5 Frames with the Mamiya 6 IV-S Folding 6×6 Camera

I was recently on a photo walk with some fellow film buffs. One of the guys pulled out a beautiful Leica M3 from his bag: “It was my grandfather’s camera,” he said, beaming. Another of my friends showed me his Voigtlander Bessa II – an absolutely stunning family heirloom if there ever was one! Another person had a Hasselblad 500CM with quite a provenance behind it.

By now, the keen reader may be starting to think that this article will be about my heirloom Mamiya 6 IV-S, passed down from my grandfather, to my mother and to me. Sadly, no… I got this camera from eBay in “Excellent 3+++” condition. The closest camera to an heirloom in my family was an old Argus C-3 “brick” that a hitchhiker left in my grandfather’s car sometime after World War II – true story… Photography was never a serious pursuit in my family until quite recently.

My Six

This  Mamiya 6 is hands-down my favorite film camera that I own! It goes literally everywhere with me, and is always in my camera bag. Folding cameras are the ultimate medium format “cheat code!” The “6” even more so with its legendary Mamiya lens quality! It generates incredibly detailed 6×6 negatives, doesn’t need batteries, and fits easily in a jacket pocket. The only issue I’ve had so far was the rangefinder losing adjustment after the camera took a tumble – which was remedied in 5 minutes with a jeweler’s screwdriver.

So Many Variations

Purchasing a vintage camera on eBay is not for the faint of heart. It would seem doubly-so when dealing with a camera with bellows. There are so many things that could have happened to a camera in the intervening 70-or-so years. Most old cameras suffer from a foggy lens, or a sticky shutter… or worse a dodgy film winding mechanism. Add in some 70-year-old leather bellows, and there’s a high likelihood of pinholes to ruin that brand new roll of film.

Imagine my surprise, when my Mamiya 6 IV-S arrived, and the lens was totally clean, the shutter worked at all speeds – 1sec – 1/500 – and the bellows were light tight! The camera’s low eBay rating seemed to be due to the peeling leatherette covering… nothing a little gaffer’s tape couldn’t handle!

Introduced in 1940, the Mamiya 6 had over a dozen variations from the Model I to the Automat-2 (1958.) Some research led me to find out that this particular camera was the Model “Mamiya 6 IV-S” from 1957. The lens on this example is the Kominar-S 75mm f/3.5. I haven’t been able to find out a lot of information about this lens in particular, but I’m quite pleased with it!

The Photos

I’ve been keeping the Mamiya 6 on me for the past year or so. It is almost always loaded, and as a result, I’m very happy to be able to show the camera’s capabilities across several different film types. There is also something about shooting in a square format that really connects with me!

This first image was shot on Kodak Ektar 100 on a sunny winters’ day in Chinatown, Ottawa. This is the photo that, for me,  elevated the Mamiya from an interesting curiosity, to an essential shooting companion. The detail, and the depth of field absolutely hooked me on this camera. It almost feels like you can reach right inside this photograph!

This second photo of my wife was shot on Kodak Gold 200 in Smith’s Falls Ontario. On this stupefyingly cold Canadian day, the 6 was able to nail focus and fired reliably. Even in -20C, the leaf shutter didn’t drag or stick. On a side note, the shutter is so quiet at the faster speeds, that I sometimes can’t tell if it fired or not.

The third photo was taken in Orlando Florida, on a 100 degree day (40C) on Kodak Vericolor II film. The batch that I have, expired in 1984, so I rated the film at ISO 12. This giant Orange is over 60 years old, and on the day this was shot, the gift shop was closed due to a fire that had just taken place.

This fourth frame, I still have a hard time believing that it’s a film photograph at all! Shot on Lomography 800 at the Venetian in Las Vegas, when I pulled this negative out of the Jobo, there was an audible “YES!” when I saw how perfectly this image came out.

This final image was shot in Las Vegas on Lomography 100. Even though Lomo 100 isn’t my favorite emulsion, it did seem to be really good at taking the harshness out of the Las Vegas sun.

Final Thoughts

Despite not being a family heirloom, I absolutely adore the Mamiya 6 folding camera! While there are other available choices in 6×6 folding cameras, there’s something about this little brick that I’ve grown very fond of. These cameras are routinely less expensive than 35mm point-and-shoots. They aren’t much larger than your average disposable camera, and you get 12 exquisite frames of 120-film. I cannot recommend one of these cameras enough, and should anything happen to mine, I’ll be on eBay immediately!

Thanks so much for taking the time to enjoy this camera with me. You can follow my shenanigans on Instagram and YouTube.

Share this post: