Mamiya Camera Company of Tokyo, Japan.
Mamiya ZM, released in October 1982, was the last Mamiya 35mm camera to be produced. It has an aperture-priority automatic time control, based on center-weighted TTL readings, and an automatic shutter-speed range from 4 seconds to 1/1000 and a manual range from 2 seconds to 1/1000. The most noticeable difference to the earlier models is a body bulge on the right (left in the picture) for a more comfortable grip. I assume that ZM was only made black painted. I bought this one on Tradera.com , a Swedish online auction house (very recommendable). With the same buy I got five Mamiya Sekor E/EF lenses, which I later noticed to be quite difficult to find. The lens in the picture is Mamiya Sekor Zoom E 1:3,5 - 4,5 f = 28.50mm.
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| Shutter |
Quartz controlled metal focal plane shutter. 4 - 1/1000sec (AE) 2 - 1/1000sec and B (M) |
| Exposure meter |
Center-weighted . Meter is activated by touching the shutter release button |
| Exposure control |
Automatic exposure with aperture priority. Two steps exposure correction and exposure lock |
| Viewfinder |
Horizontal split image and microprism collar. Shutter speeds from 1/1000 to 1 sec, B, Overexposure and "long time" warnings. |
| Size and weight |
140 x 88 x 5mm , 480g |
| Film advance |
Advance lever or Mamiya Winder ZE |
| Battery |
Two LR44 or SR44 , 1.5 Volt.
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What happend?
Mamiya gave up on 35mm SLRs in the early 80s and the ZM is the last of the line. The decision was not caused by the producer itself.
J. Osawa & Co Ltd. was the worldwide distributor of Mamiya products and one of the leading trading houses for consumer products, they even sold lenses for the ZE-cameras under their own label. In 1984 J. Osawa & Co Ltd. went bankrupt. This was one of the greatest economic failures in the Japanese history. Apparently this occasion was also the main reason to drop the Mamiya 35mm line.
Today (2002) Mamiya is a maker of some of the best professional medium-format cameras, which still are the most important product branch of the company (about 40% of the total turnover). We shall see how Mamiya can rise to the challenge of the future.
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©2005 Reijo Lauro
