Mamiya Super 16 (Mod.III)

The Mamiya Super 16 was manufactured by Mamiya Camera Company of Tokyo in the early 1950s. Mamiya was well known for the Mamiya Six, a 6×6 foldable they had been producing since 1940. Starting 1949, they made a successful series of 16 mm cameras that lasted until 1962.

The Super 16 uses special cassettes for up to 20 exposures on 16 mm film and is known for outstanding features and ease of use. When it came out, it was the smallest 16mm camera

It is a true subminiature and offers a surprising number of features in a tiny package. Among those, a pop-out viewfinder with simple but effective parallax correction and a shutter lock (if the viewfinder is retracted) to prevent accidental exposures when carrying the camera.

There even is a slide-in filter-holder in front of the lens where a little lever on the front of the camera slides the filter in and out, while a tiny trap-door on the bottom allows the filter to be changed.

The Super 16 is a fascinating device with a very compact and well thought design. It is truly a very good full manual camera with a very luminous lens (focusing down to 30 cm), producing superb picture quality in an ultra small body.