"There are the Mamiya 6 and the Mamiya 6, both Rangefinder Cameras, both are extraordinary."
The Mamiya 6 and 7 Rangefinder Cameras are not to be confused with Mamiya's original folder, although each has a distinct place in history.
Some make the distinction between Mamiya Six (spelled out) for the company’s early 120 folding models, versus Mamiya 6 for the modern plastic ones. But in fact, the later 1950s folders are actually engraved MAMIYA-6 (note the hyphen).
from http://silverbased.org/mamiya6-folder/
There are the Mamiya 6 and the Mamiya 6, both rangefinder Cameras, both are extraordinary. Considered one of the best rangefinder cameras for many applicatiosn today including landscapes, the Late Mamiya 6, followed by upgraded Models 7, 7 II; these cameras boast razor sharp optics from center to edge. To buy one with only one lens, will easily set you back a grand and upward at this time on the used market.
The Mamiya Six I, II and IIIwere wartime and immediate postwar models, and had both eye-level and waist-level finders. The coupled rangefinder was combined with the eye-level finder. As a result, there were three windows at the front of the top housing. The Mamiya Six III added an exposure counter with double exposure prevention.
http://www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Mamiya_Six
In great demand by serious photographers, these modern 6 and 7 Mamiya rangefinder cameras, have assumed cult-like status for prestige among wannabe photographers who have too-much money on their hands. If someone has a modern Mamiya 6, or 7, with more than three lenses, there is at least a fair chance that this person really is a serious photographer. It is a great camera. I wish I had one. But I am getting rid of my collection rather than adding cameras. Still I may not long resist the allure to own and use one of these. I guess it really depends on how long I live.
However, the Early Great Mamiya 6 Camera of which I now write in earnest, is the first camera ever produced by the Late Great Original Mamiya Camera company. In 1940 a couple of talented men took formed a camera company. One was a designer the other a businessman with savvy for marketing. For sure these gentlemen were not the first of such tandem companies formed to make cameras during this time. But their product was different from all of the others.
"Instead of the lens extending to focus, the film plane, within the back of the internal camera body box, moves farther back or forward."
I once associated with a man in business whom I admired for many reasons. He was tenacious, energetic, intelligent, had a good business head, was a great marketer, and he was short. Yes, short. I certainly didn't think of this friend as particularly short. I don't even recall his exact height, maybe 5 feet 2 inches, maybe shorter. I am a fairly average six feet tall. I seldom even notice whether I have to look up to a person's eyes, or if I have to look down. But I am pretty comfortable in my skin. And I guess, all said, I am not short either.
Before I disclose my point in telling this story, let me further differ to another mentor of mine early in life. His last name was Maroney. Both of these men were mentors in some ways to me, and perhaps, I to them. But Maroney was one of my first post service bosses in the business world. We worked for a competitor of Xerox at the time. Maroney had been a very successful salesman for Xerox. During the day, Xerox was considered something akin to eaven, among business companies to work for people.
I am not being irreverent at all. Xerox and IBM truly did enjoy a legendary exalted status in the business world. If you worked for either at this time, you were considered to have arrived. Maroney is the only person I ever new during these golden days to have quit his job at Xerox. Persona circumstances had caused Maroney to "flip-out", as it were, and join the circus (literally) and go on the road with the carnies (I kinow it sound absurd, but he really did. Broken hearts can really do such things) for a few years until he finally licked his wounds sufficiently to emerge and rejoin the real world.
My short friend said, "I find that it is better to zig while others choose to zag."
Maroney was by this time a very wise man, I think. He seemed so to me, a young upstart full of all the things you are full of when you are young and full of it. Maroney and I were establishing a branch of a company and we spent a lot of time together. He was a deep thinker. He was religious in his own way. He had come from a proud Irish-Catholic family. His brother was a padre. I was an exestentialist of sorts at he time, although I don't know if I knew what that was.
"Great people, I mean really great people, are always driven by some kind of warp!"
One day, Maroney and I had had a few afternoon beers, and with our minds and tongues sufficiently lubricated, we were having one of our mind-stretching (or squelching) discussions, when he remarked something that I to this day consider to be a profound and mostly correct observation.
"Great people, I mean really great people, are always driven by some kind of warp!"
I don't recall all of the banter that took place that day, but I do remember "getting this" idea, and pondering Maroney's own greatness for having captured it as a tangible truism. Often something is different in the lives of average people that cause them to become much more than average.And as often as not, this ingredient would just as well be described as a "warp".
The warp that drove my short friend beyond his status quo average level of being--was that he was short. It did not matter that I didn't consider him short. apparently the condition had caused ample cause for him to consider himself short. His stature had defined him. some people call this a Napoleonic Complex.
