Lomography

Mamiya 645 AFD Review
written by ebolatheelectricmonk on July 20th, 2009 , 14 comments (10 votes)

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image from teamworkphoto

For us film lovers these are lucky times we live in. Never before has used professional medium format camera equipment been available that cheap! I got this Mamiya 645 AFD from a pro, who had the problem, his newest digital backs would only work with the Mamiya 645 AFD II.

This Mamiya is an autofocus SLR-camera with interchangeable film backs. Available lenses range from 28mm to 300mm. I got only the 80mm lens and some extension rings which let me focus very close. The body is made from a combination of magnesium alloy and is built like a tank. It features 4 exposure modes (P, A, S, M), You can choose between spot-metering, center-weighted-metering and a combination of both, which provides perfect exposure all the time. (Even tricky subjects like a pale baby with a black background, like in my example pictures, can’t fool the light meter.)
The autofocus is still kind of simple, especially compared to 35mm SLRs like a Nikon F5. There’s only one autofocus field, it’s rather slow and very often the autofocus searches forth and back without locking in. Nevertheless it’s a great help when photographing moving subjects like a lively baby.

Film format is 6×4.5cm and interchangeable backs give you the ability to swap films mid-roll, choose between 120 or 220 films or even attach a digital back to the camera. (Oh no, we do NOT want to do THAT, eh?!?) As a cool little gadget you can imprint exposure data (f-stop, exposure time, exposure mode, frame counter,…) on the film frame. (See my example shots.)

The camera is kind of heavy, so I use a tripod often. It incorporates a mirror lock-up function, which eliminates camera shake due to the mirror slap and this feature is essential for careful landscape- or nightshots with slow film. (Nothing beats my Velvia 50!!)

Conclusion: I love digital! All those stupid people getting rid of their analogue equipment to switch to digital let me buy used camera gear in brand-new condition for less than one-fifth the original price. I paid about the price of 3 Lomo LC-As for the Mamiya and that’s next to nothing! So head out and get yourself a premium medium format camera before all the others do the same and prices go up again!!!

Thanks for reading,
ebolatheelectricmonk.