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Mamiya RB67 Portrait Lens

Nerotheroman

Member
Allowing Ads
Joined
Dec 1, 2014
Messages
48
Location
Germany
Format
Medium Format
Good morning,

I did some research during the last days,
to find a portrait lens for my Mamiya RB67.

It seems, that there are three different options:

Mamiya Sekor C 180mm
Mamiya Sekor C 140mm
Mamiya Sekor APO 250mm

Do you guys have any experiences with theses lenses especially in portraiture use.

I'm leaning a bit towards the APO 250m, because I like longer lenses for that sujet. But the image quality of a lens is also very important, so there might be a better option?

I'd be really happy to hear about some of your experiences

Thanks a lot for reading.
Greetings
Mat
 
Maybe a better definition of what kind of portraiture would be useful, perhaps?
Also, your signature more or less says it all.
 
Well mostly I do closeup shots. I need the nwe lens to be sharp, but not in the sense of nearly cutting your eye.
But it has to be a swirley bokeh
Hope that makes it a bit clearer.

Well yes, you are right.
But I just own 1 lens for the Mamiya, the 127mm.
So something different will change my possobilities to shoot something different

Thanks for your reply.
 

There is 150mm variable soft focus
and a 250 C and 250 mm

Think the C means multi coated

Any if the lenses will leave you with micro skin blemishes... Im never sure which ones I have.
 
http://rb67.helluin.org

The 140mm is a macro lens - not that you couldn't take portraits with it, but it will not be that different from your 127mm.

This camera was a mainstay in portrait studios for a couple of decades and the usual lens was the 180mm.
 
Xmas thanks for your reply. I wasn't aware, that the 150mm is a soft focus lens. Interesting! Never had one of those. Does it look very artificial?
 
Get the 180......my weapon of choice. its very sharp use a soft filter or some pantyhose if you're shooting the female persuasion.
 
Hello David,

thanks for that information.
Can you tell me something about the 180mm?
Sharpness, bokeh, overall look?

Sorry j-dogg read your post to late.
That sounds good, what kind of softener do you use?
 
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see
(there was a url link here which no longer exists)
 
If you get the 150mm, make sure the lens comes with the disk set. There are 3 disks that came with the lens. The lens separates and these disks go inside the lens.
 
Xmas: Thanks for the link!

tkamiya: I will make sure that they are there, thanks for bringing this to my attention.
 
The 150mm can be shot as a normal lens too. In the end it might be more of a working distance issue depending upon what your setting up to do. The 180mm is an excellent lens as well.
I've listed a couple shots that I took with the 150mm of a pencil cholla at Joshua Tree NP last summer. I do not recall which of the three disks I had in play here, but it might give you an idea what things look like.


http://www.photoportfolios.net/portfolio/pf.cgi?a=vp&pr=111555&CGISESSID=9f4c321a725436c53f1c8d805989bd2d&u=22267

http://www.photoportfolios.net/portfolio/pf.cgi?a=vp&pr=111556&CGISESSID=9f4c321a725436c53f1c8d805989bd2d&u=22267

USER GUIDE:
http://www.reznitsky.info/Mamiya/Doc/RB67_150mm_Soft_Focus.pdf
 
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Those images look quite good!
That's the direction I was looking for.

Well for portraits I tend to use longer lenses,
because I don't like to be to close to my model.
I feel when I'm to close, the ability of showing how a person really is, shrinks. So when shooting 35mm I normaly use lenses around 130-175mm.

Thanks for your reply and the examples!
 

My 2 cents:

I was thinking of getting the 180mm or even the 250mm but i had three considerations:

1) In 35mm i really like using an 58/1.4 lens for portraits, together with an 85/1.8 and longer.
In 6x6 i really like the 105mm for portraits (in this case Mamiya 105/3.5) (about 56-65mm equivalence to small format, depeding on how you crop)
... so in 6x7 i thought the 127/3.5 (about 64mm equivalent) would be a good complement.

