It’s big and it’s heavy but it handles well. The Pentax 67 has been a popular upgrade for 35mm photographers for decades because it looks like it should handle just like a 35mm SLR‚ but a big one. I find the weight penalty to be a worthwhile tradeoff to be able to work with an SLR when doing this type of shooting. I found that the Pentax, though bulkier and heavier than the Mamiya, is for me a much more suitable camera for landscape work. I therefore sold the Mamiya system and purchased a Pentax 67 II. Several things got in the way, including what I feel is the inappropriateness for meof a rangefinder system for landscape work a maximum 150mm focal length at the long end, and some focusing problems with that lens. Somehow I never really became bonded to the Mamiya. I only used it on one major shoot‚ my 8 day Master Class, house boating on Lake Powell and hiking the canyons of the Escalante River arm. On a hiking or rafting trip, when away from an AC outlet for several days at a time, and in harsh weather, I need a medium format system that’s less battery dependent and a bit less finicky around water.įor about a year until recently ( late 2001), I used a Mamiya 7 II.

Primary among these drawbacks is an aversion to getting wet ( the camera, not me), but more importantly that it uses rechargeable Nicad batteries. My Rollei system, as good as it is, has a few drawback for some types of shooting that I do, in addition to being too heavy for extensive hiking. I recently put together a Pentax 67 system for use in doing landscape photography.

Making The Switch Dawn‚ White Sands Pentax 67II and 55~100mm f/4.5 zoom. I was a Hasselblad user then, and am primarily a Rollei 6008 user now, but I always found the 35mm-style handling of the Pentax to be enjoyable. We sold a lot of Pentax 67s, and though I never owned one myself I used them often, and became quite familiar with their use. In the late ’70’s I worked for a while as the manager of a large retail photographic store ( Rutherford Photo), which catered to professional photographers in Toronto.

This isn’t intended as a full review, but rather a discussion of why I purchased the Pentax, where it fits into my photographic arsenal, and my early impressions from testing as well as it using it in the field. For those interested‚ here’s the story, along with my impressions of this latest model. I now own a 67 II, and arriving at this point has been a bit of an odyssey. But, it is a significant advancement to the breed. This new version is compatible with all lenses and most accessories of the previous version. First introduced in 1969, the camera was little changed until 1998 when it was updated to the 67 II. Very few cameras have the model longevity of the Pentax 67.

Mamiya 7 ii new