Landscapes - Mamiya 7II vs Pentax 67II

I think the shake issue in the P67 is over-stressed. For long exposures the shake will be a non-issue in any case as it will have settled down in a very short time after the start of the exposure (so, say it settles down in 1/10 second, then for a 5 minute exposure that's 1/300 of the exposure). But even for exposures of 1/10 or something I find that with a decent tripod there is no issue.

--tim

My answer to a early tread about 6x9, maybe it can be usfuld to you.

The Plaubel proshift 69W Superwide, is great for landscaps, cityscaps and the

likes. It coms with a fix 47mm 5,6 Schneider lens. the weight is 1,5 kg and it

have movements (shift) to. I hade min for 1200$ in mint condition but they

normaly go for around 2000-2500$.

I have the Mamiya/ Polaroid 600se to, with too 69 roll film backs, it is good, but

big and slow to work and walk with, the 75mm 5,6 is a excelent lens for

landscaps, but it is the widest lens the camera can take, you can shot 6X45

,6x6, 6x7, 6x9 3X4 (4x5) and polaroid with it. It have focus back to like a LF

camera.

But I think it is more easy and cheaper to put a Mamiya Universal kit together

(they are wery identical) and you will have more lens options with the

Universal family too, You can take of the big side handel of the Universal if I

am right ! ,it make the camera more easy to pack. I dont now if you can shot

4x5 (3x4) with the Universal.

www.micbach.dk......"Photography workshops in Spain"

Why is using an ND grad problematic? Can't you just verify by looking at the front of the camera that is it pretty much horizontal?

I'm curious as I just bought a G2 and an ND grad for the 21mm Biogon, though haven't used it yet, maybe this weekend.

Thanks~md

I think that if you were to ask around a bit, you might find that all the noise about the 67II shutter vibration was instigated by a man at another website, who also proclaimed "goodbye, medium format and goodbye, film...!". In fact, I've found that the 67II is quite well damped to resist vibration. The "slap" that's heard is actually the mirror returning to the down position, after the image has been recorded on film.

Use a good sturdy tripod.....and the Pentax optics are extremely sharp.

-TH-

"Do both systems operate with leaf shutters in the lenses? Therefor there will be no shutter shack? Why the need to have mirror lock up option then?"

Vibration caused by mirror and shutter are two different things. I use my Pentax 67II handheld all the time even down to 1/30th of a second. I got plenty of razor sharp images still. If you always do long exposure none of them should matter to you. It is speculated that they only cause a problem below 1/60th of a second down to perhaps 1/2th of a second. But it affects only telephoto lenses such as 300mm. If you tend to use wide angle lenses don't worry about vibration of either mirror or shutter on Pentax 67II. I scan my films so I am able to view

my scans at max enlargement on screen. I can tell if my images are affected by vibration or not. Frankly it has never been an issue to me despite many talked about it.

"Why is using an ND grad problematic? Can't you just verify by looking at the front of the camera that is it pretty much horizontal?"

There is much more to using a grad filter than making sure it is horizontal. What if the area you want the darker edge of the grad to fall on is in the upper righthand corner or what if you only wanted the grad over 1/3 of the scene, instead of a half.

I'm thinking about this from another angle: casual (non-studio) portraiture. The worst/oldest Pentax 6X7 lens, with that format, makes a more impressive rectangular print than a Hassleblad...and nothing smaller than 4X5 beats 4X5 with decent modern optics...

...this isn't a horse-race, mostly a question of what you want to pack to location as well as what floats your particular boat operationally.

For me the revolving back is significant (though it's almost as easy to rotate my Century 90deg). More important is the viewfinder...RB is a lot easier to use on a tripod than Pentax. Pentax has the edge working hand-held. If the Century had multiple cams it'd beat all of them because it's lighter, has movements, focuses very close, and gives the option of bright viewfinder or ground glass...which brings Horseman to mind, though it's far heavier and far more expensive...