Mamiya 645 45mm 'S' lens

Neil Grant · Oct 24, 2017

...I am now the owner of one of these. Am I right in thinking the 'S' designation is some sort of short-term interim designation? The lens has a couple of stick on 'S' letters, one on the aperture ring and the other on the name ring. None of my other 645 Sekor C lenses have this. I'm inclined to remove them along with the 'Passed' label which is still in place.

MattKing · Oct 24, 2017

The "S" designation actually refers to a separate model. I believe it sits between the C and N models, but I might not be correct.
There were not many of them.

mweintraub · Oct 24, 2017

AFAIK, the S model is an in between model that has the new coating that came on the N but is built in the C body.

macfred · Oct 24, 2017

The "C" version takes 77mm filters - the "S" and "N" versions are 67mm.

Ian Grant · Oct 25, 2017

mweintraub said:
AFAIK, the S model is an in between model that has the new coating that came on the N but is built in the C body.

I'm not sure what you mean by that. I have a 45mm f2.8 "C" lens which appears to be Multi Coated, I've owned it for about 35 years. The "S" version was a newer optical design, smaller and lighter, hence the smaller filter sze mentioned above. Both the C and S versions are greta performers very sharp, it's the lens I used most on the now fewer occasions I shoot with my Maiya 645 cameras.

Ian

Neil Grant · Oct 25, 2017

.the lens details are: Mamiya Sekor C 45mm f/2.8
and a stuck-on 'S'
it has a 67mm filter thread. So, to my way of thinking, the lens is both C and S. It arrived in a Sekor N box, with N instructions. Maybe some of these smaller lenses were only C versions, but since the 'S' can easily be lost or removed identifying them may be difficult.

mweintraub · Oct 25, 2017

Ian Grant said:
I'm not sure what you mean by that. I have a 45mm f2.8 "C" lens which appears to be Multi Coated, I've owned it for about 35 years. The "S" version was a newer optical design, smaller and lighter, hence the smaller filter sze mentioned above. Both the C and S versions are greta performers very sharp, it's the lens I used most on the now fewer occasions I shoot with my Maiya 645 cameras.

Ian

I had the C lens and loved it. You're right about the optical changes.

MattKing · Oct 25, 2017

I have a feeling that the S lens was an N lens before they had face plates that said N.
The C version of the 45mm is considerably bigger than the N version, and took 77mm filters. I had one and was happy with the performance, but didn't like the size or the requirement for 77 mm filters.
I replaced the C version with an N version - smaller, lighter, 67mm filters and similar excellent performance.
The 45mm lens went through more of a change between C and N versions than just about every other focal length (of those lenses I am familiar with).

Mamiya 645 45mm 'S' lens

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Mamiya 645 45mm 'S' lens

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