Mamiya Lenses - quick rundown?

[Andy Biggs]

I recently picked up a Mamiya ZD outfit, and will be buying another digital back soon. Most likely a Phase product, but I am also looking at Leaf. I need to buy some lenses, and I am primarily a landscape and wildlife photographer. Some of the places that I photograph are not particularly kind to photographic equipment, such as the desert landscapes of Namibia.

I have looked all over for review of Mamiya lenses, and there really isn't much online. I don't need any of the newer lenses that are coming out, so no need on wasting time and effort in that direction.

Anybody have a quick rundown on some of the lenses? I hate to say it, but I am looking closely at some of the zoom lenses. For landscape purposes, I usually shoot stopped down enough that I don't need fast glass for most situations.

I am thinking:

35mm
55-110mm
105-210mm
300mm

I am trying to keep my kit on the light side, and I love not having to switch lenses in dusty environments.

Another question. Does Mamiya make a recent 2x teleconverter? I keep seeing one on different for sale forums, but I suspect this is for the 'other' Mamiya 645 Pro system. Is there anything available that I could use with the 300mm f/4.5?

So many questions.....

Andy

 

[schweikert]

Andy,

I use the 35mm AF and 55-110mm AF. Both are decent lenses. Primes are simply sharper than the 55-110, but with it stopped down to F8-F16, it is certainly a respectable lens. Wide open the 55-110 is noticeably soft. The 35mm carries very good in focus depth of field from about F11 on. You really don't need to go beyond F16 unless trying to get very close foreground and far background together in focus, which can be tricky on MF anyway. The 35mm gets mixed reviews, but I find it to be adequate in sharpness. It's simply not as sharp as the 80mm AF or 150mm AF, both of which I also use. The 35mm does have CA, which is easily corrected today. That's one reason I have gone to Lightroom fulltime for now because having presets makes for fast corrections which the 35mm needs. It does have some barrel distortion which you won't notice in the field but do notice when shooting straight line content. I don't have experience with the 110-220 or 300. What I notice more when shooting My Aptus 22 than say a Canon is just the better tonal range, shadow smoothness. So even if a lens isn't the best, the shots still just look better than a top DSLR.

My only comment on wanting to shoot long with the Mamiya is that you would be much better suited to using a 1DsIII with their killer glass like the 300mm IS or longer. There is just no comparison, the Canon would be so much better all around, AF speed, better long glass. I just don't view the Mamiya as a wildlife camera at all. But if you are willing to explore that, by all means share how easy or hard it is once you are up to speed.

I use my Aptus 22 on an AFDII for commercial and editorial work. But still pull out my Canon kit just as much for things which are simply unreasonable for medium format, like speed, fast autofocus, weight.

 

[Guy Mancuso]

Andy I don't have any of the zooms but I do hear the 70-150 mm D lens is very good. As John mentioned the 35mm is a nice lens but better stopped down to F8 or 11. I actually had thoughts of changing around a little but it would revolve around the 28mm for me than I would go 45mm which is supposed to be maybe better than my 55mm which is very good but go 28,55,80,150 and 300. But right now I have the 35,55,80 old, 150 old and I have a 200 manual 2.8 apo that is very sharp that I am selling since I got the 300 3.5 But anyway the 80mm is extremely good and a new one is coming with the new bodies. The 150 4.5 is a really nice lens even wide open but I am going for the new 150 mm 2.8. But all of them seem very good except the 35mm needs to be stopped down some. The rest hold there own pretty well . There is a new 45-90 D lens coming but it comes with a price tag too. But at some point I will get to the 28,45,80,150 and 300 but the 55,80 are really sharp right now

 

[Guy Mancuso]

John what are your thoughts on the 45mm or what you may have heard

 

[schweikert]

Guy,

I haven't used the 45mm AF. I gave a gap between the 35mm and 55-110. But have not run into needing to fill the gap yet. Honestly, since Mamiya announced the upcoming 45-90 D, I am just holding out for that lens. At which time, I may get the 75-150 D. I see those two lenses as being a near flawless 2 lens kit for most anything I might need and can throw in the 35mm AF when needing the wide end. I have yet to desire telephoto beyond the 150/3.5, which is also a nice lens, I love its perspective.

For longer telephoto, my Canon fits the bill.

