So with the lengthy history lesson out of the way, we return to the modern day with my Mamiya C330F. As I’ve been told this design helps reduce the film being damaged or crumpled up which might happen with the older style of loading.
MAMIYA 7 II PRICE RANGE SERIES
This means that if you want a really tight headshot of somebody, you don’t have to find and fidget with the adapters that would allow the camera to focus closer, just turn the knob a bit further out the bellows will extend and you’re good to go.Īnother trick that these bellows focus C series had was they all used a flat film plane, now what that means is unlike other TLRs where you have to feed the film though a 90 angle bend when loading the camera, the C series just had a straight path from the supply to take up the spool. As the C series camera with the 80mm ‘standard’ lens can get you to ~12cm (~5in) of your subject. That’s nice and all but what do you mean by bellows focus and flat film plane, and what is with all the numbers and letters.Īllow me to elaborate, the focusing system on the C series of cameras was one of the most unique things that brought the fight to the Germans, unlike the Rolleiflex, or most TLRs you’re not limited to a pesky 1m (5ft~) minimal focus. And finally in 1969, the first Mamiya C330 ‘Professional’ model was released, I say first because later down the line they would revise the design and release them as the upgraded ‘Professional F’ and ‘Professional S’ models. Later in its life the C3 then became the upgraded C33, which then spawned a lower priced C22, which lacked the advance crank, and was replaced with a more cost effective knob. Mamiya kept the name up until 1962, with the release of the C3 they dropped the ‘flex’ suffix from it’s name, probably to differentiate the new bellows focusing cameras from the older ‘Rollei clones’. This original design didn’t last for long as they were replaced near immediately by the C2. In 1952, Mamiya made the Mamiyaflex C which was the thing I held, and it was the first TLR to have the bellows focusing system from the company, and a flat film path in any TLR. As they all had the same look, the 90 degree bend in the film path and the lenses attached to a front ‘lens board’ and that would move in and out a bit as you focus some of the more budget oriented models had a gear system that would link the two lenses together and once you focused one the other would be dragged along for the ride, and if the gearing is correct you’d get focus. Mamiya made a bunch of TLRs under the Mamiyaflex name, starting with the original Mamiyaflex Junior around the late 40s, these are what I call Rollei clones. Later, I spent the whole night looking up information about my new discovery, after a while I managed to figure out what it was. Even for an ‘antique’ camera, it didn’t look like the Lubutels or the Rolleiflex I’ve been looking at. Unfortunately that camera wasn’t for sale and I didn’t really like both of the other options, so I shook the man’s hand, thanked him and left.īut during the way back from the middle of nowhere to my house, I kept thinking about that camera and how strange it was. I knew it was a serious bit of kit, but I’ve never heard of this model before so I just assume that it was some kind of exotic thing that would cost about a million quid. Everything about it was satisfying, the look of it and the way that it felt in my hands when I picked it up. What started my interest with the C series was when that gentlemen decided to show me an original Mamiyaflex, the thing was also a TLR but it was leaps and bounds better than the 166s. The moment I picked up the Lubitel was the moment I developed a love hate relationship with TLRs, the finder albeit a waist level, was horribly small and dim this made the one in the Pentacon look like you’re peering directly at the sun. They aren’t the best but seeing that in Vietnam anything other than those two falls into the ‘collectors/antique’ market, meaning you’d need to pay an arm and a limb to a scalper for one.Īnd after a couple of calls and a 20 kilometre drive, I managed to find an older gentleman who had both of these cameras that he is willing to let go at a decent price. And in Vietnam, there’s only so many options at the time, most of them were East German Pentacon Six, or Soviet made Lubitel TLRs. Read on if you want to know the history of the Mamiya TLRs though the telling of a wee lad getting into film The history bitĪfter a while I managed to make a list of requirements, I would like it to be a 6×6 format, it had to have a waist level finder and cost less than my liver. You can skip down a bit if you just came for the Mamiya C330 review. When I was starting to shoot medium format, I spent many nights trawling through the internet looking for information about what is out there, and more importantly what could I afford. TLRs are a bit of a love hate relationship. The Mamiya C330 is one of those cameras that ‘got away’ for me.