Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

Mamiya 6 (1989)

Mamiya · Mamiya 6 mount · 56×56mm on 120 (12 exposures) or 220 (24 exposures). The 6 MF of 1993 adds a 6×4.5 mask and a 35mm panoramic adapter; the 6×4.5 frame is horizontal, so the count per roll does not change. · 1989

single source, unconfirmed via machine translation — corrections welcome

Also known as: Mamiya 6 · New Mamiya 6 · Mamiya 6 MF · Mamiya 6MF · マミヤ6 · ニューマミヤ6 · NEW MAMIYA 6 · Mamiya 6 75mm · Mamiya 6 rangefinder

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Mamiya 6 (New Mamiya 6) Mamiya 6 1989–1993 — —
Mamiya 6 MF Mamiya 6 1993–1995 — —
  1. Weight and dimensions are the manual's figures for the body without lens. Reviewers weigh complete outfits differently: Mike Eckman 926 g body and 1,284 g with the 75mm, Japan Camera Hunter 900 g and 1,150 g, Emulsive 1,150 g with the 75mm. See `disputed`.
  2. The folding Mamiya Six of 1940 to the late 1950s (Models I to V, K, K2, IV B, IV S, P and the Automat) is a different camera that focuses by moving the film plane; listings for it are excluded by the filter and belong on no page in this wave.
  3. The December 1992 US retail prices come from one review as reported by Mike Eckman; no other price, and no Japanese list price, was found.
  4. End of production is unsettled: 1995 for the line (English Wikipedia, Japan Camera Hunter) against 1999 for the 6 MF (Mike Eckman).
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Lens mount retracts about 31mm into the body at the press of a button; the shutter is locked while it is retracted
  • Internal cloth dark slide operated by a dial on the base; the lens cannot be removed until it is closed, and the shutter cannot fire until it is open
  • Three bright-line frames (50, 75, 150) selected automatically by the mounted lens; 0.58× finder
  • Shutter speed dial on the top plate with B, 4s to 1/500, A and AEL; early bodies use a circle and a square for the AE settings
  • Emergency winding-stop release button on the base for use when the batteries die mid-roll
  • MF on the nameplate marks the 1993 multi-format body

Mamiya 6 (New Mamiya 6):

  • 6×6 only: no 6×4.5 mask and no 35mm panoramic adapter; a panoramic adapter fitted to this body cannot rewind the film (Mike Eckman)
  • Early bodies are marked with a circle and a square where later ones read AE and AEL (Mike Eckman)
  • Retractable lens mount with release button; internal cloth dark-slide curtain worked by a dial on the base

Mamiya 6 MF:

  • MF on the nameplate; MF stands for multi-format
  • Takes the 6×4.5 format mask and matching finder mask, and the 35mm panoramic adapter kit, which the plain 6 cannot use

Serial-range notes

Letter prefix plus five digits (e.g. C00019)
No published serial scheme. A Photrio thread on Mamiya 6 serials, reached only through a search extract, shows a body numbered C00019; nothing consulted ties prefixes to years or to the 6/6 MF split, which is read from the nameplate instead.

