REVIEWS - Mamiya ZD dSLR

OVERVIEW

Mamiya announced the Mamiya ZD dSLR in mid 2005 with first deliveries in late 2006 / early 2007. The Mamiya ZD was very expensive with an initial price tag of $22,000. Mamiya never imported the ZD dSLR to the United States, so the camera never really went anywhere in North America. If shopping for a used Mamiya ZD, most likely it will come from Europe or Asia.

The Mamiya ZD was the first fully-integrated all-in-one medium format dSLR. Leica was second to market with their Leica S2, followed by Pentax with their 645D. The Mamiya still has the largest sensor (48mm x 36mm), thus is the closet to being a full-frame digital 645 medium format. On the downside, the Mamiya ZD was already out of date by the time is started shipping. Its small 1.8” rear LCD is generally considered the reason why MAC group (Mamiya’s US distributor at the time) decided not to import the Mamiya ZD dSLR to the US. However, eventually MAC group did import the Mamiya ZD digital back.

BUILD QUALITY AND HANDLING

The Mamiya ZD is like an over-sized Canon 5D, but with a large 48x36mm Dalsa sensor at its heart. The grip is only slightly wider and deeper than the Canon 1Ds Mark III’s. The ZD is thicker than a Canon 1-series, but not quite as tall. The total volume is probably similar - just pushed and squeezed in a different shape. The build quality is very nice and camera is very nice to use.

The Mamiya ZD’s optical viewfinder has 98% coverage - basically what you see in the viewfinder is what you get. Interchangeable focus screens were available for the Mamiya ZD - a grid screen and split / microprism screen. The picture below is a reproduction of the ZD’s viewfinder and illustrates the information presented -

Mamiya ZD dSLR Viewfinder

The rubber grip is the same type as the 645AFD II’s. The ZD uses slightly larger plastic buttons which are an improvement over the 645AFD II’s small rubber buttons. The front and rear control dials are the same and so are the power switch and focus mode selector. The focus mode selector is poorly located at the front of the camera. The selector switch is difficult to move and does not have clean detents for each AF mode. Thus, it is difficult to change focus modes while looking through the viewfinder. The newer Mamiya lenses toggle AF / MF via a ring on the lens - this is much easier.

The door for the compact flash and SD cards is difficult to open. There is a spring action lever and the door has to be slid forward - it is two handed operation. Another poor choice is the rubber cover for remote shutter release port. The rubber just presses on, so it is pretty easy for it to pop off and get lost.

Quibbling aside, the Mamiya ZD feels like a purpose built camera with its traditional PASM modes, spot/center/matrix metering modes, timer, MLU, bulb mode, hot shoe, X-sync port, shutter release port, etc. In many ways the Mamiya ZD is comparable to the original Canon 5D in terms of features. When considering the Mamiya ZD's layout, one should keep in mind the camera was designed ~2004, so the layout may seem dated by today's standards.

THE ALL-IN-ONE DESIGN

Unlike other medium format systems, the Mamiya ZD dSLR is an all-one camera with the “digital back” portion built-in. There are some advantages to an integrated design:

• The ZD camera uses ONE lithium ion battery. One battery means I do not have to carry spare batteries & charger for the digital back, plus another set of spare batteries (and charger) for the camera. The ZD comes with a compact dual charger (world voltage).
• The ZD camera is smaller and lighter than the other medium format options. The Mamiya 645AFD II weighs ~3 pounds with its 6 AAA batteries, plus another pound for the Phase One P25, plus its battery, plus the 80mm F2.8 AF kit lens. The kit weighs 5+ pounds. Whereas the Mamiya ZD weighs 2.87 pounds, the battery weighs 3.5 ounces and the 80mm lens weighs 10.6 ounces. In total 3.75 pounds. The ZD is not a petite camera, but compared to its medium format brethern - the ZD is the lightweight of the bunch.
• The ZD camera (and back) use the same Dalsa 22 MP sensor as the Aptus-22 and Sinar Emotion-22. The Dalsa sensor has a reputation for less sensor cast than the Kodak 22 MP sensor. Amazingly the ZD has not shown any signs of sensor or lens cast.
• The ZD’s auto-focus consists of three auto-focus points - which are very close together. With the ZD’s thumb pad, any of these three points can be selected INDEPENDENTLY, or all three can be selected at once for a wide focus array. Selecting the AF point is just like using thumb-stick on a Canon dSLR or the thumb pad on a Nikon dSLR.
• The ZD viewfinder has .75x magnification with 98% coverage, so no more sloppy overlay masks with crop lines. What I see in the viewfinder is what I get. The ZD’s status bar in the viewfinder is very similar to a modern dSLR showing focus point selection, focus confirmation, metering mode, shutter speed, aperture, EC adjustment, ISO, buffer status and other info.

