Mamiya RZ67 Pro II (First Impressions)

Yo what up, welcome back to another episode of Distracting Chest Hair. Well this will probably be a quick one, unless of course you're watching this video on quarter speed, in which case you should stop and ask yourself why you are the way that you are. I've always had these crazy no safe word fantasies about owning a Mamiya RZ67, but never really quite thought that they were for me. I always wondered if my want for it was just gear acquisition syndrome, and not so much an actual need for it. A lot of photography nerds out there have the RZ or it's older brother the RB67, and I felt left out of that club for some reason. It felt kind of similar to not making the chess club in high school, even though the coach assured me it was no cut. Before I decided to sink some change into the system, I thought it might be a good idea to test the camera out and see if it passes the vibe check. Recently my friend Caleb and I wanted to go on a spiritual walkabout, but we only had one day and no budget. So instead we just walked around LA and shot some medium format in the form of I knew he had in his possession a Mamiya RZ67 Pro 2, because we heavily stock each other's camera collections to the point where he got a restraining order against me. But that's never stopped me before Caleb, and I'll be damned if it stops me now. So we decided to swap cameras, only temporarily of course. I would use his Mamiya RZ67, and he would use my Mamiya 7. Let's talk about loading this bitch. It's kind of a whole thing. If you're unaware, this camera uses a roll film back, which you need to detach and open up to reload. Admittedly, reloading this camera is not a very fast process, but it does allow for the use of multiple backs, so it's kind of a tradeoff. I don't ever shoot in the studio or do wedding or event photography, so the whole multiple film back thing kind of finds no application for me. Thus, I'm kind of left with a slightly tedious reload process, in my opinion. I assume I'd get better and faster at it with time, but I guess just basically disassembling the component every time I want to reload isn't really my cup of tea. Toast handmade vodka. Anyway, after a quick blood pack that places an eternal curse of impotence on us forever, should something happen to either camera, we set off to an industrial part of LA featuring an abandoned prison. I'd be shooting with the infamous 110mm f2.8, which is very beautiful in its renderings, though probably a bit more capable in better hands. The 110mm lens is about equivalent to a 55mm on a 35mm frame, or full frame if that's how you like to shake your ass. I personally prefer to shoot in the 35 or 28mm range for most of my work, so this 55 equivalent was kind of a wrench in the system, but in a good way. I think it's important to challenge yourself sometimes as a photographer. Speaking of challenges, my first roll in the RZ would be some Ektar and I have a complicated past. I won't get into it here. Let me just say right off the bat, this camera is heavy as ****. I thought I wouldn't mind at first, but oh man, this camera after 2 hours really starts to weigh on your arms. For all intents and purposes, this camera is about as heavy as a newborn baby. Just imagine walking around with it, or even running with it like you're stealing it from the newborn nursery of a hospital. It ain't easy. Just ask my parents. After the shoot, I heavily considered getting this camera. For the sole purpose of if I shot it daily for 3 months straight, I would have huge meaty pythons for arms. I mean, steroids and slim jims haven't been doing it, so why not try? The prism viewfinder is gorgeous to look through. I'd have to say that's probably my favorite part of the camera. Besides the shutter slap, which I imagine is what it probably sounds and feels like to shoot a grenade launcher. Here I am reloading the camera. Gotta say again, it's not for me. You're pretty much forced to put the camera down to reload, and that's a no diggity from the big dog. You could probably make the argument that this camera is designed more for studio use, but I was out there using it how I would use it, which is mostly just aimlessly walking around. In fact, a lot of my life is aimless. I thought the shutter speed dial was cool, but not really a fan of it only going to 1 400th of a second. I don't really know the history on that. Maybe at the time that was as fast as they could go with flash sync or something like that, but it seems to me they really should have tried to go to a full stop at 1 500th. The in-between speeds on the shutter speed dial were pretty cool. I've never really seen that on a camera before, and I was down for it. The lens sharpness on the 110 millimeter is pretty great. The RZ focuses through a bellows system, so the Mamiya lenses don't have any movement or adjustments on the barrel. Thus, they can really perform quite nicely because there's less sh** for the glass to deal with. Since we're using a bellows system, it allows us to focus on objects really close up, or even do macro photography on really really small things. So if you're into dick pics, the bellows can extend out pretty far from my understanding, but I never tested it, so I'm literally shaking from holding this. Oh my god, it's heavy. However, if you are extending the bellows out pretty far, you may have to calculate in the bellows extension factor. Thanks inverse square law for taking something fun and ruining it by making us do math. My last roll of the evening would be some sweet Ilford HP5. Yeah, rotate that back. Something I personally thought was kind of frustrating was that there is not a light meter anywhere on this beast. I don't know if you can get a finder that has one, but I guess I just assumed the camera would have one because you need a battery to operate it. But hey, you know what my mom says about assuming? She assumes my real parents didn't want me. I mean, you could always add a small light meter onto the hot shoe, but otherwise you might just have to carry one around like I did. Not exactly sure what I was after with this photo. Now, if you're ride or die for the RZ, I'd like to know why. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad camera at all, and I can see why people use it. In fact, there is no such thing as the perfect camera, except the Mamiya 7. But between the weight, the separate roll film back, and not having a light meter, this doesn't really seem like the camera for me and the crap that I usually shoot, which seems like mostly abandoned pools at this point. So I'm curious to hear what you all have to say about the camera, if you've ever used one. Or even better, if you ever used it back during film's heyday. So obviously, I didn't cover everything because I only use the camera for a short window, but hopefully I covered most of the basics, and if you're thinking about buying into this camera system, maybe this video was helpful in your decision. In the meantime, I'm gonna go ice my arms.