The one constant in my kit over the last few years has been the Mamiya 645 system. I’ve now been shooting with it since I first got a chance to try a 645 Super at a party in October 2006. A friend had shown up at a photographer’s party with his 645 Super and a 45/2.8 C and offered to let me try it with my own film, I had a Ricoh TLR with me that night and a pocket full of 120 so I took him up on the offer. I shot 4 rolls that night and bought my first M645 a few days later with an 80/2.8 C and a plain prism and added a 55/2.8 N the next summer. One year later, in September 2007 I bought that very same 645 Super along with 3 lenses (the 45/2.8 C, 80/2.8 C and 150/3.5 C), FE401 AE and plain N prisms, two backs, Winder N, manual crank and the somewhat rare Cable Release Adapter N. Since then I’ve added a third back, a few 120 and 220 inserts, an 80/1.9 C, a 300/5.6 C and I’ve sold the 45/2.8 C and the original M645 with one of the 80/2.8 C’s and plain prism. The photo above was taken not long after acquiring the Super kit.
While large, heavy and loud by 35mm standards the 645’s are great to work with and no heavier or larger than an F5 or an F3 with a MD-4 mounted while delivering 2.7 times the negative area. I’ve also found myself preferring the 4:3 aspect ratio rather than the wider 3:2 ratio that 35mm and most DSLR’s use.
Over the last 4 years I’ve shot around a hundred rolls of film with those 2 645’s, 66 of which were with Super. Quite a number of my best images were made with them. If it was practical I’d probably switch to doing all of my shooting with 645 kit, but sadly the size and weight advantages of 35mm keep me stuck there. If only there was a 645 RF camera with an f2 lens…
