Mamiya TLR / Black vs Chrome

[Bighead]

Okay, I am finding that I am a snob. I will only consider black lenses for my Mamiya C330. I have an 80mm and am in need of a portrait lenth lens..

Whats the difference between the black and chrome? Seriously.

 

[bobfowler]

#1 - Age of the shutter. The old Seikosha shutters from the chrome series are very hard to find parts for these days. The newer Seikosha shutters aren't THAT much easier, but you can still get some parts.

#2 - The black lenses have much better lens coating. Not that big of a deal IF you are careful to use a proper hood and keep the sun off the front element.

#3 - Resale value.

 

[David Brown]

Everything Bob Fowler said is true. And I should note that I have all black lenses myself.

However, there is a school of thought that the chrome lenses can sometimes be had so cheap that one uses them until they break - IF they break.

Cheers,

David

 

[eumenius]

Right, the white lenses can be the excellent performers - I myself use 80 mm white lens as a primary macro lens, it works better for me than its black analogue. But the shutter in those is a problem - I was unable to fix a 135 mm white lens because one of the critical parts inside the shutter was too much worn. It should have had a mirror-finished polished surface, but every cycle of shutter was leaving pits on it, and the leafs didn't close as rapidly as needed

Cheers,
Zhenya

 

[FrankB]

A quick piggyback onto this thread (sorry!) - is the 80mm 2.8s substantially better than an 80mm 2.8?

Not an idle query; I'm eyeing one up at the moment...!

Thanks,

Frank

 

[grahamp]

Substantially better? It's the last lens to be issued, and should have the best coatings. If you don't use lens hoods and like including light sources in the your pictures it could be a better buy. Theoretically it is less worn, but it is still 10 - 15 years old. I wouldn't go out of my way to replace a Seiko 80 2.8 with an 80s, but I might pay a small (15% ?) premium over a good condition 80 if I wanted an 80mm.