Dah, Yeah !

So, they sent the adapter on its way from Southern Sweden to Stockholm. I assume it will arrive in two days - tomorrow - and then i can make the very first tests. A glimpse of what Mamiya RZ67 lenses are like when used on a Fujifilm GFX mediumformat camera...

Cool ! I really look forward to it.

 

Mamiya RZ67 lenses are electronic...

There is nothing that can control these lenses electronically - other than being on a Mamiya RZ67 battery powered body. Despite that - there is one way to use it on (for example) a Fujifilm GFX camera, by putting it into a manual open shutter mode.

You have to set the lenses into a manual position in which the so called central shutter (an internal shutter inside the lens) stays open permanently. By using the T* function - which is a little switch on the lens body - that when activated keeps the shutter open. The use for this is that the T* function doesn't use any battery. It is like a manual "B" mode, without using battery, so to speak. For example when you wish to do several minute exposures.

It is a way to save battery life.

 

The mechanism
(shutter staying open, and the aperture closing down)

The T* function keeps the aperture value to the value of your choice physically. (Manual, stopped down aperture). With one ring in the Fotodiox RZ adapter you recook the internal shutter mechanism until it says "click" - and the active aperture stays in the "as it is-mode", e.g. stopped down to the value of your choice. (instead of staying wide open all the time)

Novoflex and Hartblei use a different mechanism: though a special lever, roundish unit that you install where the physical aperture level is located on the side of the lens. That lever is normally used in order to see how the DOF looks like with stopped down aperture). [Not visible in the lens photo below]

With a Pentax 6x7 lens for example, you move a physical switch to "manual", and the physical aperture stays at the value of your choice. While in "auto" mode, the aperture always stays wide open, regardless what ƒ value you have chosen on the aperture ring !

The only thing that can or may happen with the Mamiya RZ67 lens is, when you lightly touch the T* switch by accident - it can easily snap out. Then simply recook the ring on the Fotodiox adapter, and it works again.

 


Mamiya Sekor Z 150mm ƒ3.5 W

 

One direction, but not into the other

By the way...

You can't use electronic Mamiya RZ67 Sekor Z lenses on totally mechanical Mamiya RB67 cameras. But you can use manual Mamiya RB67 Sekor C lenses on electronic Mamiya RZ67 cameras. Albeit the camera needs to be set into a special manual shutter mode, in order to use RB67 Sekor C or refined, newer KL lenses.

 

 

BORING weather... again

We had at least three nights in which i saw the stars... as it was clear or partially clear. Last night and this morning however, it was all frosty (-3°C) and foggy. Now it is all overcast... gray and boring. A very typical Scandinavian type of sky during wintertime. I am sure that Central Europe also has a lot of such skies during winter time. So, it ain't just Scandinavia.

But here, the light stays much shorter... which adds to the gloomy feeling. Mild winter weather almost always means overcast, foggy or cloud rich skies.

It just is the way it is.

 

The first TWO spring signs

in my worlds are following: First out, you hear already now in the end of January, and often in February, especially towards the end - a LOT more birds singing. Even early when it is still dark, you hear them everywhere. The other morning, I noticed this... bird songs in the morning. In the end of January.

The second sign, is the LIGHT OF THE SUN. By mid or end of February, the sun feels all of the sudden much stronger. There is an intensity in the light itself, a sort of glow... that you normally don't feel in December or January.

I call those the first "spring" signs.


Page 39 • Year 2025