Mamiya Myrapid

Unlike other camera companies, Mamiya never really jumped on the half-frame bandwagon. They only made one attempt --- into the consumer market -- but it was well-worth the price of admission. In 1965 they produced the Myrapid. The "rapid" part comes from the fact that this camera used the Agfa Rapid cassette which was popular at the time. These 35mm cassettes automatically set the film speed when dropped into the camera -- well ahead of their time. But this camera's claim-to-fame was its super-fast, 32mm, manually-focusing (f1.7) lens. It had close focusing to 2.5 feet and a 52mm filter thread. As in the Olympus Pen E series of cameras, this lens was surrounded by a selenium cell which sets the correct exposures -- aperture from f1.7 - f16 and shutter speeds from 1/30 - 1/800 in a programmed fashion. The set shutter speed is displayed in the viewfinder -- as well as over- and under-exposure areas. It had the standaard touches like a built-in tripod socket, cold shoe and PC contact. Oddly, the camera lacks a cable release connection despite having a B shutter speed setting. At the B setting the f-stop is automatically set at f1.7 -- great for extreme low-light shooting -- except for the lack of a cable release connection. This camera is designed to be used in AUTO mode, but manual mode can be used by taking advantage of the FLASH mode setting. Selecting an f-stop sets the camera shutter speed to 1/30 for flash use. But the camera can be used without a flash -- with slow speed film in bright light or fast film in low-light conditions. Built-in self timer. Now this is what you call a CLEAN body.