Oh, the Mamiya 645 ! This is a very special camera, the best 6x4.5 medium format SLR considering the cost and the quality you receive back.
It's wonderfully crafted in a black painted metal chassis, covered with leatherette. It's not a mechanical camera but commanded by an extremely reliable electronic circuit that controls the cloth curtain shutter, offering exposures from low as 8 seconds to 1/1000s.
It's very compact and the ergonomics are reasonably good for a 6x4.5 camera, but it's all metal, meaning it's very heavy.
The camera strap has a special coupling/locking system and no other types can be used, just the original one, made by Mamiya.
It's very compact and the ergonomics are reasonably good for a 6x4.5 camera, but it's all metal, meaning it's very heavy.
The camera strap has a special coupling/locking system and no other types can be used, just the original one, made by Mamiya.
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| Mamiya 645 1000S with CDS Prism Finder Lenses from left to right: 80/4 Macro , 55/2.8 , 80/2.8 , 150/3.5 |
There's no light meter on the body and the film advance is done by an old fashion crank. Perfect.
It has a fair X-Sync flash speed of 1/60s, which is not bad for a medium format SLR camera.
Besides the obvious shutter button on top it also has a second one at the camera's front. Other controls are depth of field view and a mirror lock-up levers and a mechanical self-timer.
Being electronic, it needs a battery. Thanks, it's just a very common 4LR44 alkaline that lasts for ages but please do the right thing, take it out when not using the camera.
At the body's top there's a HUGE focusing screen. The basic one will depend on the camera batch. Mine came with a diagonal split plus a microprism collar. This screen is very bright and easy to use.
The basic model comes with a waist-level finder, nothing more than a foldable light hood and a viewing magnifier with focus adjustment. There's also a wireframe "sports finder" for rough framing. I like it the most.
There are four more viewfinders for the 645:
- Prism Finder - A plain pentaprism finder
- CDS Finder - Same but with a CDS light meter (matching needle on the right side). Uses one LR44 or equivalent alkaline battery.
- AE Finder - With an aperture priority shutter command. It shows the shutter speed by a scale/needle at the top of the viewfinder frame. It uses the camera's battery.
- PD Finder - It's like the CDS finder but uses 7 LEDs instead of the match needle.
To my taste, I don't like the CDS Finder. It's very fiddly. You need to check the exposure by placing the meter needle at the center by adjusting the lens aperture and the shutter speed on the meter itself, read the selected speed and then setting it on the camera's shutter speed dial. This means that the light meter is aperture coupled but shutter speed uncoupled!
The AE and PD finders make the camera work on aperture-priority mode, and they're OK.
The waist-level finder is a must in my opinion. The only drawback is that the image is flipped vertically. But it's much lighter than any of the prism finders.
The standard objective is a stunning Mamiya-Sekor 80mm F2.8, the "normal" for the 120 film format. It's superb, small and razor-sharp.
It's usually complemented by a standard wide-angle Mamiya-Sekor 55mm F2.8 (roughly equivalent of a 35mm lens on 35mm film size) and a standard tele, the Mamiya-Sekor 150mm F4. Both lenses are very sharp. I have the 3 lenses plus an 80mm F4 Macro.
There are plenty of other lenses, from fisheyes to long telephotos, macros, zooms and more.
To my own taste, this is by far the most cost-effective 6x4.5 camera system.
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