Mamiya C-330, by Bruno Mooca

Imagine it’s early 1959. LIFE magazine photographers are using their brand new $380 Leica M-2s. Newspaper photographers are giving up the Speed Graphic in favor of medium format, or maybe even 35mm. Nikon’s top model is the SP, a modified copy of the Contax rangefinder. Imagine you want to buy a camera for professional use. This could be studio or location portraits, photojournalism (but that word didn’t exist in 1959!), even some product shots. It needs to be at least medium format, and you need fast handling and great versatility. Of course you want a twin lens reflex.

The undisputed king of the TLR was the Rollei. In 1998, you can still buy one of its descendants new from B&H for almost $4000.00. It was small, had a killer lens, and a wonderful precision feel. One of the Rollei’s lower cost competitors was from a little-known Japanese company called Mamiya. It wasn’t as small, or as smooth mechanically, and of course no Japanese lens could compare to the Zeiss planar on the Rollei. Still, the mamiya had interchangeable lenses. Not even Rollei did that.

The Mamiya Twin Lens Reflex cameras are 6x6 cameras using 120 or (in some models) 220 film which were in production from the mid 1950’s until 1994. Mamiya regularly came out with new models which added features and capability throughout their production life. There are thousands of them out there, and they are plentiful on the used market. Some have seen heavy professional use, some have been used lightly by amateurs. Some are beat up, some are still pristine. Many wedding photographers have used these cameras because you can still look through the finder and see someone blink at the moment of exposure. I’ve recently seen a school photographer carrying one of these as a backup to his motorized long roll camera.

Review Copyright © 1998 Mike Rosenlof. All Rights Reserved. Revised: 19 August 1998

mike_rosenlof@yahoo.com

Leica M3 + Leitz Summicron 50mm f/2 Dual Range, by benny ng

Leica M9 with 35mm Summilux f/1.4.

(Source: monoclephoto)

Leica M4-P, by notraces

“This is the camera I’ll be using when I go back out at night — I just had it completely overhauled - it’s ready to go - good as new - probably better…

I also picked up two adapters which allow me to shoot my Contax RF & Nikon RF lenses on my Leica’s. Pretty cool. I hate to see the Contax IIa go - and one of my S2’s — but I much prefer shooting with my M’s…

The lens on the M4-P is the wonderful Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 Millennium - every bit as good as my 50 ‘lux…”

(Source: anchordivision)

Leica MP with Original Noctilux f/1.0, an all mechanical combination of simplicity and gorgeous bokeh, by Society Works

Leica M9 with Noctilux f/0.95, by moaan

Chrome Leica Summicron-M 35mm f/2.0 pre-ASPH and Chrome Leica Summilux-M 50mm f/1.4 pre-ASPH, by benny ng

Olympus OM2 + Zuiko 55mm f/1.2, by Cesare DeRossi

“The Olympus OM-2 was an aperture priority automatic camera (with full manual operation selected via switch), based on the earlier, successful OM-1 body. The OM-2 was introduced in 1975 [1], and combined the light, sturdy camera body style of the manual-only OM-1 with a new automatic exposure system,” — Wikipedia, 2010