Specifications

Format
56×56mm on 120 (12 exposures) or 220 (24 exposures). The 6 MF of 1993 adds a 6×4.5 mask and a 35mm panoramic adapter; the 6×4.5 frame is horizontal, so the count per roll does not change. · 12 on 120, 24 on 220 exposures
Finder
combined coupled rangefinder/viewfinder, automatic bright-line frame selection by lens, automatic parallax compensation · 0.58× magnification · 50mm, 75mm, 150mm framelines · automatic, one frame at a time, selected by the mounted lens · automatic parallax correction · 83% coverage
Base length
60 mm
Effective baselength
34.8 mm
Shutter
none in body; #00 electronic leaf shutter in each lens, electromagnetic release; an internal cloth dark-slide curtain covers the film for lens changes · B, 4s to 1/500 (set on the body dial, timed electronically in the lens) · flash sync all speeds, X contact, hot shoe and cord socket · self-timer
Film advance
single-stroke lever with automatic first-frame stop; winding-stop interlock with an emergency release button on the base for a depleted battery
Back
hinged, fixed; 120 or 220 by pressure-plate setting
Meter
silicon photodiode in the viewfinder, centre-weighted, EV 3.5 to 18 at ISO 100 with the 75mm f/3.5; aperture-priority AE, AE lock and manual; exposure compensation +2 to -2 EV in 1/3 steps; ISO 25 to 1600; two 1.5V SR44/LR44/MS76 cells
Motor drive
Not compatible
Weight
890 g
Dimensions
155 × 109 × 69 body only (54 deep with the mount retracted); 155 × 109 × 106 with the 75mm (75 deep retracted); weight_g is the bare body per the manual, 1,140 g with the 75mm mm
Country
Japan
Original price
US$1,450 body only, US$2,570 with the 75mm f/3.5, retail as quoted in a December 1992 US review (Mike Eckman); street prices about a quarter lower. No launch price in yen or dollars was found. (today $3,240)
Accessories
6×4.5 format mask with finder mask (6 MF only) · 35mm panoramic adapter kit (6 MF only) · Auto Close-up Lens for the 75mm f/3.5, coupled to the rangefinder, focusing to 50cm · Diopter correcting lenses +3 to -3 · Tripod adapter N, shared with the M645 Super · Bayonet hoods for the 50 and 75, screw-in hood for the 150, all supplied with the lenses · Lens case Type A

Manual figures: 0.58× magnification, 83% of the field of view visible at infinity, base length 60mm, effective base length 34.8mm. Shutter speed, over/under exposure and a battery warning are shown by LEDs inside the finder; the exposure display and the safety interlock warning LED sit at the upper right.

Where sources disagree

Last
  • 1995 — English Wikipedia ('the line was discontinued in 1995'); Japan Camera Hunter (6 MF 1993–1995)
  • 1999 — Mike Eckman (6 MF 'continued until 1999')

Better supported: 1995, on two sources against one

The 1989 body is agreed to have run to 1993, when the 6 MF replaced it.

Weight (grams)
  • 890 g body, 1,140 g with the 75mm — New Mamiya 6 instruction manual
  • 926 g body, 1,284 g with the 75mm — Mike Eckman
  • 900 g body, 1,150 g with the 75mm — Japan Camera Hunter
  • 1,150 g with the 75mm — Emulsive

Better supported: The manual's figures

Reviewers weigh bodies with batteries, strap and caps; the manual's figure is the bare body.

Mamiya-6-mf (panoramic frame on 35mm)
  • 24×54mm — English Wikipedia; Emulsive
  • 24×56mm — Japanese Wikipedia product list

Both describe the same adapter kit; the Mamiya 7's kit is 24×65mm.

Announced
  • Photokina 1986, released 1989 — camera-wiki
  • May 1989 — Mike Eckman

Not a conflict: an announcement and a release date.

What reviewers say

History

The Mamiya 6 of 1989 is a 6×6 rangefinder with three interchangeable lenses, an electronic leaf shutter in each of them, aperture-priority automatic exposure, and a lens mount that retracts into the body. Its manual calls it the New Mamiya 6, because Mamiya had used the name before: the folding Mamiya Six of 1940 to the late 1950s, made in a dozen versions from the Model I to the Automat, was a fixed-lens folder that focused by moving the film plane, and camera-wiki keeps it on a separate page for that reason. The two share the name and the square frame and nothing else, which is why sellers’ listings for the folder are filtered out here. camera-wiki has the new camera shown at Photokina 1986 and sold from 1989; Mike Eckman puts the release in May of that year.

