Mamiya C330F Review – Part 2
Part Two – Twin Lens Quirks and Revelations
Continued from Part 1 | Skip to Part 3
So what is the Mamiya C330 or the C series in general? They are Twin Lens Reflex (TLR) cameras which means as the name suggests they have two lenses. One of the lens is the one you view through and the second lower lens is the one that is the taking lens (i.e. with the shutter that exposes the film behind it.)
This leads to a few interesting quirks. The first advantage of a TLR is that you can see virtually what you are taking a picture of as you take it. This has some distinct advantages for long exposures and portraiture where you want to be sure the person/people had their eyes open at the time of exposure. The second advantage is that compared to some medium format systems the Mamiya TLRs are cheaper than other interchangeable lens counterparts like the Bronica ETR, Mamiya 645, Pentax 645 (6×4.5 cameras) and the Bronica SQ and Mamiya 6/7 (6×6 cameras.)
There are some other quirks though which you soon get used to. The first is that the image you see through the waist level finder is horizontally flipped so it takes a while to get used to viewing and moving around with this flipped view. The addition of the pentaprism viewfinder ‘resolves’ this. The second is an issue of parallax that when you don’t have correct viewfinder screen for the wider angle lenses (I don’t) you have to take an educated guess as to what will be cut off from the top and added to the bottom of the frame.
Aside from this and the sheer heft and functional build of the Mamiya C3/33/330 series, there is little down side if you want to shoot medium format square pictures (which you can crop later to a more common rectangular view) by using this system. At this point I will mention the C2/22/220 series which were the model just below the C3/33/330 series. They are generally a bit cheaper but do not have many major differences, the biggest difference is probably the C3 series’ parallax compensation indicator and that they are somewhat heavier. Either way, with a bit of practice and sound understanding of exposure and a head full of ideas you will find either series will see you through on either system.
Most C series Mamiya TLRs will come provided with the standard waist level finder which means you peer down to the viewfinder viewing your composition on a ground glass screen which you can focus with (aided by a flip up magnifier.) The only major issues to concern yourself with are parallax because what you see on the screen comes from the top viewing lens and that being mounted slightly higher than the taking lens means that there is a chance of your frame being cropped at a vital area. That said with aid of the parallax markers you should not find this an issue and you should be able to adjust to this issue ‘by feel’ and experience. Certainly with landscapes on a 55mm lens with the standard viewing screen, I generally include a little more sky than I usually would. It sounds like a very imprecise manner of working and perhaps that is where some of the beauty comes in. The world is somewhat random in its beauty and therefore cold precision sometimes jars with this.
The other issue that will fox you at first is that the view is going to be flipped horizontally as a simple mirror is employed with no prism to reflect the image the ‘right way around’ again as in a SLR. Again over time you soon get over the issue of moving the opposite way to compose and begin to almost overlook the horizontal flip of the image and better still if an image is working flipped the opposite way to how you are envisaging the final result you can be pretty sure the final result is going to look pretty good the ‘right way’ around.
Optics
One thing that is great today is that optical quality of lenses is pretty high on most fronts. Certainly I find the Canon L glass wonderful to work with (if perhaps a little clinical at times) and Leica glass is renowned for its beauty and deadly accuracy, likewise the Voigtlander (Cosina) M mount glass has been excellent too. The Mamiya Sekor glass for the C series TLRs is excellent, some cite the 135mm as sometimes the weak point, but I think you need to try this for yourself as I certainly have no quibbles and likely at the apertures these lenses work at the widest any softness is going to be more a consequence of focussing issues than a bad lens or optical quality. The range includes 55, 65, 80, 105, 135, 180 and 250mm lenses which are more than enough to cover all angles that a TLR can excel with and as I have found out it has made for an excellent landscape camera as well as for portraiture and it is in both of these that the square aspect has been something of a revelation which I will discuss in the third and final part of this review.
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The Mamiya C cameras are nice cameras. I prefer the C220: it’s substantially lighter and mechanically even simpler than the C330.
