As such I think the Mamiya 645 cameras offer fantastic value for money when you consider the price of a Contax. When I look at the Mamiya M645 Super and more so the Mamiya 645 Pro range they are so similar to the Contax 645 with the DSLR like grip option, film back and film inserts, prism viewfinder and the Zeiss 80mm f2 lens on the Contax 645 is very close to the Mamiya Sekor C 80mm f1.9 lens.

I then saw a good value Mamiya M645 Super on eBay with WLF yesterday and much preferred the look, controls layout, modular film back and the fact that it looks like a mini Mamiya RZ67 Pro II that I have. I haven’t used it as I wanted to get a waist level viewfinder (“WLF”) to replace the TTL prism viewfinder. It was just too DSLR like compared to some of the older film cameras I was now using. I later sold the Contax 645 as found it too automated for my liking. The Contax 645 portraits I had seen online from fashion photographers and wedding photographers seem to be unmatched by any other camera / lens combination. The Contax 645 was my first medium format camera and my reason to move into the world of film photography. Mamiya 645 vs Contax > You can buy a Mamiya 645 for a 1/6 of the price of a Contax 645!! Molly the dog is a great subject…she’s the same color as a wedding dress (great for testing cameras!), and sits when I ask…doesn’t complain, or run off (unless there’s a squirrel!).Contax 645 vs Mamiya 645 (Contax 645 + Zeiss 80mm f2 lens vs Mamiya 645 + Mamiya Sekor C 80mm f1.9 lens) ISO 1600 was even better than I had hoped for! Here are just some personal shots from my time “getting to know” the camera! I was very pleased with the film look it was able to produce, and rather impressed with the sensor+ technology, which uses pixel binning for more ISO sensitivity. The awesome guys down in Atlanta at Capture Integration hooked me up with a rental for the weekend, and I put the unit through its paces! I chose the P65+ unit, because it is basically full-frame (therefore very comparable to the size of the film I shoot), and used it interchangeably with some Kodak Portra 400 for some side-by-side comparisons (stay tuned!!).Īs soon as the unit arrived, I set out to familiarize myself with the unit, and all of its bells and whistles.

So, I swapped out the film back for a digital one, by Phase One. In light of all of this, I decided to see what (my favorite film camera) the Contax 645 could do digitally. Thanks to Hollywood, film production hasn’t been shut down, though the prices are steadily rising. It makes me uneasy, though…the more film I shoot, the more I love it, but I’m growing a bit wary because of Kodak‘s bankruptcy and such. I’ve been enjoying shooting lots of film this fall.

Contax 645 digital back phase one