So I have a Mamiya C33 and a 80mm F2.8 lens black barrel with Seiko Shutter. It is my most used camera. I run a roll of film through it just about every week.
I want to move on to some of the other lenses for this system. But I'm really not sure what lenses to get.
Since I mainly shoot landscapes and Cityscapes I'm eying the 55mm. For portrait work I was either think of the 135mm or 180mm.
Is there a big difference between the chrome series and black series of lenses?
This has been asked many times in this forum, but here is what I usually answer:
Chrome vs Black:
Optical design is the same in all lenses except:
a. the 105mm chrome versus the 105mm black with an "S" in the model (i.e. "DS"). The latter is 5 element versus 4 element for the former.
b. the 180mm lens versus the 180mm black lens marked as "SUPER". The "super" is 5 elements and physically shorter. BTW i owned both models and the chrome 180mm was also a great lens, so don't feel bad if you don't get the "super" version.
Coatings: Only the latest latest 80mm and 105mm lenses were multicoated, but this does not matter at all. Single coating is very effective on those lenses, except the 55mm and the 65mm, which need use of the proper hood to prevent flare on some situations. I suspect that the coating on the older chrome lenses is
better than the later black lenses...
Blue dot: Forget about the blue dot. It only meant an improved shutter mechanism but even the chrome shutters are reliable as tanks.
My review of lenses:
(I own all except the 250).
Also, note that i always use the full 6x6 negative (square format). In other words, i rarely crop it to 6x4.5 rectangle.
55mm: never used it too much because at f4.5 the corners are reputed not to be so good. When I used it, it was at about f11 and the image quality was good. It does feel wide, certainly wider than what it's 29mm equivalence (to 35mm) would make you think. Apparently it has no distortion.
65mm: Great all-around lens, perhaps the sharpest of all at f3.5, equivalent to about 35mm on 35mm-full-frame, useful for everything except of course typical portraits. Low or no distortion. Very sharp.
80mm: I never used this lens too much because this focal length is TOO common in 6x6 format. But it is very sharp.
105mm: Perhaps my favorite focal length for this system. Great all-around use and excellent for portraits. It's equivalent to about 58mm in 35mm terms. It is really great. The later 5-element version has supposedly smoother out-of-focus effects. I have the early 4-element (tessar) version and I do like the out of focus effects, though.
135mm: Bought it last month, not used it yet. Some people swear by it. Ergonomics are not good because it needs to bring forth the lens too much.
180mm: Very sharp. Chrome 180mm version has a bokeh that is to die for. The 180mm "Super" version also has good bokeh (i've not compared them yet) and is very sharp, even wide open.
250mm: Never owned one but it is f6.3 (very slow), heavy, and at such specifications it would only be useful with a tripod.
If forced to keep only one lens, it would be either the 65 or the 105.
If forced to keep only two lenses, they would be the 65mm and the 105mm. Second choice would be 65mm and 180mm.
Three lenses would definitely be 65, 105, and 180.
