottom line: this is a great camera that would have been hailed as
revolutionary if it had been introduced in 1988. But instead the camera was
introduced into competition with the Contax 645, which is a very similar machine
and has the advantages of silent fast ultrasonic AF motors and an extra f-stop on
the normal lens. If the Mamiya 645AFd were much less expensive than the Contax it
would be an interesting alternative. But the two systems are about the same price
and that makes the Contax the obvious choice.
Where to Buy the Mamiya 645AFd
The USA version of this camera is stocked by Adorama, a
retailer that pays photo.net a referral fee for each customer, which helps keep
this site in operation.
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