Realistically, though, there is very little reason to use any of these cameras anymore. Mine sits in a closet, next to the Rolleiflex.
Tom
February 4, 2009 at 2:26 am
That is true of the C220 series in terms of weight.
I disagree on the part there is no reason to realistically use these cameras any more – I think it comes down to the individual. I enjoy shooting landscapes and wish to make large prints so medium format is very muuch a consideration for me but the digital alternatives are very expensive. Second to that, I enjoy working in the darkroom processing and printing — which is a major part of why I’m still shooting film. I personally tire of using Photoshop and a computer.
That all said and done, I also agree with you in a slight way because we have modern cameras, with sophisticated exposure meters that usually do an excellent job, with image stabilisation, more sophisticated and durable shutters, a wider range of lenses usually comprising of top notch glass and all other facets which on a pure “Which is easier” or “Which is better” on a pure rational question: it’d be the modern camera.
But then some people love classic cars more than new cars, they’re a pig to drive, you need a paper map, the steering might be heavy, the brakes as squelchy as a sponge and the ride pretty hard and noisy — but yet they still do it. And that is curiously how I feel about the Mamiya as well, it’s a bit ungainly and awkward but I still love it and the results are what counts for me.
lilserenity
February 4, 2009 at 7:41 am
I love your analogy of classic cars. I learned to drive in my brother’s 1963 Jaguar E-Type. It had its shortcomings (like, say, getting in and out of it), but its performance was awesome, yet was an easy car to drive. Simple, direct, precise, forgiving, goes where you point it. And always fun. Sorta like a Nikon F, just not as reliable. But the Nikon didn’t have a starter button in the middle of the dash. 8^D
Jeff Livacich
June 23, 2009 at 10:25 am
Interesting article — I’m looking forward to part III. The only TLR’s I’ve had a chance to see in person are a couple of old Rolleiflex cameras that a friend of mine has.
Tom, there’s definitely a reason to use these cameras — if you want to be able to make large prints with a lot of detail.
Rakesh Malik
February 5, 2009 at 7:12 pm
Parallax is a 50mm vertical offset between the lens axes. It is immeasurable at landscape distances, and only really comes into play when 50mm is a significant proportion of the framed area.
I still use film cameras almost exclusively, because they do what I need. That includes my Mamiya C330 and the Wista 5×4.
If I was doing photography for commercial reasons I expect my choice would be different. On the other hand, as I get older the miniature format SLRs do not become any easier to see through!
Graham Patterson
February 16, 2009 at 4:43 am
Some very good points you make here Vicky. Regarding the flipped image: I recently purchased a 2nd C330f kit because I love my original one so much that I wanted to have a backup/spare. The “new” kit came with a metered porrofinder as well as the WLF. It’s the first time I had ever tried a porrofinder, which corrects the backwards image, and the experience just seemed totally WEIRD after being so used to the flipped image. I even found myself panning the wrong way when looking at the corrected image to view something to one side or the other!
On Tom’s other issue of reasons to use these cameras: I suppose other than trying to create a specific look or effect for art’s sake it is true that working pros would be better off with the immediacy of digital, especially for fashion work, catalogue work, etc. But there are countless amateurs such as myself out there who love using older manual cameras such as these just for the sheer enjoyment of it. And if that’s not a valid reason to use a C330f then I don’t know what is. Oddly enough, I love classic cars more than new cars too…
Cheers,
Carl
Carl Neilson
February 27, 2009 at 10:44 pm
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Mamiya C330F Review – Part 3 « On the Road : Victoria J.K. Lamburn’s Blog
February 28, 2009 at 10:01 pm
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Mamiya C330F Review – Part 1 « On the Road : Victoria J.K. Lamburn’s Blog
March 8, 2009 at 9:54 am
Great essay. I am in the process of buying my first medium format camera. I’m not crazy about 645, the Yashica Mat takes photos that are too vintage-looking for my tastes, and everything else I love is way too expensive. I’ll have to check out the Mamiya C330.
Fern
August 4, 2009 at 7:57 pm