My kids are kind of obsessed with saying “SIX SEVEEEN” and I’ve come to the conclusion that neither they or any of their friends have got a flipping clue what they’re on about or why they say it….
But obviously to those in the know (that’s us dear reader) surely they mean the Pentax 67 right? Or maybe the Mamiya RB67?! Or just maybe… BOTH!
Well I figured I’d do a side by side on these two magnificent cameras just ya know, for no reason other than why not! This isn’t going to be a comparison of the images I’ve made because it’s fair to say that I have MUCH more experience with the Pentax 67 and you can see ooddles of examples of my work and my musings on this set up here, here and here.
I absolutely flipping love the Pentax 67 system, it’s basically a huge 35mm SLR - lovely!
I’ve shot it in natural light and in the studio and just love the simplicity of it. The majority of portraits in my portfolio have been shot on this beauty.
Another aspect of the Pentax 67 worth mentioning is the lenses - the legendary 105mm 2.4 practically lives on this camera it’s certainly a very special piece of glass and deserves the hype! It renders beautiful portraits with a 3D quality .
For a lens addict such as myself the fact that you can adapt different lenses to Pentax 67 is an amazing bonus feature - I’m fortunate to own a Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 180 2.8 lens which is a fantastic portrait lens and on top of that I’ve also got my grubby mits on an adapter to use my large format Kodak Aero Ektar 178mm 2.5 lens which is truly EPIC!!
So the P67 brings a LOT to the table - fairly simple to use with a stunning range of lenses available, what’s not to like?!
Well there was a slight draw back I found with the Pentax 67 - the slow shutter sync of 1/30 when shooting with studio strobes.
It’s still useable and the strobes do help freeze any motion blur but even still it’s quite a limiting factor and so it got me thinking about other options (which of course as we all know is just gear acquisition syndrome talk for I WANT ALL THE CAMERAS)!
So that’s how I ended up with a Mamiya RB67 as well!
I managed to snag this Mamiya RB67 Pro S model for less than £400 - it came with a 90mm and 180mm lens and I’ve added a 50mm lens too.
Its a modular design which includes rotating film backs (hence the RB name) and that’s really its party piece - being able to load a few film backs and swap between film stocks on a shoot is really useful!
I have the RB with a waist level finder which makes the shooting experience a bit different to the Pentax.
RB prisms are available but I don’t see me adding one anytime soon as it’s already a beast of a camera and I quite enjoy the different shooting approach that the WLF brings, it offers something different to the standard SLR mode (is that another justification I can hear…)
The biggest difference is really that the RB uses a lens mounted leaf shutter means I can shoot in the studio up to 1/400 which is game changing really and makes for a lovely studio camera, I don’t know if I’ve got enough experience yet to offer a side by side ‘review’ so soz about that… I’m working on it!
Ive taken the RB on a few walks and shot some landscape stuff on it which admittedly isn’t really my thing these days but it worked really well - the waist level approach suits a slower more deliberate way of working.
I realise this blog is light on RB67 shots but i am working to remedy that real soon! I haven’t had enough experience with it to reflect on the lens quality etc but so far it’s enough to say that I really love it and I’m glad to have it in my collection!
Do I really NEED to have both? Probably not… will I keep both? Abso-hecking-lutely!! In fact I’ve made a rather momentous decision when it comes to shooting film which is to pretty much stop using 35mm - I just don’t shoot anywhere near as much as I used to, I’ve fallen down the large format rabbit hole too… so between that and having these medium format beasts available, I just can’t seem to muster up the enthusiasm for 35mm these days… but we’ll see!