AUTO FOCUS PERFORMANCE

The auto-focus system in the Mamiya ZD dSLR feels similar to the Mamiya 645AFD II’s both in terms of speed and sound. The auto-focus works fine for still subjects in reasonably good light. Focus can be surprisingly accurate - especially when set to spot mode. The focus mode can easily be changed from spot (uses just the single center AF point), to wide (uses all three AF points), to right to left via the rear thumb pad. I tend to leave the ZD in “spot” mode. Having the option to switch to the right or left point is nice, but in practice the three points are so close together that I do not see any reason to select them.

Like the older Nikon and Pentax cameras, the auto focus motor is in the ZD camera body. As such, focus is slower and noisier. Overall the auto focus performance feels similar to a Canon 85L in terms of speed and likelihood of hunting. There is a continuous focus mode which worked surprisingly well tracking incoming jets at DFW airport.

BATTERY PERFORMANCE

On average battery life was 300 to 500 clicks per charge. Compared to using rechargeable six AA batteries in a 645AFD II and separate LiON battery in the Phase One back, a single battery for the Mamiya ZD is a great improvement. Mamiya replacement batteries are difficult to find, the following 3rd party batteries should also work (according to other Mamiya ZD owners):

• Hitachi VM BLP13 or 13A Batteries
• JVC BN-V814 Battery
• Energizer ER-C610 Battery

THE 1.8” LCD SCREEN

The rear 1.8” LCD is fine for setting camera parameters and custom functions, but the LCD is simply too small to be of benefit when reviewing images. Reviewing an image takes 3 to 4 seconds and is not worth the wait. Instead I just keep shooting. If there is a risk of missing focus, then I focus bracket. If I am not sure how much exposure compensation is needed, then I bracket exposure. It is easier and quicker to just shoot a couple extra frames versus getting frustrated with the rear screen.

Fortunately the initial image review after a picture is taken is fairly quick. I have the screen set to the large histogram and it displays the histogram about 2 seconds after the picture is taken. On the downside, the ZD will NOT display the histogram of the first image if a second image is taken before the first image is finished writing to the CF card. If shooting one image at a time and checking the histogram after each image, then the pace is okay.

There is no denying that the rear LCD screen sucks. A possible workaround might be a compact flash converter with a WiFi SDHC card that transmits the JPG to an iPhone or iPad. Around 2014-2015 some people tried WiFi cards to varying degrees of success. The ZD only accepts SD cards (not SDHC) and UDMA 6 or earlier Compact Flash cards (not UDMA 7).

Excerpts from the Mamiya ZD User Manual

IMAGE BUFFER & SPEED OF OPERATION

For all intents and purposes, the ZD’s max ISO is 100. With ISO 100 and the slowish focus speeds, the ZD is not the right tool for action paced sports, chasing kids around, etc. It will be hard enough to get the picture in the first place, so filling the buffer is the least of the issues. On the other hand, if typically shooting a frame every 2 or 3 seconds, then ZD keeps pace just fine. There is status bar in the viewfinder showing the amount of available buffer. And it works well. The last bits about the LCD and buffer were rather negative, so I would like add - shooting with the Mamiya ZD dSLR is a very pleasant experience. Treat it like a big Cadillac from the 50’s on a Sunday drive, and it is a nice ride.

AUTO WHITE BALANCE (AWB)

Most older medium format digital backs use WB presets rather than auto white balance, whereas the Mamiya ZD does have AWB. Its AWB works well in outdoor light and under strobes. Overall the Mamiya ZD seems to be geared towards Provia-like film look. There is certain muted, calm look to its coloring. The auto white balance and colors can be adjusted for more contrasty looks, but undoing that inherent Provia color film rendition is not always easy.

SENSOR CAST AND MOIRE

Sensor cast was a BIG problem on the Phase One P25 - all my files needed a LCC profile applied in Capture One. The Mamiya ZD has not exhibited sensor or lens cast. The Mamiya ZD files do exhibit moire and false color artifacts, but not as much as the Phase One P25 did (back around 2008).

Capture One and Adobe Lightroom have come a long ways since 2008, so managing moire is easier today. The Mamiya ZD dSLR also has an optional YC301 Low Pass Filter (AA filter) to further reduce moire and color artifacts. The AA filter an optional accessory (and probably not very easy to find nowadays).

IMAGE QUALITY - MAMIYA ZD VERSUS THE CANON 1DS MARK III

Assuming both cameras are shot at their base ISO, the Mamiya ZD produces a sharper image than the Canon 1Ds Mark III. Noise in the shadows is comparable provided the Mamiya ZD image is not under-exposed. The Mamiya ZD has an extra 2/3 of a stop of dynamic range in the highlights, but the Mamiya ZD rear LCD is so small that it is near impossible to tell if something is clipped or blown out when looking at the image review. The Mamiya ZD's histogram helps, but the histogram itself is pretty small as well.

