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Which Mamiya macro lens?

haring

Member
Which Mamiya macro lens should I buy? I would like to use it for product photography.

I have a Mamiya AFD 645 III camera so the latest Phase One LS lenses are out of question.

Thanks!
 

H3dtogo

New member
They are in real life all abouth equally good. When extreem pixel peeping is done one can see some minor differences but printed....
I have both copies, the one with the aperture ring and the one with an electronically powered aperture.
Both are up for sale as i really only want to keep one of them.
 

mediumcool

Active member
How much are they?
Check eBay and the usual suspects; stores like KEH, and also the MF dealers like CI.

I have an old 80mm f4 macro bought from eBay which cost me ₤113. It came with a 1:1 tube, and is excellent—even has floating element correction.

Beware that while all Mamiya 120s to date have MF, the earlier ones have manual aperture control/stop down on digital-capable bodies, such as yours.
 
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mediumcool

Active member
What about the new Schneider PC-TS APO-Digitar 5.6/120 HM Aspheric? This lens was introduced to specifically meet the needs of product photography using a medium format DLSR. It is not a leaf shutter lens, and I believe it will work fine on the AFD III.
A quoted price of €3900 = well over $5KAU. Awful lot for a small-product lens. I’ll stick with my Toyo VX23, thanks..
 

mediumcool

Active member
The OP specifically is asking for a product photography solution for his Mamiya DSLR.
Yes. This is known, thank you, Mr Klepacki.

Do you know that the OP can afford to buy this lens, still unreleased at this time? Based on his posting history, he appears to be working on a budget. No bad thing.

I, unlike you, supplied a putative price for this not-here-yet lens. You could have done this in your post.

Helpful?

I was trying to be, and gave a really cheap alternative in an earlier post. And also talked about the 120mm Mamiya macro, a oft-lauded lens.

Any alternative solutions from you, David?
 

David Klepacki

New member
Hey, I am not sure what your problem is.

First, I propose a decent lens for the OP, which you object to based on cost. Then you ask me for a cheap solution, so I gave you one.
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Have to agree with David here the question was asked what macro lens for product photography. There is none better than what he mentioned . It is all downhill from here and no one asked expensive or cheap and frankly that is up to the OP if he thinks it is expensive and his decision to pay top dollar for the Schneider or look at a least expensive option which there are several. If you want to express a cheaper solution than any one can do that obviously but let us NOT assume what the OP is looking for without him specifically asking about a dollar amount or descriptions like under 1k or of that nature. I would most likely as well as others said the same thing as the OP did not put a price restriction on it. Lets be real careful here folks as to WHAT is being asked.
 

mediumcool

Active member
I posted about the [discontinued] 80mm macro which is a fine lens usually available at a reasonable price. I also mentioned the Mamiya 120 macro lenses in the same post.

These are alternative choices that will cost much less than the not-yet-here Schneider.

Why don’t we wait for Haring to respond about what is useful info for him or her (or not) in the various comments made?

I can’t believe that linking to a pinhole lens page will be useful to the OP.
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Medium -- consider this a warning: Your response to Mr. Klepaki was definitely snarky and not in line with the posting etiquette on this forum. Sardonic wit is not appreciated even though you may think it's clever. Do it again, and you'll be given a time out.
 

topgreat

New member
My 120mm f/4 macro APO manual lens is excellent. You can find it very cheap on Ebay now. Although, its contrast may a little lower than a new D lens. However, for high resolution tasks, I use my 120mm Schneider Digitar Macro with a Novoflex bellow. This setup gives me very, very sharp results. It's up to you how much sharpness you want for your product. You can also do tilt-shift with this setup.
 

haring

Member
Yes. This is known, thank you, Mr Klepacki.

Do you know that the OP can afford to buy this lens, still unreleased at this time? Based on his posting history, he appears to be working on a budget. No bad thing.

I, unlike you, supplied a putative price for this not-here-yet lens. You could have done this in your post.

Helpful?

I was trying to be, and gave a really cheap alternative in an earlier post. And also talked about the 120mm Mamiya macro, a oft-lauded lens.

Any alternative solutions from you, David?
Thanks for your suggestion. My budget is $1000-2500.
 

haring

Member
Are there any samples for the Schneider PC-TS APO-Digitar 5.6/120 HM Aspheric on the internet?
Thanks again!
Otto
 
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