The Mamiya RZ67 is hands down one the best medium format cameras ever made. In this video, Willem Verbeeck offers a relatively extensive review and breakdown of the Mamiya RZ67. For those that are not aware, I own the Mamiya RB67, the older, heavier, less-expensive, and more basic sibling to the Mamiya RZ67. I am a big fan of my camera but I must admit, over the years I have thought more than once about picking up an RZ. Why you ask? One small point that I think I may use but may not: the RZ is capable of shooting aperture priority mode with the prism finder whereas that was not an option for the RB. The bigger and the driving force behind my interest is in the lens selection. It is no secret that the RZ, newer as they are, have better coatings and strangely enough are a good deal cheaper than their RB counterparts when comparing two lens of the same focal length.
Why would someone with an RB make the change to the RZ after they’ve started building out their lens collection? Great question. The Mamiya RZ is fully capable of shooting with RB glass. The converse, however, is not true. The Mamiya RB67 can only shoot with RB glass. Though the two systems use the same mount, the RZ glass does not have a manual control of the shutter speed as it is built into the camera. Whereas, with the RB, both the aperture and shutter speed are both controlled on the lens.
At the time of writing, the Mamiya RZ67 has exploded in price over the past year. Less than 1 year ago, the local camera shop had multiple RZ67 ProII bodies and priced out a full kit for me for less than $1,000. I would not even dream of coming across that today. If you were at all interested in an RZ kit, I would say now is the time to buy as prices only seem to be getting higher and higher by the day.
What are your thoughts? Have you used the Mamiyz RZ67? What were your thoughts?
