Info on Mamiya 75mm Shift Lens?

[largeformat65]

Hi, I found a mint condition RZ67 Pro II and a 75mm Shift lens today and was wondering if anyone here could shed some light on a couple questions.

1. - Based on research it seems as if Mamiya made an RB and an RZ version, but that doesn't seem logical to me. Can anyone clear this up?

2 - When mounting the lens on the RZ 67 Pro II the shift is oriented side to side when movement is applied. I assumed it would be oriented up and down to mimic the rise and fall movements of a view camera. It wouldn't seem logical to have to put the RZ on its side on a tripid to get rise and fall, so what am I missing?

3 - I wasn't able to find a manual anywhere online. If you know of a source other than buying one on eBay, please let me know.



Thanks,

Larry

 

[MattKing]

The RZ lenses offer an electronically controlled shutter and are incompatible with the RB bodies, so it doesn't surprise me that there are two versions.

I guess that the "shift" in the name is intended to be taken seriously. I agree, however, that rise and fall would be advantageous.

None of my Mamiya links have an instruction manual for either version of the shift lenses.

 

[largeformat65]

It is really strange because I have read numerous threads where people have various comments about using this lens for architecture. Most summarize and say its focal length is a little long for most applications, but no one has ever mentioned the issues that I mentioned. Very odd.

 

[polyglot]

I don't own one, but I believe you can rotate the direction of shift. From the usual blurb: "It features a unique wide field coverage and perspective control shift mechanism in rotating mount, allowing the photographer to maintain proper linear perspective, identical to PC shift lenses for 35mm cameras" ... "The lens barrel can be rotated 90 clockwise or 90° counter-clockwise with locking click-stopped intermediate positions. This combination allows shift in almost any direction."

The 75mm shift lens only shifts, it does not tilt. You may prefer to buy the short-barrel 75mm lens and use it in conjunction with the tilt/shift adapter. You can also put a short-barrel 180 on that.

 

[dorff]

Hi,

Many of the RB lenses were duplicated in RZ, for reasons mentioned above. There is nothing illogical about it - it is a natural evolution to accommodate AE metering etc on the RZ.

I do not own the RZ 75 Shift, but I do own the 50 Shift for Mamiya 645. If they are similar, the barrel will rotate 90 deg either side of horizontal.

A tilt capability would certainly be a great addition, though. I have seen kludged solutions for other mounts, and then there may also be Hartblei or other possibilities in native RZ mount, although I haven't done much searching. A friend of mine uses a Zorki or something on his Hassy. He had it transformed to Hasselblad mount, from I dunno which original mount. So something similar could be possible with RZ 67, but how you will incorporate the electronics for the leaf shutter is another matter. His photographs are really terrific, so it was worth the effort for him.

 

[Dr Croubie]

Well, doesn't RB stand for Rotating Back? If the lens doesn't shift the way you want it to, turn the whole lot 90 degrees on the tripod mount until it does, then rotate the back to orrect orientation...

 

[dorff]

Well, doesn't RB stand for Rotating Back? If the lens doesn't shift the way you want it to, turn the whole lot 90 degrees on the tripod mount until it does, then rotate the back to orrect orientation...

An RZ with any lens on it is hardly "elegant" doing cliff-hanging on top of a tripod in vertical mode . In fact, that is the entire point of having a rotating back. But of course, you are correct in that it will fix the orientation problem. To the best of my knowledge the lens barrel rotates. I'd be extremely surprised if it doesn't. There is no use in having a shift lens that only shifts horizontally.

 

[nicolasllasera]

I have one. You can rotate it 360 degrees. Its really easy. Just push and you will see. It goes in 30 degree stops or so. Also i have the info in the lens somewhere. I will look for it and post it.

 

[kiloampere]

It rotates in 10° steps and you can shift in both directions at each 10° step. Horizontal, vertical and diagonal