The hard-edged more distinct rangefinder patch the Mamiya offers is definitely of a higher standard than the Makina. 6.1 Final Score: Makina 67 4:0 Mamiya 7ĭespite the Mamiya 7 losing the battle, I suppose it’s only fair to first point out that Anais was seemingly right about the two things he asserted.And though the Mamiya put up a good fight, the reasons my preferences remain with my Makina 67, it didn’t just come down to size. The Makina 67 wins this battle in my world. I was intrigued to know if either or both of these factors could sway my opinion or preferences toward a Mamiya, or if my overall preference for smaller easier-to-carry cameras would win out. Is that the rangefinder patch isn’t all that great, so by this merit the Mamiya must have a better patch to focus with. The second was that the rangefinder patch in the Mamiya 7 is excellent. The first was that he thinks the 80mm lens is sharper than the Nikkor on the Makina. The bigger they are, the less I find myself inclined to carry them… so I certainly wasn’t going to be happy carrying a bigger camera and two extra lenses.Īs I remember it, Anais wanted me to try the Mamiya 7 for a couple of reasons.

I like taking photos, but I don’t really like carrying cameras. As I talk about in the Makina review, I find its size and weight only just on the right side of palatable. The most relevant to this post is my view that I’m not really a medium format person. Shooting the Makina 67 proved a few things to me. It might seem daft not to have taken him up on the loan of all three lenses, but there’s method in my madness. I actually had to force him to only loan me the camera and 80mm lens – if he’d had his way, I’d have been shooting it with a set of 3 lenses. It was at this year’s Photography Show when we finally met and he handed it to me. Of course, it’s rare I get such offers, but despite his generosity, it still took me a good 6 months to take him up on it. Over a year later, and that’s exactly what I’ve done.Īnais is someone I’d been chatting to for a little while on Instagram when he got in touch and asked if I’d like to try his Mamiya 7. He wanted to loan me Mamiya 7 so I could compare these two medium format giants. You might be wondering what this fact has to do with the Mamiya 7? Well, it all comes down to a conversation I had with a chap called Anais Faraj after I shared my Makina 67 review. Last summer I finally bought myself one of my dream cameras, the Plaubel Makina 67.

Mamiya 7 ii