Leica Medium Format Film Rangefinder

[Mijo]

I've been thinking about getting into medium format film for awhile now, mainly there's a lot of people that use the community darkroom that shoot medium format. A few weeks ago I ran into a tourist with a Mamiya 7 and it was love at first sight. Since then I've scoured the internet and read as many reviews about the Mamiya 7 as I could find, most user have nothing but positive things to say about it.

If your familiar with this camera I would love to hear your thoughts on this system. I'm mainly interested in this system for landscapes and I plan to keep my existing M system (for street and low light). The native lenses for the Mamiya 7 aren't exactly fast and I'm only looking at the 80mm and 43mm lenses, maybe even just the 43mm. For landscapes for I've been doing a lot of printing in the 11x14 to 20x24" range so I think I could definately benifit with the larger format.

 

[M240]

I had a black Mamiya 7 II with the 43, 80 and 150 lenses. I ended up selling it to help pay for Leica M gear. Sometimes I regretted parting with the 7 II but not so much nowadays.

It's a great camera for landscapes; the only real downside is that the lenses are slow. If you buy a used camera, you might want to send it in for a CLA to get it back to new specs. My 43mm was tack sharp but the 80mm was soft; this makes me think that the lens needed a CLA rather than the camera.

I hardly ever used the 150mm lens; I would pass on that one. If I were to reacquire a 120 rangefinder kit, I would get the 43, 65 and 80 lenses and the 7 II body, all in black.

 

[Mijo]

M240 - Thanks for the post and the heads up regarding the softness of the 80, I wasn't actually that interested in that lens but I've seen some decent deals with that lens included.