The Mamiya C330 Professional is a Twin Lens Reflex 6×6 camera using 120 or 220 film and was in production from the mid 1950′s until 1994. Making-up the system were 7 lenses, 6 finders, sheet film backs, several focusing screens and other assorted accessories.

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This system comes complete with the following prime lenses: Sekor 55mm f/4.5; Sekor 80mm f/2.8; Sekor 135mm f/4.5; Sekor 180mm f/4.5 and Reflex Viewer.

Dual Shutter release, focus and wind controls are positioned in logical positions for easy use. Shutter and aperture controls are not visible from the top to view them you must turn the camera on its side. There is no exposure information in the viewfinder, and there are no coupled meters available.

Later lenses were in black and all resolve exceptionally sharply at the center at all apertures, there is a slight drop-off at the corners but still sharp from f/5.6 and smaller. Resolution is up to professional standards even now. The 135mm is extremely sharp especially around f/11 or so but all lenses perform extremely well. With the bellows shorter lenses can focus very closely.  Although, not optimized for macro work you can still get really close.

The lenses all have leaf shutters meaning that electronic flash synchronises at all shutter speeds. There is also an M sync available for use with the older flashbulb system.

As standard the Mamiya C330 has a folding waist level finder with flip up magnifier. Waist level viewing is reversed left to right so you will need to practice, quite a lot, so that you will be able to follow moving subjects. There is an all glass ‘pentaprism’ that gives correct left to right viewing and a ‘porroprism’ constructed from mirrors available as accessories.

As the viewing lens is 50mm higher than the taking lens there is a parallax error. On some models there is a finder indication as to where the top of the frame cut-off is but the camera body has to be set for the correct lens mounted for this to be accurate.

The Mamiya C330 Professional TLR works well for a lot of applications: it’s great for individual or small group portraits with the 135mm lens; wonderful for landscapes and it was a wedding photographer’s favourite for many years. If you wish to get into the medium film format then this is a great kit. All in all this is a great camera – a great all rounder!

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