2) Depth of field is already very narrow in this format. For example when using the 105/3.5 in 6x6 format, i often need to stop down to f8 or smaller to get the depth of field i want, even if i use a 6x4.5 area. In 6x7, it is even more narrow, so there's a problem with longer focal lengths.

,Note that i use the RB handheld 99% of the time, so this is why i can't easily choose narrow apertures like f11 ir f16.

3) With tele lenses (85mm and longer in 35mm format), you will be filling most of the frame with the subject face (for a head-and-shoulder portrait). I feel that the resolution and sharpness advantage of medium format is not too big in such kind of shots. And sometimes film grain helps with such portraits. While in wideangle shots (say, 24mm equivalent FOV), due to the greater amount of detail included in the picture, medium format is king.

Thus, due to (1, 2, and 3), i thought the 127mm would be ideal. Another plus is that it's the lightest and smallest of all RB lenses.

Now, the lens will arrive to me soon due to the commendable help of our new APUG member Zoltan, so thanks Zoltan!!

I'll report on how i like the lens once i get it.
 

Then I'd suggest you need a 250mm or longer.
 
I owned the RZ with 110mm and 180mm for portraiture but I used a 50mm and 100mm when shooting a 35mm camera. If you normally use the 130-175mm lenses then I would expect you might like the 250mm lens. It would be similar to a 125mm lens in focal length on a 35mm camera.

Just be aware that the 250mm is a big heavy lens if you want to carry it around. Anything longer will be even worse.
 
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Xmas: Well I certainly will take this in serious consideration.

Alan: Thanks for this comparision. I'm not good in theoretical things so good to know how the relation between mf and 35mm is.

The lens can be as big as it needs to be.
I don't shoot free hand, only using my sturdy Berlebach tripod.
 
I have and like my 180mm for the RB. I do also use my 140mm for environmental portraits. And if I am feeling mischievous, I can use my 180mm with a 2X tele-extender to really intimidate the sitter.

I think you will find that the differences between the aspect ratios of 6x7 and 35mm make it difficult to come up with a hard and fast rule for focal length equivalencies between the formats.

And the reduced depth of field with the larger format makes the result with an 180mm on 6x7 look somewhat more like a 135mm on 35mm.

The extra negative area does permit you to crop less tightly in camera, and then decide later if you want to crop more when printing.

The 180mm lens is reasonable in size and weight and very reasonable in cost. I suggest trying it first.
 

I think the 350mm (and certainly the 500mm, which is just ridiculous for portraiture for a whole host of reasons) came with a support brace because they're so big and heavy.
 
@Matt:

Well to be honest, so far I produced and developed lots of negatives, but had just a few enlarged (mostly due to costs). So I do not really have an idea how far one can manipulate the print in the darkroom, but your explanation sounds good. Finding relations seems to be possible in theory. But I got your point and it does make sense. You see, always shot digital. Never had to think about such things.
But I soooo love it it's so much fun to learn something new every day.

It looks like my girlf.. ehm.. Santa will get a wishlist with some photo stuff

Well it's quite hard to say which one I should take.
But the good thing is, they aren't that expensive, so maybe I can get some over a course of time.

So far I felt in love with the 150mm Sf lens.
It produces stunning looking pictures

180 or 250... mhm hard..

@TheFlyingCamera: That sounds really ridiculously large
 
@Alan: That sounds like your 100%
Thanks for your advice!
 
Nerotheroman said:
@Alan: That sounds like your 100%
Thanks for your advice!
Click to expand...

You are most welcome. As a rule you can double your focal length of a 35mm lens to get the same focal length equivalent in 6x7. It's not perfect but close enough.

Matt King is correct about the aspect ratio being different which may make a difference to you in your lens choice.

If you have a chance to try out some lenses then I would do it. Of course if you buy right and decide you want a different lens later you won't get hurt much when you sell. I've done this myself and then figured what little I lost when I sold was a cheap rental fee.
 
Well I don't know who the better looking Alan is
But I do also thank you for your advice.

I have to see whether one of the stores in my area has Mamiya lenses for sale and one of those I'm searching for.

But I will try this Saturday
 
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