Mamiya M645 55-110mm f/4.5 Zoom - Any good?

[aoresteen]

I will be visiting Italy in the fall and I am planning to take my Mamiya M645 1000s body and the 35mm, 55mm, and 110mm lenses.

I've never really used a zoom lens prefering to use primes. But if I get the Mamiya 55-10mm f/4.5 N lens I can carry just two lenses (combining the 55 and the 110 into one zoom).

I loose a stop and a half and gain 105 grams in weight. I pick up intermediate focal lengths. I make mostly 11x14 B&W prints and I will be shooting HP-5 with a yellow filter, mostly at f/11 or f/8.

How good is the Mamiya M645 55-110mm f/4.5 N zoom, manual focus? At $350 used it seems to be a good buy but if it is soft I'll just take the two primes.

Thanks!

 

[Greg_E]

If the lens is in good shape, it should make decent images. I'll have to see if the one I own is still functional, might let it go for a very low price. It was part of a kit I bought, and had an issue. I think I fixed the issue and have never looked at it since. I'll try to find it tonight and take a look.

Got an extra waist level finder for the generation 1 bodies somewhere too.

 

[Greg_E]

Sorry, mine is a 75 to 150 f4.5. Looks good except for a spot on the element just in front of the iris. Guess I should send it to Keh and unload it since I'll never use it.

 

[keithwms]

Yes, it is good. Kinda clunky though in my opinion- it weighs quite a bit and I prefer to work with the much smaller, lighter primes, which are also faster and thus easier to focus.