Shooting on Mamiya 645 prime lenses.

[Minu Park]

I am originally a photographer, who used to use mainly Mamiya 7 and 67 Rz with ZD back around 7 years ago.

Than, I moved into this beautiful video world without knowing any circumstances...

Nevertherless, I have been using Nikon primes(Which I own it for 14years.) with verity of cameras and I have been happy with it until 4K cams come out more and more.

Ironically, I wanted to upgrade my lenses with very limited budget.

I have been researching This and that, eventually everybody recommend ziess CP.2

But my budget is about $3500, which you can't even buy one lens out of these set.

So I have checked Ziess ZF prime set. In B&H they sell around $5500 including a nice lens case. But it's still expensive for me.

One day, I visited my fellow photographer friend, who still uses Mamiya 645 DF with Phase one. I discussed with my friends and he gave me an idea of buying old Mamiya prime lens set!(645)

Now I have

24mm 3.5 Prime ($750)

35mm 3.5 prime($150)

45mm 2.8 Prime($100)

55mm 2.8 prime($100)

80mm 1.8 prime ($300)

135mm 2.8 prime($150)

200mm 2.8 prime apo($750)

300mm 2.8 prime apo(I borrow it from my friend permanently

Impression about the lenses... (It's super great, there are no vinetting at all, the lens creates creamy and extremely shallow look, foremost, it's extremely sharp - It's medium format lens, you can't compare with 35mm or s35mm- You are comparing between 2/3 lens and full frame lens)

AND CHEAP!!

However, I found several problems that I am facing to. The lens focus barrel is moving forward when you focus in, which I can't hook up with matte box, you need an internal ND or motion adaptor, other wise it's pain in the ass. Also, the cheap adaptor won't work for you - It will break after one day shooting, so invest good one.

Following photos are shot by

24mm

35mm

80mm

300mm

 

[Paul Russell]

I have a full set of Mamiya 645 Primes. They are beautifully sharp and contrasty, but often the F3.5 or f2,8 is a bit too slow for some work.

 

[Nick Morrison]

I have a fully modded set of Hasselblads (50mm to 250mm) that I adore. Great to Tilt-Shift with. Great bokeh.

You need to get a good adapter yes. Not easy to find. Good luck!!

best.

 

[Tom Gleeson]

Great news that you have a set of lenses that you are happy with at a bargain price. I did a shoot on a Red One with Hassleblad medium format lenses and was a little disappointed. Medium format lenses are designed to cover a very large area and therefore their resolving power was designed for this parameter. When you only use a small area of the lens you lower its sharpness and magnify any CA or any other aberrations present in the lens. I also found the glass quite low contrast and this probably reflects the older design of a lot of medium format glass. The DOF of a medium format lens is exactly the same as cine glass and the slow speeds of most medium format glass makes really shallow DOF more difficult. My observations are not necessarily criticisms as these lenses can help create a look that maybe exactly what you are looking for.

I would love to see a metabone style adaptor that would take medium format glass and shrink the lenses projected image onto my Dragon Sensor.

 

[Nick Morrison]

Great news that you have a set of lenses that you are happy with at a bargain price. I did a shoot on a Red One with Hassleblad medium format lenses and was a little disappointed. Medium format lenses are designed to cover a very large area and therefore their resolving power was designed for this parameter. When you only use a small area of the lens you lower its sharpness and magnify any CA or any other aberrations present in the lens. I also found the glass quite low contrast and this probably reflects the older design of a lot of medium format glass. The DOF of a medium format lens is exactly the same as cine glass and the slow speeds of most medium format glass makes really shallow DOF more difficult. My observations are not necessarily criticisms as these lenses can help create a look that maybe exactly what you are looking for.

I would love to see a metabone style adaptor that would take medium format glass and shrink the lenses projected image onto my Dragon Sensor.

In terms of Hassy's being sharp or not, depends on the lens. The later FE series have some VERY sharp lenses.

50 2.8 (upgrade over 50 F4) is SUPER SHARP. Hits 90 out of 100 on Zeiss's MTF score, WIDE OPEN!! (ie as sharp as many full frame primes stopped down). The lens design itself looks like the iconic Zeiss 21 2.8, blown up to Medium Format...

80 2.8: bit soft wide open (think like a 1.4 on full frame), but sharpens up stopped down. Lots of character.

110 f2 (also FE): has amazing bokeh at f2, and gets very sharp stopped down

150 2.8: also an FE design (upgrade over 150 f4), and great for portraits (see below).

180 F4 (also FE): this lens is AMAZING. MTF's show that its VERY VERY sharp, even wide open. My full frame Contax 180 2.8 actually can't keep up.

Here are some Tilt Shifted portraits on the 150 2.8..for History Channel a couple of years ago. On Scarlet MX:

I also think Hassy's (and probably other Medium Format glass) have great, unusual bokeh. See this spot below, shot on an 80 2.8 tilt shifted:

 

[Paul Russell]

My Mamiyas are certainly sharper than any of my Canon L zooms. Although my goto set it usually the Contax AE Primes, thanks to Nick, so the Mamiyas don't get used very often these days.

 

[Luke Kokinos]

Nice shots! I'm curious, where would one go about finding modded medium-format glass? Am I looking in the wrong places? Or do I have to buy the original lenses and send them to a modding service?

 

[Jordan Buck]

What adaptors are you guys using with the Mamiya lenses - I have an RB67 and a 645 both with lenses on that I would love to be able to play with on my epic!

 

[Nick Morrison]

Nice shots! I'm curious, where would one go about finding modded medium-format glass? Am I looking in the wrong places? Or do I have to buy the original lenses and send them to a modding service?

I bought the original lenses, and sent them to RP lens to have them modded (mostly focus gears).