Mamiya 645 Review - An interesting choice
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- Опубликовано: 26 июл 2024
- After a year of shooting medium format film with the Mamiya 645, I finally feel comfortable giving my thoughts and opinions on this very boxy camera.
It has many little quirks and charms that have made me fall in love with using it & I'd like to share with you why.
Stay till the end of the video if you want to experience shooting some portraits of strangers first hand with me & the Mamiya 😁
Timestamps:
0:00 - 1:10 [Why I chose this camera]
5:20 - 4:48 [Shooting some Portraits]
Great video, I’ve been shooting Mamiya MF cameras for years and it’s great seeing younger photographers like yourself get into the magic of MF. Great photos too! Love the dogs
love the video! bought the same 645 camera because of you and i’m very excited to start shooting medium format👍
Oh no way!
That’s so awesome to hear hahaha, how are you enjoying it?
This video was awesome! So well-made. Thanks for making it!
Thank you!
The 645 pro tl is my favorite M F camera. I print large and although I can easily get a 16 or 20" print out of 35 mm, the resolution of the 645 blows it away. I shoot street regularly and it takes weeks for me to finish a 36 shot roll of 35 mm, even with auto wind. But with the auto winder on this camera, I can finish 15 shots in one shot or at most 2, especially if shooting color and black and white. I can change 35mm mid roll but it takes time to rewind, mark the canister with the last shot, reload, while here, just change backs. I have an rb67 that is a beast any disance from the car out of studio, and there is only a 30% increase in size/resolution of the negative 35mm to 645 is 300%. It's a huge step up. I have a 6x6 but hate the square. So for me, 645 is the perfect size. Now if I want to run and gun, shoot with auto focus, auto matrix metering, power film advance and 1/8000 sec, my newer 35 mm nikons are what I take. If I want slower and tiny, it's a vintage fm2n. It's horses for courses. My lenses work across all 5 film and 3 digital nikons and the auto focus on 3 of the film bodies. My usual destination for my work is print and rarely larger than 20" so the pro tl gives me all I need in resolution, tonal transitions. If I am working really slow with the camera carried in a backpack and often on tripod I carry on a sling, and want the ultimate film resolution in roll film, I lug the 67. That I can print to 24x36 easily, but rarely.
Really great video dude! Keen to see more :) keen to try this format as well!
Thanks Tim!
I can only imagine the great stuff you could create with 120 film 😮
Let me know if you need any help with it!
Love your videos, good vibes all around
Appreciate it Joe!
Glad you enjoyed 🤩
Great video, I enjoyed the pro and cons segment
You may want to look into a speed grip that Mamiya made
The grip adds a balance to the handling of camera.
A good video of a great camera. Try a 35mm shot and the same shot with the 645, blow both of them up to 20x30 and see the difference! I think the area of the negative is about 3 times that of 35mm. Also more usable area, as the 645 is close to the standard photo sizes like 10x8 and 20x16. You lose a lot of the length of a 24x36 negative, as for a 10x8 the usable negative is 24x30. I used to use the camera with the speed winder and 6 AA batteries made it quite a heavy unit. Seriously thinking about and adapter to use my Mamiya lenses on my Canon digital camera. Thank you I enjoyed this video and subbed to see where you go next.
Great video!
aww love the photo of the guy with the blue jacket - the separation of colours works so well with the simplistic composition!
Concerning your love for the 645 format: I have yet to try medium format, but I'm already pretty certain actually that I like the 645 format - I find it's such a balanced aspect ratio and it works amazingly for exactly the type of photographs you showed in the video (not that I take those kind of photos, but I noticed how well the format fits the subjects).
Thank you for such a lovely comment Teo 💛
The aspect ratio is something I should have mentioned 😅
I also didn’t show too many pictures here ahhaha but I’ve got tons on my instagram account.
I would be so interested to see what you do with it!!
the crispy video! love the portraits, need to get around trying it on the mamiya 645 ahah
Thank you Jaycie!!
How lovely is the video quality!! I’ve been so happy with the xt4 so far 😭
Yeah you definitely should!
Have you taken many portraits before?
@@Havenotats i've taken portraits before, but none on the mamiya 645!
@@jaycielinh oo excited to see how your images will turn out then ;)
Really great review dude! I feel like I would love being able to get 15 shots instead of the 12 I get per roll with my 6x6 cameras haha
Totally agree!
But at the same time, I'd Love to give 6x6 a shot!
There's something cool about the square format
@@Havenotats yeah I like that 6x6 gives you option to shoot square or crop it to a 645 aspect ratio later
I really love the energy and vibes you give off with this video, and I appreciate your candid and honest discussion about the pros and cons of the camera. Also, the street photography at the end was very cool and sweet. Do you think this camera would be good for a hobbyist? I'm into 35mm and I think I want to jump up to medium format, I like the idea of less shots and being more precise and having larger negatives. I kinda like taking pictures of all sortsa things, portraits, candid shots, nature, landscapes and just... Random junk lying around, a la William Eggleston style XD
So do you think this camera might be a good fit for me?
Thanks for your kind comment!
I think it could be a good option for you!
I personally still love shooting through the ground glass, so if you like horizontal images, you will have no problem with shooting this camera.
It's a bit bulkier than a regular 35mm but there is a little bit more detail in it & the process is very fun!
If you are going to get a medium format camera, I would recommend it as your first one!
(iv'e also heard great things from Bronica, perhaps you should research a bit into it too as they seem to be a little cheaper)
Hope this helps ✌🏼
Great video Thanks
You are welcome!
Cool video & great camera!
Thanks ☺️
Thanks ☺️
Back in the mid-nineties I owned Nikon F5 with many lenses Mamiya 645 and RZ67 pro systems. What I had invested in photo equipment, I could have bought a really nice car.
