Plaubel Makina 67W1981

History

When the Doi Group relaunched the Plaubel brand in the late 1970s, their goal was a high-quality folding medium-format camera that would revive the German Makina's reputation for compactness and optical quality -- but built to Japanese industrial standards and using Japanese glass. The Plaubel Makina 67 debuted in 1979, carrying a Nikon-supplied Nikkor 80mm f/2.8 lens and quickly earning a devoted following among photographers who wanted 6x7 negatives without the bulk of a Mamiya RB67 or Pentax 6x7.

The 67W followed in 1981 as a wide-angle companion. Where the standard Makina 67's 80mm lens is a moderate telephoto on the 6x7 frame (equivalent to roughly 40mm on 35mm), the 55mm of the 67W provides a wide-angle view equivalent to approximately 28mm -- useful for environmental portraiture, architectural work, and landscape photography where more context is desired.

The 67W remained in limited production through the 1980s alongside the standard 67. Later variants of the standard model, including the Makina 67CB (a black edition ), were produced but the 67W did not receive equivalent variant treatment in most documented sources.

Why It Matters

The Makina 67W occupies an unusual position: a wide-angle coupled-rangefinder medium-format folder. The Mamiya 7 system (with its 43mm and 50mm lenses) is the closest modern analogue, but the Mamiya 7 is not a folder and arrived a decade later. In 1981, the 67W was nearly alone in offering a 28mm-equivalent field of view, 6x7 negative, coupled rangefinder, and a camera that could be pocketed.

The Nikkor 55/4.5 is a purpose-designed lens for the camera, corrected for the 6x7 format with attention to edge sharpness -- critical for architectural and landscape use where wide-angle lenses often falter at the corners of large negatives. Wide-open performance is adequate for general use; stopped to f/8 or f/11 the lens performs across the full 6x7 frame.

The combination of aperture-priority automation and leaf-shutter flash sync at all speeds (including 1/500s) made the 67W practical for fill-flash work in challenging light -- something that focal-plane-shutter cameras could not match.

Lenses & Accessories

The lens is fixed and non-interchangeable. Accessories include:

• Nikon L37 UV / skylight filter -- the 67W accepts standard 67mm screw filters ()
• Lens hood -- Nikon-supplied bayonet shade; reduces flare at wide angles where sky is often in frame
• Hand grip -- accessory grip available for one-handed shooting
• Close-up supplementary lenses -- diopter attachments for short distances; minimum focus on the 67W is approximately 1m
• Neck strap lugs -- standard; camera can be carried on a standard strap without additional hardware

Sample Photographers / Notable Use

• The Plaubel Makina 67 family (including the W) was used by Boris Mikhailov, the Ukrainian documentary photographer, for portions of his large-format personal projects through the 1980s and 1990s.
• Used by photographers seeking maximum portability in a wide-angle medium-format system during the 1980s, before the Mamiya 7 defined that category.
• Collected today as the rarest mainstream production variant of the Japanese-era Makina family.

References

• Camera-Wiki: Plaubel Makina 67