Mamiya M645 hands on review

A friend lend me his Mamiya m645(top speed 1/500) with 80/2.8,two inserts,chimney finder,lots of filters and close up rings. He wants to sell it but doesnt have the time to check its operation.

I clicked away one film,will do another then develop - the camera handles well but is bulky and heavy to be used handheld for a long time. I like it.

2/2/06 UPDATE
I shot two films with the mamiya(both kodak pan-x 15 years expired developed for 15 minutes in tetenal ultrafin liquid 1+20 at 20 degrees centigrate) they are tack sharp and I want to print them by hand- not to ruin my impression by the overpriced minilab scans of shitty quality.

Things I like about the Camera:

1)Handholdable at 1/60 with no grip and normal lens,didnt try lower
2)very sharp and contrasty lens,gresat details
3)AE possible with prism
4)15 frames on film(not 12 as in 6x6 I am familiar with)
5)great image spacing-very constant(a problem with many older mf cameras)
6)Stop Down Via auto-manual lever on lens
7)80/1.9 is available as normal lens
8)losts long on 1 battery
9)very cheaply available today,lenses also
10)bright focusing screen
11)looks sturdy-I think it wont break easily if dropped

Things I don't like about the camera:

1)no accessory shoe
2)practicly impossible to shoot vertical shots with the chimney finder
3)finder isn't sealed- seems to attract dust
4)requires battery for shutter(6V)
5)for that size\weight I would prefer 6x6 negs
6)needs changing bag to change inserts in mid roll-back is easier-but more expensive
7)no half stops on the normal lens
8)15 frames per film(not 16)

I want to test it with slides to see how the lens renders color.

Statskiy Sovetnik ; Hell is for Heroes - Learn how to be a man from Mcqeen

watched the two above mentioned movies.

Statskiy sovetnik is pretty good(much better then Turkish Gambit) but still a russian try to outholywood holywood. A cast of accomplished actors makes the movie a good one but it's the same actors you see in every new russian movie(plus 2 or 3old school one -Tabakov,Menshikov,Mikhalkov)

Hell is for Heroes is a movie worth watching as a mandatory manliness lesson from Steve Mcqeen. It is impossible being a pansy after watching him. Even with such a queer ass last name and the fact he went back into religion before he died he still is the man.

Now a biography leeched from imdb and commented by me

"Steve McQueen was known for his wild antics and crazy lifestyle. He loved motorcycles(triumph) and fast cars. He performed most of his stunts and many he wasn't supposed to."

Everyone knows that a manly man needs to be a speed freak. Triumph bikes are for real men.

"Trained in Tang Soo Do with 9th degree blackbelt Corps.Was a pallbearer at the funeral of Bruce Lee.Served in the United States Marine "

Violence is manly.being connected to the king of ultra violence is Meega-Manly.
Serving in the marines is Giga-Manly.It is so manly you grow extra nuts.

"In the sixties, he publically threatened to break Howard Hughes nose if Hughes did not stop harassing Mamie Van Doren, a woman both men had had affairs with, but at different times. Needless to say, Hughes never bothered Van Doren again."

Hughes is the aviator as portrayed but that girl leonardo dicaprio.Tell me you wouldnt like to kick his ass.

"Dropped out of school in 9th grade.Was expelled from the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) for riding his motorcycle through the College of Fine Arts building."

Schools out for summer.

To sum up - the last 3 or so minutes of the movie Hell is for Heroes should teach you how to die like a Real Man-through dynamite at nazi pillbox,get machineguned,repeat,die.

finished Breakfast at Tiffany's

A well written book.A lot of pleasant inuendo about unpleasant life facts. A story of a normal person meeting an unordinary person(a brush with greatness) and being changed for life(the picture of dorian gray,the little prince are examples I can think of).

North by northwest ; Night on earth

North by northwest- a great movie if you could get someone instead of cary grant - i hate that latent homosexual,with his fake tan and shitty humor.Hitchcock is obviously a great director


Night on earth-simple camera technique-great script and directing.A truly good movie looking like it's easy to make and reflects on th banalities of life.

Confederacy of Dunces ; Pet Cemetary

I have finished the above mentioned books.

Confederancy of Dunces(John Kennedy Toole)- a sixties classic,not very wide known to the general public today.A worthwihile bookhystericly funny,unlike the life of the author.

Pet Cemetary -introduction is not necesary - in short if you need a book that doesnt challenge you much to read on a plane or a bus to work(like i did) it's a good candidate - my "new" book for the ride to work is "Green Mile", my new bedside books will be either Kapote's "breakfast at tiffany's"(which I started) or Hemingway's "A Moveable Feast".Maybe rereading Lolita.

got the nikon fm2n!

feels great!now testing it with a loaned 50/1.4 ai and 200 sensia.

"The Aristocrats"

Comedy at its filthiest - features lots of comedians - most of whom are funny - Hilarious.

Coco Rosie - Noah Ark - Sucks

Listened to coco rosie's "Noah Ark" it sucks! Compared to Le Meison De Mon Reve it is reduntant and unintrested.

Last Emperor ; Broken Flowers ; Nosferatu 1979

Watched the last emperor - the long 200 minute version - it is a very good movie - which has suprisingly little anachronisms,and bitchin' acting. The advisors are reputedly the emperors brother(or cousin) and his biographer.

Watched Broken Flowers. A good movie but hardly Jaramusch at his best. Bill Murray found the golden middle between comedy and drama and towards the later years of his career shows his real talent.

Watched Nosferatu The Phantom of the Night(Werner Herzog's remake of Murnau's 1922 silent film) with Isabella Adjani and Klaus Kinski - I watched the german version - I know of a English one in exsistance with the original actors voices - it wasn't dubbed but shot parallel.

The movie is a perfect blend of the original Nosferatu and Dracula, leaning towards Nosferatu.If you take into acound that 55 years, color, sound,the copyright to dracula(which was the reason for the changed names in Nosferatu 1922),the 1979 version having a miniscule budget and being shot in Delft and West Germany(Instead of Bremen and Slovakia) are the differences between the original and the remake - the movie is still faithull to the origin. Even The added scenes(A lot of the scenes are one foe one)are in place.A great leisurely paced horror with a strong dramatic and humane emphasis - the horror being less important than the drama. I like the portrayal of Dr. Van Helsing as a older friend of the family and a Medical Doctor and not the bravado vampire hunter he is in the book. The actors are superb and their physical appearance fits perfectly with their roles.

Rumors of new toys

I am promised a couple of cameras. I dont expect leicas,but hope they are not point and shoots. One of them is a tlr if the description is right.
I love freebies.

Yashica is dead. Kurosawa's Dreams

Yashica was looking deadish and I decided to send it to Oleg Khalyavin.
After I let it lay for a week or so I tried to work the shutter-no response. I disasembled it and found the problem is in the copal shutter Assembly.That sucks.Hope Oleg can fix it.I ordered a Zorki 4 with Jupiter 8 from him.
Thats the second camera that died this month - the other is a practika mtl3.
I have noooo luck.

Watched Akira Kurosawa's Dreams(Yume)-you can see that the man was trained as a painter. The whole movie is like a series of paintings of different schools. To what level do you need to get in order to make your dreams into a movie(and not being in porn)?

Neil Young; Nikon FM2n; The Conformist

I started listening to Neil Young and liked it.

I have closed a deal on a Nikon FM2n Black.

Watched The Conformist.Great film.