"Toni Nikkanen" wrote:

I know this and have ordered from KEH a couple of times as well as
Adorama. However, that means I would have to pay customs and taxes,
which would inflate the price about 30%... compared to just getting
onto the return plane with the camera on my neck

I thought you'd say thatg. For 15% (which is what I thought VAT was), I'd
rather spend that day seeing something NYC (with an already tested camera)
other than the inside of a camera store. But 30% is seriously painful.

Also FWIW, I'd recommend the Mamiya 7 over the Mamiya 6.

I've been considering this and some other points and have found it to be a
very tight match - because while all you said is true, then again,
projecting 6x6 slides is far more likely to happen. Used Rollei 6x6
projectors
are readily available at reasonable cost, but 6x7 is another matter...

That's an issue I keep forgetting: I only make prints.

The Mamiya 7 with 65mm lens might be a workable choice if I only manage to
buy
ONE lens.

That's what I ended up doing. I like the 65mm AOV. I got back into MF with a
Fuji GS645, and since then have found normal "normal" lenses to be too
narrow.

If two, 80+50mm would be neat. If I wanted to shoot panoramas on 35mm,
then the 43mm would be really nice.. excuse me, I'm going to return my
lottery
ticket now..

Yep. This gets into lottery ticket territory quickly.

When I got the M7, it was a toss-up between the GSW690 and the M7. The lack
of interchangeable lenses on the GSW690 put me off, and I got the M7. But
I've never had enough spare change since then to get the 43/4.5, the
availability of which was the reason for choosing the M7.

The embarrassing thing is that I've done this before. Many years ago, I
bought a new Hassy 500C (which means you can compute the value of "many"
here), but never had enough money to buy another lens for it. I had the
stick shift focusing handle and the meter-in-the-knob meter, and dragged
that thing all over the place; from the Green Mountains of Vermont to
Daibosatsutoge, Yatsugatake, and Mt. Fuji.

--
David J. Littleboy
Tokyo, Japan