To the point, the 645 system is what I ended up using the most, especially out doors. The Rz stayed in studio and the F5 I used for sports.
The old 645 , a monopod with a strobo flip bracket a sekonic light meter and a cargo pocket full of film.
If you weren’t making murals but wanted more than what 35mm had to offer. Some pros used to say that 645 was a compromise format. I never saw it that way. Not when I look at my slides of airplanes from air shows or static displays.
That’s a lovely story and possibly the same way that I view the system.
I haven’t had the opportunity to try out 6x7 but I’m sure that I wouldn’t be lugging around one of those cameras as often as I take this 645 out
@@Havenotats I would just like to add a couple of things. The shutter bug bit me back in 1989 when I was in the military. They had different recreational things that you could do on base. These things were important for those of us who were yet too young to frequent bars.
I bought a minolta 7000i my first real slr. Then in college I took another photog class just to have access to their darkroom. Thats were I switch to nikon and bought the F3, then an F4 .
I joined a photography and video club, yes that was a thing back then. It was affiliated with the local camera store. Our dues paid for the rental of large store front adjacent to the camera store.
A lot of us were doing paid gigs like quinceaneras, sweet16's, barmitzahs, weddings and of course portraits, lots of portraits.
This were I would like to insert a friendly warning. Gear acquisition becomes a drug, just as bad as crack. There was no reason for me to buy the nikon F5, the F4 was still perfectly fine for my use.
But several of us just got into that craze, and before I knew it I had ordered a brand knew RZ67 Pro from BH, a complete system with three lenses and two extra backs, prism finder and left hand grip. I hauled that thing all over NYC and museums all over the US for a year. Thats when I finally realized I needed to down size and settled on the 645 system. I stayed with that system until about 2009 when I finally went digital.
Now did I have a lot of fun? absolutely! Did I need to spend the 15 to 16 grand to achieve it all? No!
If you are a hobbyist who wants to enjoy the art and pleasure of making photographs the way it was done for a hundred years the Mamiya 645 system is a great way to go.
Thank you for your video and enjoy your art.
@@irondiver2034 ahh that’s well said.
Gear acquisition syndrome is definitely something we all tend to have and I definitely spend a lot of time thinking about the next purchase.
I do believe that I have everything I need for my current work so I am quite contempt 😁
Thank you for your lovely comment and for supporting my video 🙏🏼
Nice one dude!
🤩 thank you
Fire Video
Ayye thanks brother ❤️
What film stock did you use? Images are nice and vibrant
having a friiend borrow one of thesse from their school to let me test out, and i'l buy one if i like it. i honestly think there are so many benefits to shooting 645, and this camera in particular is such a worthy choice. after looking at all the other 645 options, i can't see a better choice. hopefully theres nothing i hate about it and wont have to bite the bullet and get a 6x6 bronica or an RB67 haha
I hope you get something you enjoy using 😁
6x6 also looks quite fun to shoot with!
Nice
🤩🤩🤩
🫣🫣
What prism finder are you using?
In the brief time I borrowed the mamiya 645 I was very tempted afterwards to buy one myself, sadly hesitated too long and now prices are not what they once were. great portraits man, and did that guy name his dog Appa?? he must be an airbender
Ahhh never too late 😅
But like we talked about, 6x6 is something I would love to try too ahhahaa
Yeah! Appa!!
Best camera you won't regret Ed you be shock with results
Still loving it to this day
is this the pro or super? which woud you reccomend ?
I’m currently using 6x6, and to be honest my Rolleicord is not the most practical (since it has a limited amounts of shutter speeds available), It’s lens is beautiful though. I was looking at something more modular and practical, maybe that’s something like the Mamiya 645? I’m not sure… I’ll certainly be looking around for cameras
What a beautiful TLR!
I would love to shoot with one in the future but I understand the practicality issue.
In terms of size, these are probably similar however I think the form factor of this particular camera is quite nice ☺️
im looking at getting a Mamiya M645 1000s would you say it is similar. i have a lubitel 166 universal which is 6x6 but i dont mind moving to 6x4.5 would you reccomend the jump?
Oo thats lovely!
My model is the 1000s & I have enjoyed it so far!
I've never shot 6x6 but I can understand if you would like to try a different format of film. I think its a nice camera to try out 645 with!
you forgot one other negative, that is, the back loading, it is insert only, you can't remove the film mid-roll, like say a bronica etr or Hasselblad, which has disadvantages, esp. if the light changes (can't exchange asa mid shoot to adapt to changing light).
You can change rolls half way through if you have 2 film backs. You probably know this, but you cannot remove the film back if the dark slide is not inserted. BTW I have 2 645s, a 1000S and a Pro. The film backs are interchangeable with both bodies, but, unfortunately, not the viewfinders.
@@DavidWilliams7037A interesting, as I thought the 1000 s was an insert only, the Pro is a back magazine, like the latter afd's( the predecessor to the Phase one XF camera) as by that stage, Phase One had bought Mamiya.
Can u tell please which video camera do u use from 4.48 ?
I shoot video with my Fujifilm Xt4 & 16-55 lens ☺️
@@Havenotats thank u💚
The thing is a brick! It weighs a ton and clumsy to hold but I won't part with it.
I parted with mine recently..... a little bit sad
645 is about 2.5 x 35mm. Pretty significant. WLF is great for 6x6 since you don't have to rotate.
I would love to try out 6x6 in the near future!
nearly bought myself one haha
@@Havenotats In SLRs the Bronica SQ-a and some older ones like the S2a and C are bargains. In TLRs the Mamiya C330, C220 are very affordable. Watch out for the Yashicamat. On mine the film advanced worked in warm weather but jammed in the cold.
@@GeorgeStar Ill have a look into them!
Maybe not my next purchase but we shall see haha