Mamiya ZD - Almost Here

By Claus Possberg
Freely translated into English by Michael Reichmann

During the recentNature Photo Daysexhibition in Germany I had the opportunity to try out one of the 40 preproduction units of the Mamiya ZD that are currently (early June 2005) available for testing. The very nice people at Mamiya in Munich were also very patient in answering my questions. This camera is the first completely integrated digital medium format camera – not just an adapted digital back solution.
The body tested appears to be almost full production quality, at least as far as features, functions and build quality are concerned. I found the handling to be quite good, with the large body fitting comfortably in my relatively large hands. The weight is within a few grams of the Canon 1Ds MkII, and the Mamiya even a breath narrower. That is amazing, considering that the sensor, mirror and prism are nearly twice as large.

On the left side of the body are slots for two seperate memory cards (CF and SD) ...