This a beautiful camera and I love the quality of images it can take.
It is a medium formatrange finder camera that is as light as many 35mm cameras so you can literally carry it all day without fatigue. Medium format cameras are usually bulky and feel as heavy as a brick ( or a couple of bricks!). As it is light you can handhold it to take pictures. Again most other medium format cameras would make your arms ache or shake too much and you would have to use a tripod.
So this camera offers you a choice. You can hand hold this camera all day without having to use a tripod and yet still get high quality medium format pictures or if you
want to explore your photography and the cameras capabilities further with a tripod you can. I also own one of the heavier medium format cameras the Mamiya RZ and I've only taken it out for the day once and it now remains mainly as a studio camera. It's the Mamiya 7 every time I leave the house.
If you're interested in enlarging your photographs greatly and want superb detail then I would recommend this camera and medium format. Compared to 35mm and the digital equivalent, medium format is far superior in detail and overall image quality. The negative size is 6 x 7 cm which is 4.5 times larger than 35mm negatives.
I've enlarged images up to 44 inches wide and detail has been reasonably defined. If you want to convert the negatives to digital then film scanners such as the Nikon Coolscan 9000 ED produce excellent results. And despite the digital revolution there are still a wide range of colour and black and white films available for this camera.
It is easy to load the 120 roll film compared to say the Mamiya RZ 67. The large rolls of film are pleasant to handle. This camera takes both 120 and 220 film rolls. (120 equals 10 photographs per film roll and is the most common I use and 220 is 20 photographs per roll).
Focusing is manual only and a little tricky ( but you soon get used to it ) as it has two "squares" which you have to align in the view finder up to achieve a sharp image, a quirk of the range finder camera, as it isn't a TTL i.e. not a "Through The Lens" camera. This means this camera doesn't have a moving mirror inside it as TTL cameras do. The advantage of not having a mirror is less camera vibration when taking a picture and the lack of vibration means sharper pictures. Expsoure is also not though the lens so you have adjust / compensate exposures when using filters especially ones which are more opaque. So the more you stack on the front of the lens the more compensation you will have to adjust to the exposure. In practice a single filter I have found doesn't cause too many problems and I trust the meter readings with minimal adjustments. But this is all down to the individual and getting to know the camera and finding your own style and way.
The camera body is a strong aluminium alloy with a rubber type over skin.
Shutter speeds are from 4 seconds to 1/500th of a second. For longer exposures there is Plus B using an optional extra cable release. Flash Sync is at any speed.
Eposure is either manual or Aperture Priority AE.
Film speed settings range from ISO25 to ISO 1600.
Inter-changeable lenses are the wide angle 43mm F/4.5 , 50mm F/4.5 and 65mm F/4 , a normal standard lens 80mm F/4, telephoto 150mm F/4.5 and 210mm F/8.
Multiple exposure lever for taking more than one shot on a single negative frame for creative photography.
Electronic self timer with a 10 second delay.
This camera maybe (very) awkward to use for the novice but this is offset by the sheer quality of the results.
Brand new camera body and 80mm lens kit retail at Robert White (www.robertwhite.co.uk ) for approx £1116.25 and Jessops for £1349.99.
The other alternative is secondhand. Secondhand cameras can found for dramatically less and a good place to start looking is the listing pages of photography magazines such as Amateur Photographer. There is always a risk attached to secondhand equipment but the secondhand camera market is a strong one with often as a good as new items being available at fractions of retail prices. Best to view a proposed purchase in person at a camera shop.
Because of the cost ( unless you can find a bargain!) I would recommend the Mamiya 7 as a serious amateur or professional camera. It is expensive but has been designed with the very best professional features and will if looked after well last a very long time.
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