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Reprinted with permission from January 2002 issue of Shutterbug Magazine augmented to include more images for photo.net. Photos by Bob Shell copyright 2002 Bob Shell Ltd. All rights reserved.
Lots Of Small Changes Lead To Major Progress
Readers may recall that when I tested the first generation Mamiya 645AF I
liked the camera very much overall, but had reservations about a few features and
functions. After test shooting for several weeks with the new Mamiya 645AFD I can
say that the people at Mamiya really do listen to feedback, and the few things I
didn't like about the original camera have all been changed, and many more
improvements have been made as well.
First of all, when I reviewed the original 645AF I was dismayed that the
camera body forgot the lens aperture you had set when you changed lenses. This
just seemed counter-intuitive and could lead to accidental exposure problems,
particularly when working quickly in the studio. I was very pleased when I
learned that the Mamiya 645AFD has cured that problem and now retains its memory
when you change lenses or change film magazines. This may be a simple thing, but
it makes a big difference to me in convenience of operation.
The other thing which I didn't like about the original 645AF was that you
could not set the camera for aperture priority exposure and use auto fill flash
with TTL flash systems. On that camera the system automatically set the camera
shutter to 1/125 when the flash was ready to fire and the only way to override it
was to switch to manual exposure. On the new camera you can use aperture priority
exposure and the camera will set its shutter speed based on the ambient light
level and you can add TTL fill flash when desired. Since this is my favored way
of shooting outdoors I was delighted with this particular change, since it lets
me go back to doing things the way I want to do them. I'm always aggravated when
a "new improved" feature gets in the way of my photography, and I'm glad to see
this one become a thing of the past.
But if those two changes were all that was different there wouldn't be much to
write about the Mamiya 645AFD. The D in the camera name stands for "Digital" as
you might have guessed, but this is not a digital camera, but instead a hybrid
camera which accepts 120 and 220 film magazines, Polaroid film backs, and digital
capture backs. What's new about the digital aspect is that linking the body to
digital backs is done via Mamiya Serial Communication (MSC) protocol, which
provides truly integrated technology. This eliminates camera-to-body cable
connections, making all necessary connections to the digital back through the
camera's existing row of electrical contacts on the rear of the body. MSC also
increases automatic feature capabilities such as ISO recognition, autoexposure
and TTL flash operation, and allows digital back ready, capture and store status
to be displayed on the camera's main LCD panel. Both the main LCD and film
magazine LCD have backlighting, easily switched on in dark environments. The
first digital capture back to be compatible with MSC protocol is the new Leaf
C-MOST back, an innovative design using a 24 X 36 CMOS image sensor.
Unfortunately, the Leaf C-MOST back is just coming onto the market and Leaf did
not have one they could loan me for this report. I hope to do a complete studio
test of the Leaf C-MOST digital capture back at a later date.
From a functional point of view perhaps the most significant innovation in the
Mamiya 645AFD camera is the new metering system, a "matrix" type which integrates
reading from five image zones to compute the optimum exposure. I shot a dozen
rolls of Agfa RSX 100 II color transparency film during my tests, and used the
in-camera meter for all but four of the rolls which were shot in the studio.
Exposure was perfect in every case, which shows me that the new metering system
really is able to cope with almost any sort of lighting conditions, since my
shots were made under a wide variety of lighting and subject conditions. The
camera also has a spot meter for those who prefer to make their own calculations
and still features Mamiya's unique A-S Auto mode in which the camera will decide
between the spot and five-zone metering and select the one most appropriate for
the shot. This works flawlessly, and always amazes me in making the correct
choice.
In a feature carried over from its predecessor the 645AFD is the only
autofocus medium format camera with built-in infrared autofocus assist. Of course
you can turn this off if you don't want it. It is also the only medium format
camera featuring an auto-retract shutter which prevents shutter damage when
removing film or digital backs from the body. Other important improvements in the
Mamiya 645AFD are locks on all adjustment dials and knobs, a protected AEL
button, and recessed rear adjustment dial, all of which make accidental changes
of camera settings nearly impossible. I really applaud Mamiya for this
improvement which other camera makers could learn from. Other features of the
Mamiya 645AF include Aperture-priority (Av), shutter-priority(Tv), Program-shift
(P, Ph and Pl) autoexposure modes, plus manual (M), flash (X), and Time (T)
modes. The autoexposure lock (AEL) now allows quick shifting of the exposure
settings in Manual from the selected settings to the automatic metered
settings.
The newly designed TTL flash control allows flash exposure bracketing with
Metz SCA 3002 series flash units and allows simultaneous ambient exposure
compensation for expanded control of your images. Flash ready and OK indicators
are shown in the viewfinder. I'd like to thank the good people at Bogen Photo
Corporation for loaning me a Metz 54MZ-3 flash and SCA3952 adapter so I could
check out all of the TTL flash features of the new camera. I particularly liked
the flash bracketing capability built into this flash. You could even combine the
flash bracketing with the Mamiya 645AFD's easy to use ambient light bracketing if
you wanted. Suffice it to say that the flash and cameras TTL systems worked
together flawlessly and gave me exactly the effects I expected when used
together.
Along with the new camera I had the long familiar AF 80mm f/2.8 normal lens,
which I used for the majority of my photos, but Mamiya also sent me another
surprise with the camera, a brand new ultra-wide AF 35mm f/3.5, which really
seemed to be an exceptional performer and allowed me to work with ultra-wide
perspective for some of my shooting. I can see wide angle lovers really falling
for this lens. One small change in this and future AF lenses is that the index
mark you align with the camera body had been changed from a small red dot to a
really big white one, as has the one on the camera body, for much easier lens
changes in dim light. I really found this small change useful when working with
the camera, particularly in the studio.
In summary, I liked the original Mamiya 645AF a lot, but had a few
reservations. I was delighted to find that Mamiya had listened to feedback from
many professional users when they redesigned the camera into the 645AFD.
The USA version of this camera is stocked by Adorama, a
retailer that pays photo.net a referral fee for each customer, which helps keep
this site in operation.
Bob say "It is also the only medium format camera featuring an auto-retract shutter which prevents shutter damage when removing film or digital backs from the body. "
I thought the modern focal plane shutter Hasselblads had been doing this for years?
Hello guys!
"I can answer about the 55-110, having just tested one (new) and putting it thru its paces. It's an excellent lens. Sharpness is excellent at all focal lengths at working apertures, and is even to the corners. Wide open, the lens is excellent at 55 and 80, but loses a bit of resolution at 110 across the field. This is gone when stopped down slightly. Corners are *very* slightly soft wide open, but this is gone by f/8. Some slight vignetting is also seen at full aperture. Resistance to flare is remarkable, pictures shot directly into the sun show virtually full contrast, and overexposed fireworks did not "bleed" into the surrounding darkness.
At the same time, I was able to shoot also the HB/Zeiss 50mm f/4 FLE and the 80mm f/2.8 CF. Same film (E100s/Provia), same time, same lab...
The Mamiya zoom compares very favorably to the two Zeiss lenses. No discernible difference in sharpness/contrast/resolution/color rendition across most of the field, but the Zeiss glass was *very* slightly better in the corners. Resistance to flare was disappointing in both these lenses; neither retained the contrast of the 55-110."
Above the picture of Leningrad, RU (2002, Mamiya 645 Pro TL, APX100)
I have some nice Sankt-Petersburg pictures at my opera blog as well.
