The Kowa Six is a Japanese medium format 6x6 SLR from the late 60s, made between 1968 and 1974, and it is genuinely a lovely camera. The two rolls I shot with it before it gummed up produced some of the nicest portraits I have made in a while. The 85mm f/2.8 lens is properly sharp, the leaf shutter is satisfying, the build quality is solid, and the handling is comfortable.
Then it stopped working.
This is a review of a camera that worked beautifully for two rolls and then developed a shutter fault that needed a service. The fault was almost certainly fixable, the camera is almost certainly still good, and I would still recommend the Kowa Six as a buy. But you need to know about the reliability situation before you commit, and you need to budget for a service.
Quick name note up front: it is Kowa Six, pronounced “co-wah” not “cow-a.” I have spent more years than I should admit calling it the wrong thing.
What it is
A medium format 6x6 SLR shooting 12 frames per 120 roll. Built by Kowa in Japan between 1968 and 1974. Competing in the same market segment as the Bronica S2A, the Hasselblad 500 series, and the Mamiya M645 (which arrived a few years later). All of these cameras targeted the professional and serious-enthusiast 6x6 user with interchangeable lenses, removable backs, and the kind of build quality you would expect from Japanese precision engineering of that era.
A few specifics that matter:
Leaf shutter in the lens, not a focal plane shutter. This is the same approach Hasselblad took with the 500 series and is opposite to the Bronica S2A approach (which uses a focal plane shutter). Leaf shutters give you flash sync at all speeds, which is genuinely useful if you do flash work. The trade-off is that the shutter mechanism is in each lens, which makes lenses more expensive and complex.
The mirror slap is satisfying. Not the world-ending crash of the Bronica S2A (a camera I love partly for its theatrical mirror sound), but a properly mechanical clunk-click that gives you confidence the camera is doing something. The clunk is the mirror clearing, the click is the leaf shutter firing. Two distinct sounds in sequence.
Limited lens ecosystem. This is the practical concern. Unlike the Bronica S2A (which shares lenses across multiple Bronica bodies) and the Hasselblad V system (with decades of compatibility), Kowa made comparatively few lenses for the Six and not many cameras were sold. Lenses are now hard to find on the used market and they tend to be expensive when you do find them. If you buy a Kowa Six, you may be locked into the lens you bought with it.
The portrait shoot at Winterbourne
I took the Kowa Six down to Winterbourne with Marsha (who also sat for the first Zebra dry plate tintypes article) for a portrait session in late afternoon light. Three rolls loaded: two of Fuji Pro 400H (my favourite colour film) and one of Ilford HP5 Plus.
The light at 7pm on a September evening in the West Country was exactly what you want: low golden sun raking across the scene, soft enough to be flattering, directional enough to give shape to Marsha’s face. We worked along the river, then by the pond, then up against a stone wall with open fields behind.
I shot at f/2.8 and 1/500th for most of the session, then closing down a stop as the light brightened briefly when the sun dipped below cloud. The 85mm f/2.8 is a wonderful focal length for portraits at the 6x6 frame. Roughly equivalent to a 50mm on 35mm in terms of perspective, but with the shallow depth of field that medium format gives you wide open.
The results were genuinely lovely. The Fuji Pro 400H rendered Marsha’s skin tones beautifully (it is the film I keep coming back to for this reason), the Kowa lens was sharp where it needed to be sharp and rendered out-of-focus areas pleasantly, and the dynamic range across the frames handled the contrast between the lit subject and the darker background without difficulty.
A few specific frames stood out: one with Marsha in front of a bush with golden light catching her hair, one where she was leaning against the stone wall with the open field falling out of focus behind her, one tighter head-and-shoulders frame where the light raked across her face from one side. I was super chuffed with these.
The camera handled the slightly backlit shots particularly well. No flare, no veiling glare, no contrast loss. The 85mm lens at f/2.8 with bright light just out of frame was the kind of test that would expose a tired lens or a sloppy mirror box flocking job. The Kowa came through it cleanly. Properly impressive performance for a 55-year-old camera.
![PLACEHOLDER: a portrait of Marsha at Winterbourne on Fuji Pro 400H, showing the kind of result the Kowa Six 85mm f/2.8 produces in good evening light]
The Frome Valley walk and the broken shutter
A few days later I took the Kowa Six out for a landscape walk along the Frome Valley Trail with a roll of HP5. The plan was to test the slow shutter speeds with some long exposures of running water.
Something was wrong.
The first sign was the sound. The Kowa’s normal sequence is clunk (mirror) then click (leaf shutter). I was getting the clunk, but the click was either missing or muted. I tested several shots with the camera held close to my ear: the mirror was firing every time, but the shutter was not consistently following.
I tried a long exposure to confirm. Watched the lens carefully. Listened. The mirror moved, but I could not see the shutter blades opening.
I came home, developed the roll, and confirmed my suspicion: almost the entire roll was blank. Two frames at the very start (presumably from before the fault developed fully) and then nothing. The shutter had been failing intermittently throughout the shoot, but I had not noticed in the moment because the mirror sound was always present.
By the time I had developed the film, the camera was working again. I had brought it inside, let it warm up overnight, and the next morning the shutter was firing normally. Wound on, tested several speeds, all good.
The fault was cold-related. Or at least correlated with the cold.
