The
Plaubel Makina 67 is a strut-folding 120 film rangefinder camera,
6 x 7 format,
released in 1978, after the German firm had been bought in 1975 by the
Japanese Kimio Doi Group. The body was redesigned by Konica on the
basis of a German pre-production model. It resembles the older German
Makinas. Until 1981 the camera was produced by Copal, the famous
shutter company and then by Mamiya.
The Plaubel Makina 67
is a late model for a 120 film camera. It has a very
good rangefinder with parallax correction, an ingenious coupled light meter system and a reputed Nikkor lens.
Size (mm): 162 x 120 x 56 Weight: 1360 g Lens: Nikkor 2.8/80, closest focus 1 m Shutter: Copal, B, 1 - 1/500, F 2.8 - 22 Finder: coupled rangefinder Film advance: automatic, lever
Here
are some photos of the camera. There is a short introduction to the use of it and how it
feels at the bottom of the page.
Camera
front, folded. Top: film advance, rangefinder window, viewfinder window. Bottom: opening button.
Seen
from the back. Top: Viewer, film advance and little light meter button.
Seen from the bottom. Tripod socket.
Seen
from above. Top of the body: film counter, multi-function unit, from
the center: shutter button, depth-of-the-field scale, focusing ring and
film advance lever .
Camera extended. Aperture and speed setting at the front of the lens.
Left side. Camera back opening button, flash connection, film speed setting.
. Right side. Battery compartment (2x G13)
Film chamber. Note the little red buttons that liberate the pegs.
As
somebody asked for it: the rangefinder image. It is difficult to
photograph, but it gives an idea. There are bright framelines, which
move according to the distance (parallax correction). (The short lines
pre-indicate the margines in case of 1m.) It has a bright square spot
for the double image. The diodes for exposure metering will appear in
the black area to the right.
Handling
a Plaubel Makina 67 is easy,
it's like other folding cameras. Loading film
is very easy as well because of the little red buttons that liberate
the pegs. Open the
camera back and put the
film roll into place. Same
procedure for the take-up spool. Insert the film
paper
backing
into the spool and advance it using the lever until the start arrow
meets the indication marks . Close the camera back. Advance the film
via the advance lever, it stops automatically and the film counter will
show "1".
Press
the camera opening button on the front and extend the struts. Look
through the finder and set the focus. Set speed/aperture with the help
of the metering system. If it's o.k. press the shutter button. That's
it. Advance the film to the next
picture. Press the opening button again and collapse the struts.
The Plaubel Makina 67
is a very nice, quite heavy camera, easy to use. It still fits
into a
large coat pocket, but did I already mention that it's heavy? Handling is fluid and logic. The
lens gives wonderful results, the metering system is reliable. It's a
nice advance to older folders. I like it a lot.
.
