With my Mamiya C33 through Amsterdam - It doesn't get any harder...nor heavier!
Those of you who have followed me already for some time know that, as soon as it comes to medium format photography, my all-time-favourite was the Rolleiflex Automat. Nice Zeiss lenses, very sophisticated features such as its brilliant parallax-correction, and all packed into a beautiful and handy body. But as always, there are a few niggles: exposures slower than 1/15 sec don't work anymore for my model, Rolleis with an f2.8 lens tend to be quite expensive compared to f3.5 models, for tele-models it's even worse, and if you want to extend your range of possible focal distances, you need a whole bunch of extra-lenses. Now, if you ask any old-school photographer what comes to mind if he thinks of a TLR, the answers will quite possibly be the same for every single one: the Rollei. It's just THE choice if it comes to this kind of camera, because many Asian and Russian producers have attempted to copy it, but those never really reached the practicality nor the precision of the original. Furthermore, those copies never really introduced a revolutionary new feature, they were all pretty much the same really...until Mamiya gave it a go.
The day when I discovered the medium-format Mamiya C-series, I've got quite excited, because these cameras seemed at first glance to be a complete no-brainer: interchangeable (and affordable) lenses, bellows that allow for quite nearly every focal distance you could possibly need, an external shutter so if it starts having problems, you don't have to buy a whole new camera, it is a modular camera that allows the use of different lenses, backs and viewfinders, and the best: it is a complete bargain. It was therefore an easy decision to buy one of these as soon as possible, but the day it arrived, I was in for a surprise... It is bulky, not to say huge, and it weighs more than two of my Rolleis together. Nevertheless, I wasn't disappointed: these things are incredibly rugged, so mine arrived, despite its age, in perfect condition. The Mamiya Glass is just beautiful, with very nice bokeh-effects if you open it up, and finally, it compensates the problem of its weight by its huge advantage that no extra-lenses are needed at all in order to be prepared for any situation out there.
All of those qualities really played when I took it for a trip to Amsterdam, and a session of street-photography. It worked seamlessly all day and in any situation, I was able to shoot photos I couldn't even think of when using my Rollei, which is why it got me two excellent roles of 120 film from which I would like to show you some results down-below.
Finally, let me talk a little bit about the city itself. For me it was the first time I've been to Amsterdam and the best word I can find to describe it is magnificent! In my opinion it is quite easily street-photographers' heaven. People are way less stressed than in other big cities, there are loads of young, open-minded people who didn't bother looking the other way when I came up to them with my chunky camera, I've met all kinds of different characters, personalities, which I've found as interesting as (most of them) found my strange camera, and the city itself doesn't lack in beauty either.
So that's it, my small review of the Mamiya C33 and my trip to Holland. I finally want to encourage all the people I've met and whom I gave my address to contact me, give me your opinion on my page and, most importantly, those of you I've asked for a portrait and who want it in full resolution, please contact me as well, you've been an essential element of my journey in Holland, you are part of my discovery of Amsterdam, so that's the least I can do. Hope to hear from you!