The specification page in the manual fixes the numbers. The body weighs 890 g and measures 155 × 109 × 69mm, or 54mm deep with the mount retracted; with the 75mm it is 1,140 g and 106mm deep, 75mm retracted. The rangefinder has a 60mm base and an effective base of 34.8mm behind a 0.58× finder showing 83 per cent of the field at infinity, with bright-line frames for the 50, 75 and 150mm lenses selected automatically when a lens is mounted and parallax corrected as the lens focuses. The silicon photodiode meter reads EV 3.5 to 18 at ISO 100 with the 75mm f/3.5, over a film-speed range of ISO 25 to 1600, and the body dial runs from B and 4 seconds to 1/500 with A and AEL positions and compensation of plus or minus 2 EV in thirds. Two SR44 or LR44 cells drive everything, and when they die the shutter locks; a recessed button on the base releases the winding stop so the roll can be finished, at the cost of one frame.

The dark slide is the feature that lets the system work. Because every lens carries its own shutter, the film would be exposed the moment a lens came off; the Mamiya 6 has a cloth curtain inside the body, wound across by a dial on the base, and the interlocks refuse to remove a lens while it is open or to fire the shutter while it is closed. The retracting mount is the other: a button lets the whole mount and lens slide about 31mm back into the body, and the shutter is locked while it is there. The three lenses are the G 50mm f/4 L, the G 75mm f/3.5 L and the G 150mm f/4.5 L, and the Japanese Wikipedia product list is explicit that no others were ever offered.

The 6 MF of 1993 is the same camera with multi-format additions: a 6×4.5 mask with a matching finder mask, and an adapter kit for 35mm film giving a panoramic frame that English Wikipedia and Emulsive quote as 24×54mm and the Japanese product list as 24×56mm. Because the 6×4.5 frame is laid horizontally the count per roll stays at 12 and 24. Mike Eckman warns that the panoramic adapter does not work on a plain 6, which lacks the rewind coupling, so the MF nameplate is worth paying for if 35mm is the point. He also notes that the earliest bodies mark the AE positions with a circle and a square where later ones say AE and AEL. When production ended is not agreed: English Wikipedia and Japan Camera Hunter say 1995, Eckman runs the MF to 1999.

Buying advice from the reviews and the Japanese shop guides converges on four checks. The bellows behind the retracting mount can develop pinholes, which fog film and are expensive to repair (Sunrise Camera, one-scene). The film-advance interlock is the failure owners report most (Eckman’s readers). The rangefinder’s upper and lower images should coincide at infinity, which the manual itself lists among the periodic checks. And the shutter button is a hair trigger with little half-press feedback, so an accidental frame on a test roll is not by itself a fault (Japan Camera Hunter). The only price found is the December 1992 US retail quoted by Eckman, $1,450 for a body and $2,570 with the 75mm; no launch price in yen, and no production figure of any kind, turned up in anything consulted.

Expand Collapse

This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Photographs

Mamiya 6 (1989)
Mamiya 6 with the G 75mm f/3.5 L — Zebrio (Flickr), uploaded by File Upload Bot (Magnus Manske), via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Mamiya 6 (1989)
Mamiya 6 with 75mm f/3.5, front view — Zebrio (Flickr), uploaded by File Upload Bot (Magnus Manske), via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

More sample photos elsewhere

These photographers keep all rights to their work — enjoy it at the source.

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $300 across 16 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-19 (middle half $190–$1,500). First day tracked.

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

Show 18 more listings

Buying from Yahoo! Auctions outside Japan. It is a domestic marketplace: sellers ship within Japan, and most will not register an overseas buyer. A proxy service bids on your behalf, receives the item and forwards it, for a fee and a wait. Buyee, Jauce and ZenMarket each accept a Yahoo auction number directly. Listed alphabetically for information — none is recommended over another, and none of these is an affiliate link.

Listings updated 2026-09-19. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Mamiya 645 Super / Pro / Pro TL · Mamiya 7 · Mamiya C220 · Mamiya C330 · Mamiya Universal Press

Lenses for this body: Mamiya G 150mm f/4.5 L (Mamiya 6) · Mamiya G 50mm f/4 L (Mamiya 6) · Mamiya G 75mm f/3.5 L (Mamiya 6)

Sources (15)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this camera, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.