Mamiya 16 Automatic

If you put your hand over the right-half of the camera -- the part with the meter -- you'll see that this camera is really just a Mamiya Super 16 with a built-in selenium meter. Since the meter took up the space where the slide-OUT viewfinder used to be, this model had a pop-UP viewfinder on the back. As a result, it was substantially bigger than the earlier, tiny models. It's called "automatic" due to the built-in "auto" exposure mode. Most of us would not consider this "auto"-anything, but at the time it was as "automatic" as you could get. Think of it as shutter-preferred, match-needle, metered-manual exposure. First, dial in the film speed. Next, the desired shutter speed is selected. Then the exposure dial on the top is rotated to match up the selected shutter speed with the meter needle. This "automatically" sets the correct f-stop. That's what "automatic" exposure meant in 1959. In short, it is really an f-stop dial, but they tried to simplify it but using the same scale as on the shutter speed dial. It worked, but it confused a lot of people who wanted to work in manual mode -- "OK, but where's the f-stop scale?". Actually, the set f-stop appears in a tiny window off to the side. The Mamiya 16 Automatic maintained many of the features of the original Mamiya 16, such as a focusing lens and built-in sliding filter. 25mm (f2.8-16) lens. Speeds of B, 1/2-1/200. The lens was changed to a slightly faster f2.8 optic with three elements in three groups. This is the first Mamiya 16 with a standard flash shoe, and a new flash BULB accessory was availabe, but later electronic FLASH units can also be used. Like most other Mamiya 16 cameras, different styles exist with minor differences. One type has the same round filter style of the Super series, while another uses rectangular filters. It was also sold as the Revue 16 Automatic.