Film: 120 / medium format
Format/Frame: 6 x 6 cm
The first Mamiya 6 was a folding, fixed lens, mechanical camera with no meter… This is my favorite version, and actually, my favorite camera of all time…. The Mamiya 6 is the world’s most perfect camera system.
—Ken Rockwell
Check out Ken Rockwell’s full review of the Mamiya 6 HERE.
My Insights on the Mamiya 6
The Mamiya 6 (M6) has to be one of my favorite film cameras. So much of a favorite that I find myself hesitant to use it for fear something will happen to it. It’s at those times that I have to tell myself, “It was made to be used, not to just look pretty on a shelf and collect dust.”
It’s not surprising to know that there are many others who feel the same about their M6 as well. So much, that is fetches a very high price in places like KEH Camera and eBay—some would even argue that it has become somewhat of a cult-camera.
Several years ago a friend proposed multiple times to make a trade—my M6 for one of his cameras, but I never bit on the offer and looking back on it now, I’m satisfied that I never took him up on the trade.
In almost every review out there (including this one) you’ll read that for a medium format camera, it is lightweight, while the shutter is very quiet. All true, but what I really like about the camera is the wide-angle 50mm lens that goes with it. It’s the only lens I have for the camera (of the three different focal lengths available: 50mm, 75mm, and 150mm) and with it attached, the viewfinder is large and bright with the lens cropping lines maxed out to the edges of the viewfinder. Unlike the 50mm, when employing the 75mm and 150mm lenses, the cropping square (or should I say “live area”) of the viewfinder is reduced, especially with the 150mm lens.
Should I ever be strapped for cash, this would be the camera I sell, as of all the cameras I own, this one will surely fetch the most cash on the M6 camera market that continues to have more demand than supply.
