philip_partridge2

It has to be the original Hexar - designed for the purpose (movie stills). I like the look of surprise that appears on the faces of friends when I demo it in silent drive, next to their ears. It wouldn't surprise me if Konica made the thing the size it is to facilitate hand-holding..cheers, Philip

Ken, look for a private sale in Australia for this camera the retailers tend to inflate their prices for MF gear here (no digital-induced free fall in prices, yet!). For example, I paid $A1600 for my M6 w/75mm lens from a private seller. I feel the retailers who stock MF gear are big askers - try the Photographic Trader and the Trading Posts in the major cities, Sydney and Melbourne. Email me privately if you need more info...cheers, Philip.

I feel the same as Chris about this lens. For further pics check out the end of the review of the camera on this site, look for the link to Ernest Zarate's coffee table book (hope I got his name correct). All shot with the 50mm from memory...

Also, Ken Rockwell has some interesting things to say about the camera and lenses (try Google for his site url). Mine stays on the body almost all the time, even tho the 75mm is fine also. You will love the M6 for travel/street, the meter is very good in my experience, handholding is very viable, the ergos are great for a largish body and the thing is very quiet in operation. cheers, philip.

Benjamin, try the MAC forum (login url): http://www.macuserforums.com/webx?15@42.UIQdartYdgu^2@14@.ee70770, or alternatively, (my suggestion) is their tech assistance: mailto:info@mamiya.com

Fore extreme field use, if you get it fixed, leave the lens out, despite the extra bulk. In my experience, the tech guys at MAC have been prompt and helpful, so good luck with them.

 

BTW, it is common for owners to refer to this camera as an M6.

Dante's advice is correct. In practice, you will find the overide unnecessary, I seldom get soft horizons at normal 35mm enlargement ratios. The lens also transitions very well into soft focus. Unless you are really pressed, try for 2.8 as you minimum stop. You can also get the software upgrade for this older version. Glad you like it, it's the kind of camera where you keep coming across things that show just how much thought the designers put into the development. A great review on this site also. If it had a shutter speed VF display it would have been a greater success, market-wise. Use relatively inexpensive ND filters for keeping s/speeds within scope when using fast film in bright conditions, don't forget the compensation.

>>I'd have thought that more useable than a left-handed Leica might be one for those with a dominant left eye. That way the user wouldn't have to mash the camera into his/her nose!

 

I decided to put this idea to a test. My wife is left-eye dominant. I just handed her an M3, and she wasn't really aware of any discomfort or inconvenience, even with the camera held horizontally. Held vertically, with the shutter button down, it worked out very well.<<

 

No surprises there, it's right-eyed folks I get surprised by - I maintain that all left-placed finder cameras (esp. extreme finder placement at the edge of the body) are in fact left-eyed cameras!

 

 

Especially with heavier-bodied cameras like say the Mamiya r/finders, I believe that having the mass of the camera in front of the face helps greatly with weight distribution, lateral stability, arm positioning and equalising arm leverage. The instruction manual for one of my cameras shows an image of a person who is right-eyed and you see this large body mass of the camera hanging off in the air to the person's right side, in harm's way, and making steady hand holding more difficult. I feel confident an ergonomist would agree...my biggest problem is zinc cream smudges on the back of the camera, then again, de Bergerac types may disagree. cheers,

Chris, How cold is your cold? This winter I spent 8 days in Kosciuszko NP in the Snowy Mountains (Aust), shooting in temps down to -10C, so not exactly northern hemisphere cold but getting down there nonetheless. My Mamiya 6 worked flawlessly, no special battery packs or precautions. I just keep it inside the tent and/or camera bag, and keep it away from direct exposure to frost and snow. You may wish to post a question on the MAC site's M6 forum. Don't forget spare batteries (easy since they are so tiny). I have heard you can swap the batteries for warm ones if it gets so cold they quit. cheers,

I really like my Calculite - small, light, effective, extraordinary low light sensitivity. Very robust also. But hey, it lacks street cred...cheers,

I had pretty much resolved to never using the meter on my Mamiya 6 (not 6MF) due to what I read here and elsewhere. On a recent very cold trip to the snowfields I used my 50mm lens to shoot several rolls of XP-2, Reala and even Velvia handheld and using the meter, compensating for the snow which made up most of the compositions. To my surprise, even the Velvia was spot on, exposure wise.

 

I feel you should use common sense with contrasty scenes, but most of the time the 6's meter agrees with my other meters. Another reason to use the in-built meter is to take advantage of using the stepless electronic shutter to get around the whole f-stop increment steps. Maybe you need to experiment with metering strong light sources to investigate your meter. Maybe use a small 35mm camera with a good (hopefully spot or small coverage) meter to meter your scenes contrast range, then apply your settings to the M6. Some hand spot meters cost the earth, are bulky and resemble full-size ray guns...

 

I have also heard the close-up lens for the 75mm is a good deal, will see if I can pick up a good one sometime myself.

I recently spent several hours at a HCB exhibition; his work leaves me ambivalent. I dislike the way society assigns iconic status to certain individuals, hence, I suspect, your defensiveness. To make matters worse, the photographs reinfored the cult of celebrity in the west.

 

The work was more memorable, imo, for the historic elements of the settings, the grainy textures (many of the works were very large, 20x24 or so) and the surroudings of many of the portraits. Very easy on the eye, although the decisive moment looked decidely less than decisive in many portraits...then again, many of the subjects were either personal friends of HCB, or public figures who were overly accustomed to being photographed, thereby depriving any image of 'freshness'.

yes, what Ellis said. I bought the Heliopan pola from his recommendation several years ago, and it is indeed a finely crafter, solid piece. My technique was to mount the filter to the lens with the torque I prefer, and make a pencil mark at the very top of the filter attachment ring (not the rotating ring that bears the index numbers). To get the rotation, I hold the filter in the plane of focus, pencil mark at the top - turn the rotating ring, find the best setting, and simply attach the filter with the pencil mark at the top. Never had a problem, so I conclude the so-called deficiencies of RF cameras WRT filters is exaggerated. NDs are more tricky and require testing for apertures and lenses, but are effective once the results of tests are known. cheers,

You can look for 'micro landscape' opportunities, small groves of trees or shrubs, or flowers. 20mm is bordering on special purpose usage so distortion is an issue, for better or worse. I find that such lenses work best in intimate, small scale settings with a lot of strong detail, like sedges, groundcover, and water features. And, as noted above, patterns that lead the viewer's eye towards a strong interconnected mid-ground element. Wide angles provide a host of applications when atmospheric conditions work against longer shots. cheers,

I'm in Australia so markets may vary, but I've never seen anything other than plain CS Reala in 120 (turquoise wrapper). I do feel it is different to the more consumer-focused Superia-Reala, but with different cameras and lenses, I cannot be sure. It 'seems' lower in contrast, and flatter with poor shadows in overcast. A fine film at 64-80 ISO, my favourite for landscapes. Bill Tuthill may offer an opinion, I recall he assembled a page of useful film parameters. Maybe Fuji is positioning S-Reala as a better quality mass market film in 35mm - you see plenty of it near cash registers.

 

In defence of NPH, on the Frontier it does very well, with plenty of saturation and depth, with medium contrast. Did get a few rolls done on low grade Kodak paper at one stage, and was underwhelmed by the accurate, yet insipid colour rendition.