Maximilian Götz

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The Mamiya RB67 Camera System

Published 19 March 2024, filed under "cameras"

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The Mamiya RB67 camera system is one of the best ones I have worked with. Highly extensible and manufactured to high standards, it is a great choice for professional and advanced amateur work all those decades later even today in the digital age.

It is very versatile and allows you to build your camera to fit every situation. This article aims to give a general overview of the system and to discuss my experiences with and thoughts on it.

Me, metering light

Me, metering light for a shot with my RB67 Pro S in the background

Overview

As I just mentioned, the system allows for heavy customization. The bodies take a great amount of high quality optics in all relevant focal lengths, custom focussing screens with varied grids and focussing aids, various view finders, motor drives, film backs exposing various formats as well as handles and more1.

What makes this system truly stand out is its rotating back adapter. It allows to quickly switch between portrait and landscape orientation without turning the camera around. This feature is incredibly useful and makes life a lot easier and is dearly missed on most other camera systems.

There were three major generations: The RB67 Professional was the first introduced in 1970 and was succeeded by the Professional S in 1974, which would be manufactured all the way until 1990 when it would be replaced by the Professional SD, the last iteration before it would eventually be discontinued in 2010.

The single lens reflex design allows for high precision compositions and focussing and also depth of field previewing. Unlike it’s successor, the RZ67, it is fully mechanical, which means that the camera itself does not require any power source like batteries in order to work. It is just some accessories like motor drives or metered prism finders that require batteries to fully function. That renders the camera more reliable and easier to fix in case something does go wrong. That also makes it great for use in the field as one does not need to worry about drained batteries2.

Mamiya borrowed quite a few design aspects from traditional large format view cameras: The body is shutterless which means that the lenses have shutters built into them. Leaf shutters from Seiko are being used. Their speeds range from 1/400s all the way to 1s, plus time mode. Such a design means that electronic flashes can be synchronized at any speed, there is no fixed sync speed like with typical 35mm cameras; Great for use with flashes! The lenses are focussed using bellows, which I think is a good thing for slow shooting, although it also means that one has to compensate for the light loss caused by extending the bellows a lot. I think it helps with precision, but more on that later.

All the parts to the system just feel right. They are made from metal and are fairly heavy and durable. Nothing creaks or feels cheap. The RB67 has been known for decades now to be a reliable professional’s tool and everything about it feels that way.

Bodies

The three generations of bodies (Pro, Pro S, Pro SD) are all rather similar and the differences are minuscule. Most notably, the SD uses a larger lens throat than the previous versions and the Pro S introduces a double-exposure interlock, an indicator for whether your back is in landscape or portrait orientation in the viewfinder and a slightly different focussing hood (when using such a viewfinder).

I only ever used the Pro S, so I cannot comment much on the first and last generations. When buying, keep in mind that the Pro SD is the most expensive one but also the newest.

Lenses

There are a total of four lens series in the RB’s mount: Sekor (incl. Sekor NB), Sekor C, Sekor K/L and Sekor L (incl. Sekor APO/L).

The first series simply marked Sekor was introduced with the RB67 Professional in 1970. Those lenses are single-coated and some users report sticking aperture blades due to the lubricant used. I have no experience with this generation of lenses so I cannot comment on this issue and their quality. As those lenses were produced only for a relatively short time span, they tend to be less common on the used market these days. One should probably choose later generation lenses over this generation’s, simply for the coatings.

Also worth mentioning is the NB series. Those lenses are essentially the same as lenses marked just Sekor, but feature the newer barrel design of the Sekor C series.

With the RB67 Pro S, Mamiya introduced the Sekor C series. This generation of lenses seems to be the most commonly available. They feature multi-coatings and perform very well. Photos taken with C generation lenses are generally very sharp and have next to no noticeable visual defects. Even in difficult lighting situations they deliver amazingly, both in color and monochrome. Wide open, they feature beautiful, soft bokeh while retaining sharpness. The C 90mm f3.8 is an excellent all-rounder and my go-to lens with the system.

When buying Sekor C lenses, make sure to get those compatible with the RB67. Mamiya also manufactured lenses for the M645 with the same Sekor C markings, which obviously do not work with any of the RB67 bodies. Look for the shutter speed ring; If there is none, it is incompatible. The M645 has the shutter built in to the body, therefore its lenses do not contain one.

Finally, with the SD bodies came the K/L and L series of lenses. Both series consist of revised, multi-coated lenses. The main difference here is that K/L lenses are compatible not only with SD bodies but older ones too while lenses simply marked L are exclusively compatible with SD bodies. Furthermore, the L series included a few extra-low-dispersion lenses, marked APO/L.

K/L lenses mount directly to Pro/Pro S bodies and require removing an adapter from the lens back in order to mount to Pro SD bodies.

Film Backs

A variety of film backs is available for the RB67. Most common is the regular 6x7 type 120 back. As 120 film is actively being manufactured by many manufacturers, it is a good choice these days. 220 type backs are also available, although very little 220 film is currently being manufactured3, which mostly limits those backs to old, expired film.