John what are your thoughts on the 45mm or what you may have heard

 

[Guy Mancuso]

Yes that 45-90 sounds like a winner and maybe something for me to look at also down the road. Yes reason I am selling the 200 mm is because i decided it maybe nice having the 300mm lens for those odd occasions. The 200 is too close to both of them so i really don't need it. I expect never to get over 5 lenses for this if that at all. More like 4 seems to be good for the MF stuff but I'm a pig so right now 35,55,80,150 and 300. Plus I have a Hassy 120 macro but will keep that for studio stuff

 

[RGoldman]

I have the 55-110, 105-210, 120mm macro, 80mm f/1.9, and 300mm f/2.8. I find that the 55-110 and 105-210 cover just about everything when I want to travel light. I have found both of them to be quite sharp and they are about the same price together as the 75-150mm. I haven't tried the 75-150mm yet but I understand it's a step above the two zooms I have. The 120mm macro is simply amazing. If you can live with manual focus and stop down metering, it will be hard to beat it for sharpness. The old 80mm f/1.9 gives me as good of results as my Canon 85mm f/1.2 did but again, you need to be ok with manual focus and stop down metering. I haven't had much time with the 300mm yet but the few shots I have taken with it seem crisp and detailed. The nice thing about the manual focus lenses is that I can use them on my 1DMKII with an adapter so I have a back up body without carrying more glass when I need it. I would love the 28mm but can't justify the price right now. Maybe after I recover more of the initial investment in the system. I have been very happy with all the Mamiya lenses so far and find them to be quite a bargain compared to other MF lenses out there and the fact I can shoot many of them on my 1DMKII with outstanding results is a real bonus.

Ron

 

[Guy Mancuso]

Ron did not think about the canon backup. I just bought a Mamiya to Nikon adapter and maybe that would work with a few of my AF lenses on manual focus. It's what i was hoping but did not think of it as backup , now i am though. Great thought

 

[RGoldman]

Hi Guy. The problem with the AF lenses is that there is no way to stop them down when you shoot on the other cameras! At least all the MF lenses are fully functional.
It is easier than carrying the Canon body and Canon lenses when traveling but not as convenient as having the AF at times.

Ron

 

[PSon]

Hi Guy. The problem with the AF lenses is that there is no way to stop them down when you shoot on the other cameras! At least all the MF lenses are fully functional.
It is easier than carrying the Canon body and Canon lenses when traveling but not as convenient as having the AF at times.

Ron

I am the same as Ron here. I use all my medium format lens from the Mamiya M645 and Hasselblad V systems on the Nikon D3 and Contax 645 and Mamiya 645 AF. The nice thing about the Mamiya 645 systems is that all the lens will work on the latest Mamiya 645 AF/AFD/AFDII/AFDIII cameras.

-Son

 

[Guy Mancuso]

Yes i am using a Hassy 120mm F4 CF macro with a cheap adapter and it is actually focusing quite well on the Mamiya and there are a ton of old manual Hassy, Mamiya lenses around for very cheap.

 

[PSon]

Guy,
If you get the chance you should try the Mamiya RZ67 system as well. There are some great lenses in this line up and similar to the Mamiya 645 lens system, the lens are a great bargain. Oh and don't forget all these lens can also work on the Canon and Leica R system as well.

The Hasselblad 120 mm is a macro lens and usually are more forgiven with adapter that does not reach infinity. I find that the Zeiss 120 mm macro tend to be prone to strong background light flare. However, this problem can be fixed with an anti-flare resistance.

-Son

 

[Andy Biggs]

I just picked up:

35mm
55-110mm
105-210mm
150mm

and will likely pickup the 300mm soon.

I still don't have clarity whether there is a teleconverter option for the 300mm.

 

[RGoldman]

Andy, the Mamiya 2X tele converter works on the 300mm f/2.8. I don't think it does on the f/4.5 version though I could be wrong about that!

Ron

 

[Andy Biggs]

Andy, the Mamiya 2X tele converter works on the 300mm f/2.8. I don't think it does on the f/4.5 version though I could be wrong about that!

Ron

Thanks, Ron. Isn't the 300mm f/2.8 made for the manual focus 645 Pro system? I would love to have either a 1.4x, 1.7x or 2x telconverter for the f/4.5 AF lens. I know I would lose autofocus with that setup, but at least I could have AF when not using a teleconverter.

 

[Guy Mancuso]

I just bought a 300mm 4.5 which is really nice it came yesterday and just a couple handhelds looked very nice.

I do have a 28mm 2.8 sitting here for the weekend from Lance and CI to play with . I am going out in the morning to play a little with it

 

[Andy Biggs]

Guy, I would love to hear about your experiences with the 300mm. I have shot with the Hassy version, and it is a very very nice lens. Hopefully I can get similar out of the Mamiya.

 

[RGoldman]

Yes, the 300mm f/2.8 is a manual focus and stop down metering only on the 645AFD. AF confirmation works though and it's really not bad to manual focus with that big, bright viewfinder!

 

[Andy Biggs]

I don't mind manual focusing, but stop down metering can be challenging with wildlife photography. Keep in mind that I am typically not photographing animals that move quickly, though. Your typical giraffe, zebra, elephant, etc type wildlife.

 

[RGoldman]

I have found that I can manual focus with the lens wide open and then stop down by feel/sound, and shoot very quickly now. The aperture ring is very easy to move and count clicks as you stop down. Shooting in Aperture priority, the camera sets shutter speed accordingly as you stop down. If you try and focus with the lens already stopped down, it's rather hit and miss at smaller apertures. I would love to have AF on the f/2.8 but they haven't gotten around to making one yet!