Marshal Press 6x9: Rangefinder Adjustment and History
Originally posted on Instagram. Notes from the repair bench, kept here as a searchable archive. View the original on Instagram
This camera being serviced is a bit unusual: a Marshal Press 6x9. While not that hard to find in Japan, there was no U.S. importer and possibly none in Europe at the time.
The Marshal Press was the only camera produced by the Marshal Camera Company and the Mamiya connection is that this company was founded by Seiichi Mamiya who also designed the camera. It was produced in 1966 and although I don’t have production figures, from looking at serial numbers I would guess a bit less than 2000 were made.
Minor repairs were done on this example, mostly a slight rangefinder adjustment. What is interesting is that although this camera has a fixed 105mm f/3.5 Nikkor-Q lens, two supplementary lenses were made that converted the lens into a 135mm and a 150mm lens. The problem of rangefinder accuracy with the supplementary lenses was solved by using a two cam rangefinder system as seen in the last photo . One cam is used for the 105mm/135mm and the 150mm used the other cam. The viewfinder was a zoom that showing the field for the three different focal lengths. I can’t say that I have ever seen this system used before.
The camera had features that were similar to other Mamiya cameras:
1.) Bellows focusing similar to RB67
2.) Seiko 0 shutter uncoupled to the rest of the camera like Press and C series
3.) Focusing via a thumb wheel on the back similar to original Mamiya 6
4.) 6x9 film back similar in shape to Press series M back
5.) Rangefinder window similar to Press series
