Mamiya C TLRs
Mamiya was one of the few TLR manufactures that decided to design their TLR from scratch rather than taking a page out of the book from the classic Rolleis. They are also my favorite brand for TLR for a number of reasons I'll mention in a moment. The C series spans over a period of about 38 years of production. The original camera was a Mamiyaflex which was a fixed lens TLR like most other. The C series which comprises of a pro version and an amateur/budget version uses interchangeable lens. To the best of my knowledge Mamiya was the only brand of TLR cameras to use interchangeable lens.
The 3* series (C3/C33/C330) were considered professional as they usually contained more functionality than the C2* series (C2/C22/C220). Though near the end the 330 and the 220 had very little differences to them and both bore the "Professional" label.
In terms of price, it is quite possible to get an outfit for under 200 USD. When I got my Mamiya C3 Pro on eBay for around 140 USD, it came with a 65mm f/3.5, 105mm f/3.5, handheld light meter, several filters and adapters, rolls of film, and a leather box for one of the lens. I later purchased a C33 Pro body from keh.com for about 80 USD. So if I could get that kind of price I definitely consider it a budget TLR. When it comes to eBay, you may find it easier to look for a C2* series body with a lens for a cheaper price, as most of the C3* bodies sell for more without a lens. And the lens prices separately tend to be up into the 200$ price range at times, so it may actually be cheaper to get for example a C220 body with a lens, then buy a C3-330 body separately.
From here on I'll talk specifically about the C3 and C33 bodies (The C330 was made lighter, had the distance scale automatic in the viewfinder, and had interchangeable view screens).
It's obvious that the Mamiya C3/C33 was built on practicality more than it was built for looks. It's somewhat like saying that the Mamiya is built like a Nisan Xtera, and a Rollei is built like a Roylce Roy. The C3/C33 is somewhat heavy, but they feel solid, one could possibly say you'll break whatever you throw it at before the camera itself breaks. They don't have light meters on them, and the distance based on what lens you are using is shown usually on a metal plate attached to the side of the bellow. Film advance and frame counting is automatic, and whether or not there is a PC Sync connection depends on the lens being used. Though most Mamiya lens appear to have a PC sync socket, It is important to keep the flash setting to X for electronic when using a electronic flash. Setting this to M will cause a 1/30th of a second delay before firing as M was used for old magnesium flashes. The shooting mode can also be set between roll film, and multiple exposure / sheet. Most of the Mamiya C series TLRs had the capabilities of changing out the back to accept sheet film, normally cut down from a larger sheet for single exposure shooting.
The Mamiya C series had several lens available, they are 55mm, 65mm, 80mm, 105mm, 135mm, 180mm and 200mm. The 55mm and 200mm were usually retrofitted for some models as they were introduced at a later time. One of the most sought after lens that I know of is the 80mm f/2.8 "Blue Dot" lens. This lens is the latest series, which is also considered the black series as it was not a chrome finish like the previous two series. The "Blue Dot" signifies the color painted on the shutter cocking mechanism. 80mm is typically a "standard" lens for medium format photography, the equivalent of a 50mm on a 35mm camera. My favorite lens however is the 65mm f/3.5 I have, which is a second generation chrome series lens. The first series had non-standard shutter speeds such as 1/100th, to 1/400th, where as the second series used standard speeds such as 1/125th, 1/250th, 1/500th. The 65mm f/3.5 is a lens I use mostly for macro capabilities. It can focus up to 4 inches from a subject, giving up to about 4x life-size macro capability.
That's the other thing about the C3/C33, is how easy they make close-up photography for a TLR. Macro photography is usually best done with an SLR camera sense you can get a real idea of what is within view of the lens. As stated earlier TLR suffer from parallax, that is to say the closer the subject is from the lens, the more the shift is from what you see and what you actually capture. The C3* offers both parallax compensation and exposure compensation guide when focusing up close. On the C3, on the left side of the bellow, the closer you focus, there is a distance guide for the 65mm and 80mm lens that tells you not only how close you are getting, but how much to compensate the exposure for. Also in the view screen there are two grid marks, one at about quarter from the top, and another about 2/3rd from the top. If for example the guide on the left specifies you use 2X, then you need to place the subject under the second line, and adjust the exposure to allow in 2 more stops of light. This will not only give you proper exposure, but place the subject correctly in the frame. If it gets to be 3X you have to draw an imaginary line across the middle of the view screen. The C33 is almost the same, except in the view screen it has the exposure compensation amount, then on the left side you set what lens you are using, and a needle comes down in the view screen as you focus closer. If the needle points over 2X you have to compensate by 2 stops of light, and place the subject under where the needle is pointing. The downside to the C33 however is that the automatic parallax compensation only works down to 80mm, you have to guess what little more you need to do if you are using the 65mm lens. The close-up capability is certainly something that sets it apart from most other TLR that usually cannot focus closer than 4 foot.
The various lens can also take filters, typically a standard 49mm depending on the lens you are using. The Mamiya can also take little hoods that can be placed over the window on the waist level finder to frame a shot correctly when using the sports finder. The sports finder is simply a window that opens up on the front of the waist level finder and you just frame the subject in the box, and focus using hyper focal methods. There are also a number of waist level attachments you can use, such as the single action WLF, a double action WLF, a mirrored eye level finder, a prism, and a metered prism. You can find mirrors eye level finders cheaper as they use mirrors instead of prism, however the view will be darker and smaller. Prism are much better for eye level focusing, as they are very bright and large since they are optically showing the view screen thru the viewfinder.
Out of the entire budget TLRs out there, I find the Mamiya C3/C33 to be the most practical and robust. It's not nearly as pretty as a Rollei TLR, but I probably would not shoot as much with a Rollei as I would with a Mamiya C3/C33.
