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?
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Adapting Mamiya 7 Lenses to X1D or GFX
- Thread starter hcubell
- Start date
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.
Arjuna
Active 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.
richardman
Well-known member
The XPan lenses fit your bill!
Speedgraphic
Member
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!
Shoot your Mamiya 7!
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)
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!
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.
Howard, a thought occurs to me: Bob Watkins, whom some of us know as a master repair technician, is among other things an expert on Mamiya 6/7:
https://www.precisioncameraworks.com/mamiya
You might try asking him whether he thinks it's possible, and if so, what it would take.
https://www.precisioncameraworks.com/mamiya
You might try asking him whether he thinks it's possible, and if so, what it would take.
Thanks, Oren. Excellent idea.
StoneNYC
New member
I know this is an old thread but I just came here to say that the Mamiya 7 lenses on my GFX 100s are shockingly sharp. I really didn't expect lenses released in 1999 to be this good. They were the sharpest on film but I had assumed the technology to make less had improved. I'm sort of confused why my Mamiya AFD / PhaseOne lenses are NOT as sharp as these.
That said, the adapter is glitchy AF. They did an update and the lenses are not recognized from attaching, you have to register them every time you switch lenses, and the process to register them involves memorizing which f/stop corresponds to which lens and then pressing a button on the adapter in a prescribed manner and then changing the f/stop then pressing it again, taking a shot, turning the camera off and then on again. Each time you start the camera you have to open the aperture, no big deal except it makes an annoying beep. Also, when you review an image it closes the power to the lens so then you have to open it up again for each shot.
Focussing: the "hot-spot" focussing the fuji has is not very precise/discerning, so you end up focussing unsure if you're actually in the depth of field. Also you have to set the lens to wide open to focus, then stop down to take the image because focusing with the stopped down aperture gives you even less differentiation between what is and is not in focus.
For landscapes this might be acceptable but even then the chincing on the fuji screen isn't very high Rez so it's hard to tell if it's actually in focus until you get to a computer. The fuji "zoom in" that happens when you turn the focus wheel on a normal GFX lens where it crops / zoom to the focus point so you can see details does not happen with the fuji and the Mamiya 7 lenses (maybe there's a way to put it into that mode but I'm still learning the fuji system). It's not ideal.
Ultimately what this did prove to me is that the Mamiya 7 lenses are-indeed just fine on a digital sensor. The claim that they would have strange diffraction etc. because of the angle of light going into the digital pixels vs film grain being better at accepting light at angles is either over-exaggerated or has been overcome by modern pixel design technology.
In particular I would say the 43mm is indeed the sharpest, the 64mm is just fine, and the 150mm is also just fine. I could barely tell the quality difference between the 110mm fuji f/2 lens and the Mamiya 7 150mm f/4.5 lens. The GFX is sharper. The Mamiya 7 lenses don't seem to have any light falloff at the edges, although there is more distortion. Which is expected from that time period, but post-processing can fix some of that.
I'm ultimately selling my Mamiya 7 kit (if anyone wants it) which breaks my heart, but my car just broke and I need the money. It was a nice foray, and a great excuse to use my trusted Mamiya 7 lenses one last time before sending them off to make amazing images in a new home.
That said, the adapter is glitchy AF. They did an update and the lenses are not recognized from attaching, you have to register them every time you switch lenses, and the process to register them involves memorizing which f/stop corresponds to which lens and then pressing a button on the adapter in a prescribed manner and then changing the f/stop then pressing it again, taking a shot, turning the camera off and then on again. Each time you start the camera you have to open the aperture, no big deal except it makes an annoying beep. Also, when you review an image it closes the power to the lens so then you have to open it up again for each shot.
Focussing: the "hot-spot" focussing the fuji has is not very precise/discerning, so you end up focussing unsure if you're actually in the depth of field. Also you have to set the lens to wide open to focus, then stop down to take the image because focusing with the stopped down aperture gives you even less differentiation between what is and is not in focus.
For landscapes this might be acceptable but even then the chincing on the fuji screen isn't very high Rez so it's hard to tell if it's actually in focus until you get to a computer. The fuji "zoom in" that happens when you turn the focus wheel on a normal GFX lens where it crops / zoom to the focus point so you can see details does not happen with the fuji and the Mamiya 7 lenses (maybe there's a way to put it into that mode but I'm still learning the fuji system). It's not ideal.
Ultimately what this did prove to me is that the Mamiya 7 lenses are-indeed just fine on a digital sensor. The claim that they would have strange diffraction etc. because of the angle of light going into the digital pixels vs film grain being better at accepting light at angles is either over-exaggerated or has been overcome by modern pixel design technology.
In particular I would say the 43mm is indeed the sharpest, the 64mm is just fine, and the 150mm is also just fine. I could barely tell the quality difference between the 110mm fuji f/2 lens and the Mamiya 7 150mm f/4.5 lens. The GFX is sharper. The Mamiya 7 lenses don't seem to have any light falloff at the edges, although there is more distortion. Which is expected from that time period, but post-processing can fix some of that.
I'm ultimately selling my Mamiya 7 kit (if anyone wants it) which breaks my heart, but my car just broke and I need the money. It was a nice foray, and a great excuse to use my trusted Mamiya 7 lenses one last time before sending them off to make amazing images in a new home.
rdeloe
Well-known member
Sorry to hear you have to sell your Mamiya 7 kit. I concur that the lenses are excellent. Mamiya 6 and 7 lenses are the core of my lens lineup on my digital view camera outfit. The downside is that I had to destroy them for use on Mamiya 6 and 7 cameras to be able to use them on my setup. Interestingly, I also had to adjust the cell spacing of the Mamiya N 43mm, Mamiya G 50mm and Mamiya N 65mm to get them to work well on GFX; the culprit is the very thick sensor cover glass on GFX cameras. The Mamiya N 80mm and Mamiya G and N 150mm did not need adjustment. https://www.robdeloephotography.com/Pages/Lenses
StoneNYC
New member
So I ended up posting the GFX kit for sale instead of the Mamiya 7ii kit. I'm going to see how that does before I let go of my beloved Mamiya 7II. If you know anyone looking...
FS: Fuji GFX 100s with GF 110mm f/2 R LM WR lens (SOLD)
Hi all, I recently picked up the 100s and 110mm f/2 lens. The combo is STELLAR and the files are a dream come true. Unfortunately, I also recently had a bunch of car trouble and I'm having to part with some of my gear. I just got it from a friend and it had less than 4,000 images on the shutter...
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I'm not sure I would have been so bold. I'm guessing that's because you're using T/S on them? The Fotodiox adapter is planed well and my 43mm worked fine without any adjusting thankfully! It was kind of fun to use it without the standard viewfinder attachment on the film body. Hah!
rdeloe
Well-known member
Now that's an unambiguous signal as to which of your children you loved more! Enjoy that lovely Mamiya 7!
Yes, I hacked the lenses only because I'm using them on a digital view camera.
I've heard highly mixed reviews of that adapter. I'm glad it works for you. I mostly use my Mamiya 7 lenses on the F-Universalis, but I built an adapter that lets me use them directly on my GFX 100S. I have a perfectly good GF 35-70, but I seem to prefer putting the N 43mm and the N 65mm or N 80mm in the bag instead.