#MAMIYA 7 II PROFESSIONAL#

As a result of its discontinuation and soaring popularity, the price of a mint Mamiya 7 now almost double what it used to cost originally.

#MAMIYA 7 II PROFESSIONAL#

Its no wonder this camera is admired and loved by many professional and amateur photographers, creating one of the camera worlds most dedicated cult followings. It’s so light I can carry it all day, unlike its heavier 6x7 cousins. From personal experience: it's an all-around joy to use with an almost silent shutter. Released in 1995 and discontinued almost two decades later in 2014, the Mamiya 7 is still ranked among the world’s best cameras ever produced. Extremely sharp and detailed, the quality of this camera can even surpass modern digital full-frame cameras.

Unlike other formats and body and lens combinations, the resulting 6x7cm negatives always seem to just look real. What can I say? I was instantly hooked! The image quality this camera produces is out of this world. I have been using a Mamiya 7 / Mamiya 7ii since 2008 when a friend first introduced me to it. Best of all, it’s all packaged in a beautifully stream-lined lightweight range finder package that is simply perfect for travel and documentary photography. It’s a unique medium format camera that combines super sharp leaf shutter lenses (namely the 80mm f/4) and simple yet robust electronic controls that sync its shutter across all shutter speed ranges up to 1/500th. If I didn't alread have a couple of Pentax 67 cameras I would get an M7 it sure is smaller, lighter and quieter.The Mamiya 7 is a legendary camera known by all serious film photographers around the world. You can also get a 35mm film pano adapter for the camera, but then could just crop the image using the 24mm lens and wind up with an xpan type image. I would love to have one of these near silent super compact 6x7 cameras and my second lens would be 50mm which is like a 24mm lens on a 35mm format for landscapes. Cropping in digital is no big deal, then you can adjust the file size to match your printer and print on a digital printer. Also, the M7 has X-sync at all speeds so its really good if you can get your mind around flash fill outdoor portaits and for indoor portraits. But the 80mm is equivalent to a 39mm lens on a 35mm format so you can take a few steps back and use it as a 35mm lens for environmental portraits too. Also, the 80mm lens gives you higher magnification at minimum focus then the 150mm so its your best choice for the standard bust portrait. As I look at the beautiful images though I say maybe its just a camera for those who are willing to scan into digital and then crop the image to the desired framing, you have a very detailed image and lots of pixels to crop. I have read these discussions of the M7 many times that its not very good as a portrait camera because of slow lens speed DOF issues and lack of close-up focusing. Whatever you discover, post results here. This will be an interesting experiment, and may produce something beautiful in its own right but I doubt it will in any way resemble full-length large-format portraits. Moving closer to the subject, in order to make the subject more prominent as in a full-length large-format portrait, will affect the perspective of the subject (since perspective is controlled by subject-to-camera distance only). I do a lot of portraiture, and while I love the M7, if I'd actually researched it more thoroughly before buying I might have passed on it as a portraiture camera (ah, serendipity-I'd have regretted not enjoying its sharpness, beautiful tonality,and compact portability.) If you have any way to actually try this camera and lenses before you commit to buying, you may save yourself some trouble.Īt 3-4 meters with a very wide lens like the 43, you'll get a *lot* of 'environment' in your portraits. You may actually find the 80 to be more useful for your purposes than the 43. I have the M7 with the 50-80-150 lens set.

Mamiya 7 ii