Mamiya 645AFD II (or any Mamiya 645 AF) film not flat in camera back

[billorg]

I purchased a mint used Mamaia 645AF II recently, and have found that there are problems with flatness of the film plane.  I saw some posts on this forum from 2001 when the camera was new-ish and it was very obvious that people were having this problem when the camera was new. Mamiya eventually admitted to there being a problem and they supplied people with a supposed fix which was a modified back for the camera but most people did not have their problems fixed by this. So of course this many years later there’s a lot of these floating around that have the problem just as mine does, and I was wondering if anyone knows of serial numbers that are faulty, serial numbers that are not faulty, or if the PhaseOne continuation of this camera provided a fix for the problem?  I really love the camera and would like to find one that doesn’t have the problem.  You basically see the center out of focus and the top and bottom of the frame in- focus, and some variations on this.  You have to film test it to know.  Thanks, Bill

Edited October 9, 2023 by billorg

[Giovanni Cappai]

From memory, the issue was due to the film resting in the rollers and developing a bent. Solved by introducing a new back that came with the III giving the choice of having 15 instead of 16 frames per 120 film. It is very easy to see the problem by removing the dark slide having the back sit for a few hours and after advancing to the next frame. I did the test back then and verified. Never saw an issue on my pics though.