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Adapting Mamiya 7 Lenses to X1D or GFX

hcubell

Well-known member
I have four wonderful Mamiya 7 lenses that are sitting on a shelf gathering dust. I am not aware of any adapters that would allow them to be used on an X1D (with ES) or on a Fuji GFX. Is anybody aware of such an adapter, or if there is some major issue that prevents them from being used on a mirrorless body?
 

Arjuna

Member
The lenses have shutters in them which are normally closed, so any adapter would somehow have to force the shutter to stay open, fully, all the time, for them to be used on an X1D or GFX.
 

richardman

Well-known member
Even more difficult than that. First it needs to be able to stay open, akin to the B mode, for focusing/composition, but then it also needs to open and close the leaf shutter to the correct aperture when shooting. A technological challenge for sure and it will require knowing the camera/lens protocol.
 

hcubell

Well-known member
How are the Mamiya lenses different from the Hasselblad H Series leaf shutter lenses that can be used on both the X1D and the GFX
 

Arjuna

Member
The H series lenses are made to be used on an SLR, where you look through the lens to compose and focus (and meter), and the body has an auxiliary shutter to protect the film/sensor from the light going through the lens. On a Mamiya 7, you view and compose through the viewfinder/rangefinder, the meter is on the camera body, and there is no auxiliary shutter, except for when you are changing lenses.
 

hcubell

Well-known member
The H series lenses are made to be used on an SLR, where you look through the lens to compose and focus (and meter), and the body has an auxiliary shutter to protect the film/sensor from the light going through the lens. On a Mamiya 7, you view and compose through the viewfinder/rangefinder, the meter is on the camera body, and there is no auxiliary shutter, except for when you are changing lenses.
Sounds like a complex undertaking. Too bad, as these lens are exceptional optically, very small and light. It would be great if Hasselblad or a third party were to make a line of slowish, MF, small, light lenses to be used with the X1D. Like the Loxia lenses for the Sony A7 series.
 
I think those lenses are best suited to film. They're old school, not designed with digital in mind at all. The 80 might be fine but the shorter ones will perform like old Leica wides. Great film lenses, baaaaad digital. See the 21mm 4.5 Biogon as a good example.

Shoot your Mamiya 7!
 

Satrycon

Well-known member
some info that may help:

https://www.photo.net/discuss/threads/using-a-mamiya-7ii-lens-on-on-a-leica-s2.496523/

https://forum.luminous-landscape.com/index.php?topic=94282.msg770225#msg770225



I have four wonderful Mamiya 7 lenses that are sitting on a shelf gathering dust. I am not aware of any adapters that would allow them to be used on an X1D (with ES) or on a Fuji GFX. Is anybody aware of such an adapter, or if there is some major issue that prevents them from being used on a mirrorless body?
 

chrismuc

Member
I adapted the M7 43, 65, 80 and 150 lenses to use with an Alpa FPS + IQ180.
For that purpose Mamiya Germany in Munich disassembled the central shutter (and replaced it by a small spacer ring as far as I recall). The aperture can be closed manually. I purchased also a M7 camera mount as spare part to build a mount adaption to the Alpa. Mamiya also removed certain unused mechanical parts around the back barrel because the 43 and 65 back lenses dive quite deep into the camera due to their symmetrical design.
My hope was that also a certain amount of shift would be possible, which the very large image circle of the lenses would allow to. But the 43 and 65 quickly show smeared corners and strong lens cast.
On the Fuji GFX with the smaller 44x33mm sensor and no shift, I expect all lenses to work optically very well, if one achieves to remove the central shutter and designs and produces a lens mount adaption with correct flange distance.
here you can find some pictures of the converted lenses
https://www.christoph-kuegler.com/conversion

(thx Satrycon, now I see you shared a link to my previous post about that topic)
 

hcubell

Well-known member
I adapted the M7 43, 65, 80 and 150 lenses to use with an Alpa FPS + IQ180.
For that purpose Mamiya Germany in Munich disassembled the central shutter (and replaced it by a small spacer ring as far as I recall). The aperture can be closed manually. I purchased also a M7 camera mount as spare part to build a mount adaption to the Alpa. Mamiya also removed certain unused mechanical parts around the back barrel because the 43 and 65 back lenses dive quite deep into the camera due to their symmetrical design.
My hope was that also a certain amount of shift would be possible, which the very large image circle of the lenses would allow to. But the 43 and 65 quickly show smeared corners and strong lens cast.
On the Fuji GFX with the smaller 44x33mm sensor and no shift, I expect all lenses to work optically very well, if one achieves to remove the central shutter and designs and produces a lens mount adaption with correct flange distance.
here you can find some pictures of the converted lenses
https://www.christoph-kuegler.com/conversion

(thx Satrycon, now I see you shared a link to my previous post about that topic)
Thanks. I gather you have not tried adapting the M7 lenses to the GFX. I wonder how they would perform with the 44x33 sensor compared to the newer glass from Fuji and Hasselblad. I have no issue with the optical quality of the XCD lenses, but the M7 lenses are quite diminutive, even though they were designed for 6x7. I don't expect Hasselblad to come out with a line of smaller, manual focus lenses. I am also not sure how much smaller they would be if they still had leaf shutters. If they were MF only and you had to use the ES, the market could be very small. Perhaps just me!
 

med

Active member
Even more difficult than that. First it needs to be able to stay open, akin to the B mode, for focusing/composition, but then it also needs to open and close the leaf shutter to the correct aperture when shooting. A technological challenge for sure and it will require knowing the camera/lens protocol.
In all leaf shutter lenses that I've seen , the aperture and shutter are complete separate, and the shutter opens fully every time (apart from the Fufi X100 series). Are the Mamiya 7 lenses different? If separate, you just need to keep the leaf shutter open and they could be adapted to the GFX.
 
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