C41
Kodak Portra 400
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
View profile →rangefinder-medium-format
The Mamiya Six III is a folding 6x6 medium-format rangefinder camera introduced around 1949, the third iteration in Mamiya's founding product line. Produced at the Setagaya factory, it retains the 120-film, 6x6 cm self-erecting bellows design of its predecessors while incorporating a more refined finder arrangement. Reports indicate the Six III improved the rangefinder and viewfinder integration compared to the Six II, moving toward a combined finder window that became standard on subsequent models. The lens is typically a Zuiko or Lausar optic in a leaf shutter.
Reference
Recommended film stocks for the — format your camera takes.
C41
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
View profile →C41
Kodak Portra 160 is a professional C-41 color negative film with fine grain, soft contrast, and natural color.
View profile →C41
Kodak Ektar 100 is a fine-grain C-41 color negative film with saturated color and high sharpness.
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About this camera
Refined postwar Mamiya Six with improved viewfinder, bridging the line toward the Six IV.
| Field | Value |
|---|
| Format | 120, 6x6 cm (12 frames) |
| Mount | Fixed lens |
| Years | ~1949 - ~1954 |
| Lens | ~75/3.5 Zuiko or Lausar |
| Shutter | 1s - 1/200s + B, leaf |
| Flash sync | ~PC sync on some units |
| Meter | None |
| Modes | Manual |
| Weight | ~700 g |
| Battery | None |
The Mamiya Six III emerged as Japan's postwar camera industry moved into higher gear in the late 1940s. Competition from other Japanese manufacturers - Minolta, Olympus, Petri, and others all fielded 120 folding cameras - pushed incremental improvements across the board. The Six III reflects this pressure: Mamiya refined the finder mechanics and overall fit and finish relative to the Six II without abandoning the proven formula.
Precise boundaries between the Six II and Six III, and between the Six III and Six IV, are not well established in surviving Western documentation. Japanese camera historians have documented the sequence, but the variant designations were not always prominently marked on the bodies themselves, contributing to collector confusion. The Six III is the penultimate model before the Six IV, which is the best-documented and most commonly encountered variant of the folding Mamiya Six line.
The Six III is significant primarily as the immediate predecessor to the Six IV, helping to chart the evolution of Mamiya's rangefinder design philosophy in the years just before the company pivoted toward its TLR and press-camera lines. The improvement to the finder is meaningful: earlier Japanese folding cameras often had separated viewfinder and rangefinder windows that required the photographer to shift their eye between the two. A combined or improved finder reduced that friction for working photographers.
For collectors, the Six III occupies a specific slot in the Mamiya Six chronology and is sought by those assembling complete sequences of the line. Its photographic utility is comparable to the other folding Six variants - capable in good light with appropriate film.
BW
Kodak Tri-X 400 is a classic black-and-white film known for strong tonality, visible grain, and documentary character.
View profile →Mamiya Six III
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