Sean Esopenko

Mamiya RB67 Pro-S – Early Thoughts

December 22, 2010

For about a half a month I’ve been using the Mamiya RB67 Pro-S for some of my work.  I bought this camera as a light weight alternative to my metal field camera and it does this quite well.  Shooting with roll film will means I’m shooting photographs that aren’t as sharp as 4×5 but I get the convenience of rolls.  I can develop 10 exposures in one shot and not have to carry a separate bag of film holders.  I can leave the entire photo backpack behind if I desire, too.  The plan is to bring the 6×7 with me for initial scouting of a location and if I get some good shots out of it I’ll revisit it with the 4×5 for some critical work.

I bought it used from a local seller with a 50mm C 4.5, 90mm C 3.8, waist-level finder, non-metered prism finder, 120 back, 220 back and polaroid back.  The original owner said it was too heavy to backpack with but so far I’ve been quite happy with it.  It’s a large camera but it’s not too heavy compared to my metal 4×5 field camera.  Some people complain that the rotating back adds extra weight but I love it!  The rotating back allows me to shoot it on a monopod and I can easily change the orientation without having to mess around with it too much.  I wish I had more roll backs for it so I could have two b&w and two colour choices for when I shoot but they cost around $100-160 each so that’s out of the question for a while.  220 film is a little hard to find.  I bought some Kodak 160NC in 220 rolls the last time I was at The Camera Store but they had no b&w in 220.   Vistek at downtown Calgary had no 220 film available but they did have the key b&w and colour rolls available in 120.

The negatives are large enough to be able to squeeze out the odd 16×20 because they don’t have to be cropped as much as 6×6.  11×14 silver prints should be stellar from this camera.  When I scan 6×7 negatives in at 2400 dpi with my V700 they’re around 33 megapixels, too.  The film shots are slightly unsharp/grainy but after applying a little USM and resizing to 25 megapixels they look very sharp.  I got my Tetenol C41 press kit in the mail the other day and pretty soon I’ll have everything else I need to try my hand at some colour film.  I suspect this camera will be my ticket to conveniently shoot colour photographs at a higher quality than what my Canon 5D can put out.

One problem I’ve found with the system is in the mirror lock up.  Mirror lock up is a function where the mirror and shutter can be triggered separately.  I use this a lot for my colour digital work and it’s a non-issue with my large format camera (there’s no mirror in the 4×5).  Mirror lockup prevents motion blur from the SLR mirror going “thwack” against the roof of the camera body.  The unfortunate problem in the RB67′s mirror lockup is that on Timed exposure, you have to press the cocking lever down to close the shutter.  I would have preferred to be able to use a remote because pressing the cocking lever introduces more motion blur than the mirror would have ever caused.  It’s kind of a silly design that makes mirror lockup useful only for exposures 1 second or less.

Now that the winter solstice is past us the days are going to start getting longer and I’ll be able to shoot more photographs beyond the night photography I’ve been trying.  When the days are long enough for the sun to be up until 9pm I foresee this camera getting a lot of use.  We’ll see how it fairs when that time comes.

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