Mamiya m645: new (to me)

 I spend a lot of time just window shopping on Facebook marketplace for stuff I don't need. Usually for stuff I really can't afford at normal prices just on the off chance I find a deal. I've been pretty lucky a few times doing this. 

On this fateful night, I was searching for "Mamiya." I have not really been super driven to get another medium format camera after selling my Yashicaflex especially since I have so much 35mm film on hand. I did, however, concede that if I were to ever go back to medium format, it'd be for something that isn't square (645, 6x7 being the top choices). So here I was searching just to see, and there it was: a Mamiya m645 with 2 lenses (150mm f4, 55mm f2.8) and a CdS prism eye-level finder....for just $300. I knew this was a pretty decent deal, especially with 2 lenses. But as I wasn't really shopping to buy, I just saved the listing for later, fully expecting it to be sold soon. 

And then it happened. I shared the link in discord and clicked it a few minutes later to check on the lenses and the seller had dropped the price $50! It had become a deal too good to pass up, so I snatched it up.     


 The camera arrived on Friday but it was not quite as described. The 55mm lens felt like it was full of sand when focusing and the 150mm lens aperture was full of oil and gummy. Luckily I was able to fix both issues but neither were disclosed by the seller of course. But this was not the end of issues.

Eager to get shooting, I ran to Garland camera to get a roll of film while waiting for the film I ordered to show up. I ended up with a roll of Ilford XP2 Super.

I headed down to the lake side which I've been eye balling for a while. I had a nice little session shooting, 15 frames go by pretty quickly, which is no complaint of mine. I also finished off a roll of 200T I was testing at asa 800 in my Bessa R while I was out. 

Came home and mixed up new c41 chemicals and got to it. I was devastated to see this on the negatives when I pulled them out of the final wash:

Light leaks. And bad ones. About half the frames were total loss. 

no light leaks my ass!

Of course the seller claims he didn't have any issues... Ok buddy!  Luckily light leaks are easy to fix, so I'm not too upset and even with all the problems, its still a great deal. Anyway here's the pictures from today and a few from the Bessa as well.  

 

 

 

 

 


 

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