The Mamiya ZD renders nice color, but overall the Canon 1Ds Mark III colors have more depth - like a glossy picture. The Mamiya ZD’s color looks slightly muted and it does not exhibit the vibrancy found in the Canon 1Ds Mark III files. The Dalsa sensor has a base ISO of 25, but Mamiya upped the Mamiya ZD's base ISO to 50, so the Mamiya ZD’s shadow noise can become evident if the deep / dark shadows are pushed more than a stop or two. Again, raw editors have come along ways in terms of shadow recovery and noise reduction, so file can be reasonably pushed, but do not expect Sony A7rIVa kind of results.

The Mamiya ZD files produce excellent black and white images. The camera’s mix of good highlight retention and open shadows result in black and white images with nice highlight and shadow roll-offs. The highlights in particular have a very flimic character.

IMAGE QUALITY - FILE SHARPNESS

The Mamiya ZD files are sharper than the Canon 1Ds Mark II and 1Ds Mark III files, so the ZD is sharper than a dSLR, but not quite as sharp as a Phase One P25. In 2008 / 2009 I did not apply much sharpening in Capture One, instead the sharpening was done in Photoshop and selectively applied via layers. Fast forward to 2018 and raw editors like C1 have come a long, long ways with built-in layers. With today’s sharpness, clarity controls and layers options, the Mamiya ZD raw files are plenty sharp. The Mamiya ZD has no anti-aliasing (AA) filter, so the bigger risk is moire.

IMAGE QUALITY - SHADOW NOISE

At ISO 50 (the base ISO for both the Mamiya ZD and Phase One P25) the P25 files are extremely clean and the shadows can be boosted multiple stops with little noise penalty. Whereas the Mamiya ZD files can handle about 1 stop EC adjustment; past 1-stop may require additional noise reduction or some other type editing to mitigate the noise.

On the other hand, the Mamiya ZD holds highlights better than any camera I have used (as of ~2009). When shooting a landscape scene with the Phase One P25, I under-exposed by 1/3 to 2/3 EC to keep clouds from clipping. Whereas with the ZD, EC adjustment is seldom needed. The ZD mid-tones and shadows are fairly open, so usually I can reduce them slightly (with levels edits or curve edits in Photoshop) and hide shadow noise.

The Mamiya ZD has a maximum ISO of 400, but the quality is poor. The Mamiya ZD is best left at ISO 50 with ISO 100 & 200 used only as needed. ISO 400 might be more usable with improved RAW editor capabilities, but do not get your expectations too high.

IMAGE QUALITY - LONG EXPOSURES

The Mamiya ZD can deliver clean exposures up to 3-4 second long, but as the sensor heats up, noise becomes increasingly problematic. Four or five seconds is probably the Mamiya ZD’s maximum exposure. With noise reduction enabled, the ZD takes a black frame exposure after each image. The ZD must complete that 2nd exposure before it can shoot the next frame. In post, hot pixel noise reduction is key (Capture One has this feature). Generally, with the hot pixel noise suppression and some light color and luminosity noise reduction, the Mamiya ZD does an okay job with exposures up to ~4 seconds. Eliminating the hot pixels is about 90% of the noise.

CONCLUSION

The Mamiya ZD dSLR was a camera I always wanted to own. In late 2008 I purchased a used Mamiya ZD dSLR and used it for about a year. Looking back across all the digital medium systems I have owned, I consider the Mamiya ZD as the most enjoyable experience. I found the camera to be a very capable and consistent performer. Being of 2005 / 2006 vintage, the camera has its limitations compared to today’s cameras, but the Mamiya ZD is still capable of producing stunning images. And the Mamiya ZD MEF files are fully supported by Phase One’s Capture One software.

From time to time I search Ebay for used Mamiya ZD dSLRs and they sell for ~$2250 USD. That may seem pricey compared to a Nikon D850 or Sony A7rIII, but I have some rose-colored-glasses nostalgia and think $2250 is a bargain. The Mamiya ZD MEF files are fully supported in Capture One (C1), including LCC and lens corrections. Also, Phase One has improved their noise reduction with hot pixel suppression - which is something the Mamiya ZD definitely needs.

The Mamiya ZD dSLR was the “fun” camera that always worked. Looking at these pictures I can’t help but be impressed with the Mamiya ZD. It has a great film look and captured the moment. I cannot go back in time re-live or redo those moments, so I'm happy that the Mamiya ZD worked brilliantly on these given days. Time marches on and the ZD is certainly dated camera nowadays, but if wanting to "experiment" with digital medium format, the Mamiya ZD is a cheap ticket.