![PLACEHOLDER: the developed Frome Valley roll, showing the blank frames from the period when the shutter was failing]
What probably happened
This is a textbook case of a vintage leaf shutter problem. Leaf shutters have multiple thin blades that pivot around small spindles, and those spindles are lubricated with grease. Over decades, the grease accumulates contamination (dust, fibres, oxidation), gradually loses its lubrication properties, and turns into a sticky residue.
In normal warm conditions, the shutter can still fire, often for years past the point where the grease has degraded. The blades just barely overcome the friction.
When the temperature drops, the grease becomes stiffer. Now the blades cannot overcome the friction. The shutter fails, intermittently or completely, depending on how degraded the grease is.
This is well-known across vintage cameras with leaf shutters, especially Compur shutters and the like. It is the single most common failure mode and it is almost always fixable. A camera repairer takes the lens apart, cleans out the old grease, applies fresh lubrication in tiny quantities to the right pivot points, and the shutter is restored to its original function.
The Kowa Six was not unusually cold that morning. It was October in the UK, perhaps 8-10°C. The grease in my Kowa’s shutter is far enough gone that even mild autumn temperatures are now triggering the fault. A full service would probably cost in the range of £100-200 depending on the repairer, and would restore the shutter to reliable operation.
I have not yet sent mine in. I will eventually.
The reliability question
This is the bit prospective buyers need to know.
Vintage cameras need servicing. This is not a Kowa Six problem specifically, this is a Bronica S2A problem and a Hasselblad 500 problem and a Mamiya M645 problem and an everything-vintage problem. If you are buying a 50-year-old camera, you need to either:
- Buy one that has been recently serviced (and verify it)
- Budget for a service shortly after purchase
- Accept that the camera may fail and need repair
For the Kowa Six specifically, the limited lens ecosystem creates a secondary concern. The shutter is in the lens. If the lens fails completely (rather than just needing a service) and you cannot find a replacement, you may be in trouble. So buying a Kowa Six with a sticking shutter is a bigger risk than buying a Bronica with a sticking shutter, because there are far fewer Kowa lenses around to replace one.
My recommendation: buy a Kowa Six that has been recently serviced, or budget £150 for a service shortly after purchase, and treat the lens as a one-off rather than the start of a kit you can grow.
What is genuinely good about it
Setting aside the reliability question, this is a really lovely camera.
The 85mm f/2.8 lens is excellent. Sharp wide open, sharper stopped down, well-corrected, contrasty without being clinical. The portraits I made with it stand up against anything I have made on any medium format camera in this focal length range.
The handling is comfortable. Body shape sits in the hands well, controls are where you expect them, the wind-on lever is positive, the focus is smooth.
The viewfinder is bright. Compared to some 6x6 SLRs of the era, the Kowa’s waist-level finder gives you a clear, usable image.
The build is solid. This feels like a proper camera, not a budget option. It was probably an expensive purchase when new, and the build quality reflects that.
The leaf shutter gives you flash sync at all speeds, which matters if you do flash work. This is one area where the Kowa Six has a genuine advantage over the Bronica S2A, which has a maximum sync speed of around 1/30th with its focal plane shutter.
How it compares to the Bronica S2A
This comes up because both cameras hit the same market segment.
The Kowa Six’s advantages: better lens (the 85mm f/2.8 is genuinely sharper than the standard Bronica 75mm Nikkor in my experience), better flash sync (leaf shutter, all speeds), more refined handling, more compact overall.
The Bronica S2A’s advantages: vastly larger lens ecosystem (you can find Nikkor lenses for the Bronica everywhere), more theatrical shutter sound (which I love), generally cheaper on the used market, easier to find serviceable copies.
My honest verdict: I love the Bronica S2A more, partly for irrational reasons (the sound, the chunky build, the satisfying winding lever). But the Kowa Six is probably the technically better camera, and certainly takes better portraits in the right light.
If I had to choose one and could only have one: Bronica, because of the lens ecosystem. If I could have both: Kowa for portraits, Bronica for everything else.
Where to go for more depth
There is a YouTube channel called Vintage Camera Digest, run by a chap called Steve, who has reviewed the Kowa Six in real depth. Steve has been doing photography for decades, knows the Kowa Six properly, and his coverage is far more detailed than my “I took it out for two rolls and it broke” experience. If you are seriously considering buying one, watch his review alongside this article.
(I called the channel something else in the video. Sorry, Steve. It is Vintage Camera Digest.)
Verdict
The Kowa Six is a genuinely excellent camera with a known reliability issue (leaf shutter gum-up) that is fixable through standard servicing.
Buy it if:
- You want lovely portraits and are prepared to spend on glass
- You appreciate leaf shutter flash sync flexibility
- You are willing to budget for a service shortly after purchase
- You are buying a tested copy with a recent service history
Avoid it if:
- You want to build a multi-lens medium format kit (lens availability is limited)
- You hate dealing with cameras that need servicing
- You are not willing to spend £150-200 on a CLA (clean, lubricate, adjust) if needed
- You want maximum reliability on a tight budget (Bronica S2A is more forgiving)
For me, despite the shutter problem, the two rolls I shot before it broke were good enough that I want to get this camera serviced and keep using it. The portraits are too lovely to walk away from. That, I think, is the real test of any camera: do the images make you want to spend the money to keep using it?
Yes. Yes they do.
I will send it in for service. The Kowa Six stays in the rotation.