Furthermore, there was a 6x4.5 120 type back, creating exposures in the format of the smaller M645. Choosing this back makes sense when you want to shoot a bit more economically as it provides more exposures per roll. Just keep in mind that by reducing the exposure size, the “perceived focal length” of your lens changes too! A rather wide lens produces photos that look more like they were taken with a “normal” focal length one.

Quite obscure, there is a 70mm film back too. There are very few film stocks available in 70mm4 which limits this back’s usability.

Later on, 6x8 backs were available too, allowing slightly larger frames5.

Mamiya offered motorized versions of some backs too. Again, I do not really see much of a use case for these as the RB67 just is not a fast shooting camera where a power drive could come in handy. Luckily, the power drive backs can be operated manually in case your batteries run out. I own one and mostly use it without the battery pack attached, winding it manually.

Instant Film

Despite the existence of dedicated, official Polaroid pack film backs for the RB67, shooting instant film is not as easy as it used to be with this system. Both Polaroid and Fujifilm have long discontinued their instant pack film offerings6, effectively rendering such backs obsolete and almost useless these days, unless of course you hoard a lot of pack film in your freezer. The prices of unexposed, long expired instant film have shot up significantly in recent years, making the use of such expired stock unfeasible.

Once popular with studio photographers, those Polaroid backs allowed users of the RB67 to preview shots before taking the actual exposure on what would have been far more expensive professional film. How the times change, huh?

However, if you are totally keen on shooting instant film with an RB, there are modern solutions around: Take Binstax for example. Binstax is based around Fujifilm Instax Square film, which is currently being manufactured and should allow a somewhat similar experience. However, I have not tested any such modern solutions so I cannot tell you whether they are any good. Also, keep in mind that the Instax film itself tends to be rather pricey. Expect to spend a lot of money.

If all you care about is previewing shots, I recommend using any digital camera instead. Likely, you already have one around and if you do not, older ones are to be had for very little money on the used market. Picture quality and features do not really matter here, any entry-level DSLR will do. Although the experience is not quite the same and certainly feels less elegant compared to proper instant film backs, using a DSLR is far more cost-effective.

Portability

Despite making a great studio camera, its portability is limited by its sheer size and weight. For one, I find it very hard to use hand-held. Especially with the waist level finder, it gets difficult to set up precise compositions as the image is mirrored, which is also very annoying on ball tripod heads, but can be bypassed using a prism finder. When I first got my hands on mine, I thought that the carrying strap lugs were a joke, honestly! Also, bellows focussing is less convenient for quick work as it takes longer to move focus and in my opinion, it is more difficult to handle the camera and focus at the same time. Plus, the bellows extend significantly, changing balance and making the entire setup even larger. That is not really much of an issue on a tripod and when focussing near infinity but in a hand-held scenario, it makes focussing a bit more difficult.

The lack of automatic exposure modes further makes shooting on the go slower. Having to pull out the light meter (unless you use a metered prism finder, that is) and manually setting the aperture and shutter speed does not encourage fast moving shooting action. That is a drawback of using a fully mechanical camera.

I really only use this camera on a tripod wherever I take it. It still is a fairly good fit for landscape photography though as it fits in most photo backpacks and is quickly set up, relatively speaking. I have used mine countless times out in the field and always liked the experience.

Just do not expect it to be a great fit for any rapid action, travel or street photography. For such cases, have a look at rangefinders like the Mamiya 6/7, the Fujifilm range or a Mamiya 645 if it absolutely has to be an SLR. Also consider the much smaller and often times less costly 35mm cameras from brands like Nikon or Canon unless you really, really need the larger frame size.

Further Reading

As this article is supposed to be an overview only, I recommend reading more about the RB67 system at rb67.helluin.org if you are interested in details.

Karen Nakamura also gives some more insights into the system on her homepage.

If you are interested in dating Mamiya products in general, have a look at Mamiya Repair’s date code list.

Footnotes

  1. Listing all the accessories Mamiya provided for the system goes outside the scope of this article. For those interested, I recommend having a look at old Mamiya brochures and catalogs, plenty of which can be found online. 

  2. One should note that drained batteries are rarely an issue with analog cameras as they tend to last for years. Still, it is a nice thing not needing any, especially considering the age of the camera: Many cameras this age require special batteries not sold anymore today. 

  3. There is Shangai GP3 100 black and white film in 220. Also, CineStill announced their 400D color film in 220. It is at the reader’s discretion whether those two film stocks make it worth buying a type 220 back. 

  4. If you are interested in 70mm film in general, there appears to be an entire website focussing on it: shoot70mm.com. Ilford still seems to be manufacturing their beloved HP5+ film in 70mm! 

  5. Have a look at helluin.org’s guide to 6x8 on the RB67 if you are interested. 

  6. See dpreview’s notice. There appears to be a company making pack film again, although their offering commands ridiculous prices. If you are interested, check out their website

Got any questions or comments? Let me know via mail!