Giving up the view camera---am I nuts?

[David Rees]

The 150mm has a closest focus distance of 6ft -- which precludes "head" or "head and shoulders" shots.

It also is quite difficult to get the focus dead on -- esp. if the camera focus is not set up absolutely right. Mamiya will rectify this if not correct, but outside warranty it is not cheap: UKP45; not sure what the US price would be.

For landscape work, the 150mm is stunning -- light in weight, and "sharp". Sadly, not an ideal portrait lens.

[darr]

"May I ask, what is the problem with the 150 - particularly for portraits ? I have often thought that the Mamiya 7 with the 150 would be good for hand-held portraits."

I am accustomed to WYSIWYG with the portrait setup I had used for many years and found the Mamiya 150 setup did not perform as such. The viewfinder attachment seemed to be an estimation of where the image composition actually was and for me that was not going to work. What David Rees has stated above concerning closest focus distance and sharp image focus I found to be true as well. If you wanted to use softars, warming filters, etc. you would have to guess at their effect for whatever f-stop you selected.

I shot hundreds of portraits and candid events on a weekly basis for many years and had developed a precise and effective way of capturing the compositions that people paid for, so my experience may not count towards someone who uses the 150mm lens for an occasional portrait or for landscape work. When I photograph portraits, I feel my equipment demands rest in the ability to perform speedy compositions with as little attention to the equipment as possible. I think if you fuzz too much, so will many of your subjects and that in my opinion is not the way to get successful portraits. But I love my 7II as I stated above; just not for close-up portraiture with the 150mm.

[Steve Williams_812]

Thanks again for all the feedback. I just re-read everything and a comment from Frank Petrino stood out:

"The secret is to dispassionate about the camera equipment and more passionate about the photos."

I have attached myself to the view camera as a piece of equipment even though I am not using it. I talk about it an not the photos.

Time to let it go. I can always buy another is needed...

thanks again,

steve

[Henry Ambrose]

I'm off in 8x10 land right now but if I were you with my cameras to pick from I'd grab my Mamiya 7 and take off! I think it would work very well for your pictures. As far as I'm concerned its the greatest walking around camera there is. If you go for one lens get the 65 (but don't reject the 80). I've seen a couple of cameras and lenses go for $1100 - 1200 or so on eBay. You just have to watch for a while to get a deal. Or call Jim at Midwest, he may have a good deal on one.

As an alternative you might consider a Hasselblad. You can buy a pretty nice complete camera for under $1000, the 80 you'll most likely get is a fine lens and it is a SLR so you will get what you see onto the negative and it focuses close if you add a tube. I'm suggesting this only because you might find it interesting to have a camera with different capabilities than your Leica. A Hasselblad would be a very different sort of animal for you to experiment with and still very useful for "walking around with a camera."

I enjoyed looking at your pictures - you should never sell your Leica. I bet your prints look great. For me a 4x6 to 6x9 from a Leica is a wonderful thing to look at - just big enough and not too much enlargement. I have been enjoying these smaller prints lately.

[Brian Ellis]

Of course you're not nuts if there's other equipment that suits your needs better than LF. My only question would be your choice of a substitute. Mamiya 7s are fine cameras and the lenses are reputed to be among the very best. But in today's world I wouldn't buy a medium format system, I'd buy one of the 10 mp digital cameras from Nikon or Canon.

[Ken Lee]

"I am accustomed to WYSIWYG with the portrait setup I had used for many years and found the Mamiya 150 setup did not perform as such."



What would you recommend today ?

[darr]

"What would you recommend today ?"

Ken Lee: did you get my prior e-mail?

[Ken Lee]

No Darr - I didn't receive anything.

[darr]

Ken: I re-sent my original e-mail. Let me know if you do not receive it. It was sent through the e-mail address of your web site "contact" page.

[Frank Petronio]

Just to fester further... I got into the Mamiya 6 system hole hawg, buying three bodies so I could have a dedicated Polaroid back and different films. I thought it would be the "be all, end all camera," replacing my need for 35mm and 4x5 in one swoop. Not only did it fail -- 35mm (or digital) is still advantegeous for low light -- and 4x5 still had significantly better resolution and compositional control (ground glass viewing).

The 150mm lens for the Mamiya was lousy to use for people shots too. In fact, I hated the system for portraiture even though I was purposefuly trying to have a loose, "Leica-style" approach to my subjects. But it should make a nice camera if all you will ever do is landscapes and street photography. Just get the 50 and/or the 75 and go at it.

But the point is, try something different, then you get bored, try something else. If you find something close to perfect, you can either just keep using it or buy it again from eBay or Midwest Photo.