Mamiya 645 AFD.

For six months we had a Mamiya 645 AFD available for testing and evaluation. We took this Mamiya 645 AFD to Greece, Guatemala, and Germany to see how it did out on location. The Mamiya 645 AFD was coupled with a Leaf Valeo 22 wireless.

Our entire team labored for months, and we produced more than a dozen reports, the largest series of publications on a single medium format digital camera of any of the digital camera testing folks in the US.

Then Kodak bought Creo. Creo owns Leaf. Leaf is distributed in the US by Mamiya America Corporation (MAC). Until Creo, Leaf, Mamiya, and Kodak figure out who will distribute the Leaf camera backs in the future, we returned the Leaf, Mamiya 645 AFD camera body and three nice lenses, back to Mamiya America Corporation.

Since we are dedicated to medium format digital cameras, we need to constantly be evaluating medium format digital camera backs, so with no Leaf or Mamiya available, we switched to Hasselblad and Imacon. We are also looking forward to testing Phase One and Rollei 6008 AF cameras. In this manner we can provide a more comprehensive service to our readers, who want to know the differences, pros, and cons of all brands of medium format digital cameras, so people who read the FLAAR Reports will be informed and savvy buyers.

Currently we are evaluating a unique MegaVision E4 series 16-megapixel dedicated B&W camera (on an aged Hasselblad ELX body).

Mamiya 645 AFD

FLAAR tests everything having to do with digital photography, including the accessories. Here is an ideal setup for professional photography out on location: a Manfrotto tripod with Gitzo off-center ball head (BogenImaging) holding a Hasselblad H1 with Imacon Ixpress 528C digital back (SSI-Digital).

This camera is totally portable and does not require any computer whatsoever for 1-shot mode. But we wanted to test it in 4-shot and 16-shot mode, so we added a Mac Titanium laptop. You can't see anything on a LCD monitor outside in the sun, so we used a Screen-Shade (via Lee Filters). The laptop is comfortably seated on a table-top tripod head from Gitzo (Bogen Imaging).

As you would expect from a university research professor and director of a digital imaging institute, we have separate reports on every single camera, tripod, tripod head, sun screen in this setup.

 

Most recently updated February 28, 2006.
First posted April 27, 2005.