The trait was evident when Mamiya designs uniquely Incorporated bellows when bellows were becoming out-model.
I admire Napoleon''s greatness too, and perhaps Napoleon's shortness had defined and driven him too. I personally suspect hta it was because he was an Italian from the Island of Corsica more than his stature that had warped and driven Napoleon, but no matter, I think it is fair to say that in some ways he was indeed warped into being driven to his own kind of greatness--for by all accounts, Napoleon was a very average boy, student mathematician, armaments officer, and person--until such time that his greatness erupted seemingly full blown.
My short friend, my mentor in some ways, once taught me another helpful strategy of life. I don't recall if this was a thought he claimed as original, because he was very well-read and well taught--mostly by tall people for whom he had much contempt.
My short friend said, "I find that it is better to zig while others choose to zag."
Although a long way getting to this point, my point is that for whatever reasons, the founding partners of Mamiya began their company by zigging rather than zagging, and this trait always seemed to have defined their modus operanda. The trait was evident when Mamiya designs uniquely Incorporated bellows when bellows were becoming out-model. It was apparently observed when they brought forth rangefinder cameras late in the Twentieth Century for their Mamiya 6 and 7 camera models.
The camera evolved, adding flash synchronization and other features over a number of years.
But this trait of zigging while others were zagging, was never so evident as when in 1940--the first Mamiya camera was born--the first Mamiya 6 rangefindercamera was born. It was unique in many ways at a time when most companies, especially Japanese ones, were clamoring to copy Leicas, and Rolleis, and other tried and prov-en designs. Mamiya 6 was introduced in 1940 best I can discover. Folding medium format cameras were not so unusual at this time. But not like this one.
It became very popular among post-war Japanese camera users. The camera evolved, adding flash synchronization and other features over a number of years. Each model designation that we observe today were not those originally used with the camera design.
This rangefinder uses 120 film and exposes a 6x6 piece of film. It is a folding camera, with an excellent lens. But the lens distance was kept in close profile to the camera body in a very special way. Instead of the lens extending to focus, the film plane, within the back of the internal camera body box, moves farther back or forward. As far as I know this is the only camera, certainly the only one up until this one, ever designed suing this in-genius feature. The concept was certainly utilized by Mamiya on other models as the progressed.
As with the Rollei designers, I am awed by the unique ideas that Mamiya brought out in rapid succession. Mamiya actually introduced more unique camera designs than any other company, I am fairly sure. Certainly more than Rollei--and that's a lot.
"The camera became a highly sought acquisition by the American GI's stationed there."
The original Mamiya 6 could not be manufactured fast enough. As a part of MacArthur's reconstruction of Japan, some odd statues enacted to incent greater competition to reach certain production and export thresholds, prohibited the immediate Japanese population from purchasing from buying the first Mamiya 6's. The camera became a highly sought acquisition by the American GI's stationed there.
Consequently the great Mamiya 6 folding rangefinder camera became well-know and respected in the West, especially in the United States. It went on to become one of Mamiyas most successful designs. As you look at my pride of a collection, my Mamiya 6 shows by its still-excellent condition its amazing and ingenious design. Probably because the camera never really reached the same respect within Japan as it did in the United States (maybe it did)--but for whatever reason, this camera design is not the most expensive one in any collection. they are not plentiful by any means.
In my opinion--and as a relic of full commemoration of the great Mamiya camera company, and of these two particular founding partners--this camera should occupy a high place indeed in the annals of camera commendations. And may I also dedicate this post to my two old mentor friends--one short and the other warped.
I know that I say this often, about a lot of different cameras, and I feel this way for sure--but it is with a heavy heart that I part with this near perfect example of the Early Great Mamiya 6 Camera.
http://silverbased.org/mamiya6-folder/
A Brief Mamiya History from http://herron.50megs.com/history.htm
Mamiya Camera Company, still a strong player in the medium-format professional film and digital camera market, was founded May 10,1940 by businessman Tsunejiro Sugawara (pronounced su-ga-WAR-a) and engineer Seichi Mamiya (pronounced ma-MEE-yah), as Mamiya Koki Seisakusho.
The stylized symbol (above), seen on early Mamiya cameras, was designed in July 1940 by students of Japan Fine Arts School (the predecessor to the Japan Art College), and stands for the initials of the two founders (and not Mamiya/Sekor, as some have reported).
Their first product (which they can be seen holding in the picture above) was the medium-format (120 film) folder Mamiya-6(below). A fascinating feature of this vintage folder is the way it focuses. The lens and bellows do not move while focusing - the film plane does! Well made and highly successful, it was the predecessor of Mamiya's first 35mm camera, the Mamiya 35-I, which debuted in 1949.
http://notesandnods.typepad.com/photography_for_profit_or/2009/02/the-mamiya-cseries-reviewed.html
