Rescanning much need 10-year old Sand Dune images. I had a Mamiya 7II back then. Its 43mm was excellent. I can notice it in the scan. It beats my copy of the Pentax 6x7 45mm in terms of sharpness for sure. And its view finder was really good by comparison to what I have now. So why would I not keep the camera?
Well, it just wasn't rugged enough. The camera and that 43mm commands a very high price. So much that I just feared adding wear and tear on it. The rear element on that 43mm was practically a hemisphere shape sticking out past any casing protection. When you changed that lens, you had to be really careful especially out in an environment like in this picture. And the other lenses for that system are expensive too. And the aperture ring on them is a really narrow, cheap plastic part and can easily break which one did on me.
Then there is this big, bonded on, rubber corner piece around the camera's view finder area. That came off once while pulling the camera out the camera bag out in the field. I spent a long time back-tracking trying to find it. So I decided I needed something a little more rugged for my use. But that doesn't mean it's not a good picture taking camera.
100TMX