Pentacon Six to Mamiya 645 adapters

ntenny · Jun 2, 2025

I have a Mamiya 645, and I’m tempted by some of the interesting Pentacon Six lenses. I am unclear on the quality of the adapters currently available:
- hartbleilens.com seems no longer to offer this particular adapter;
- hartblei.com I understand to be involved in a dispute with Hartblei, and I’m not clear if their adapter is any good or if they’re a reliable source;
- various no-name eBay adapters could be of any quality from “perfect” to “doesn’t work”;
- kamerastore.com lists a generic adapter as unavailable.

Can anyone speak to the quality of a P6/M645 adapter that’s actually available?

Thanks
-NT

Alexander6x6 · Jun 4, 2025

ntenny said:
I have a Mamiya 645, and I’m tempted by some of the interesting Pentacon Six lenses. I am unclear on the quality of the adapters currently available:
- hartbleilens.com seems no longer to offer this particular adapter;
- hartblei.com I understand to be involved in a dispute with Hartblei, and I’m not clear if their adapter is any good or if they’re a reliable source;
- various no-name eBay adapters could be of any quality from “perfect” to “doesn’t work”;
- kamerastore.com lists a generic adapter as unavailable.

Can anyone speak to the quality of a P6/M645 adapter that’s actually available?

Thanks
-NT

You're right; Hartblei has already sold its stock. Hartblei.com is a scam operated by the former sales manager. He sources photo gear from garage companies.

This must be the Hartblei adapter (very first one without engraving):

Pentacon Six Objektiv-Adapter für Pentacon | eBay.de

Nachträgliche Reklamationen bezüglich offensichtlicher bzw. beschriebener Eigenschaften können nicht anerkannt werden. Die Ware stammt aus einem tierfreien Nichtraucherhaushalt. kostengünstig (recycling) - für den Käufer!!

www.ebay.de

Or this one together with the lens:

Pentacon 300mm F4 f. Mamiya 645 | eBay.de

Top in Schuss kein Pilz, kein nichts.

www.ebay.de

ntenny · Jun 4, 2025

Alexander6x6 said:
You're right; Hartblei has already sold its stock. Hartblei.com is a scam operated by the former sales manager. He sources photo gear from garage companies.

Thanks. Most disappointing.

Alexander6x6 said:
This must be the Hartblei adapter (very first one without engraving):

Pentacon Six Objektiv-Adapter für Pentacon | eBay.de

Nachträgliche Reklamationen bezüglich offensichtlicher bzw. beschriebener Eigenschaften können nicht anerkannt werden. Die Ware stammt aus einem tierfreien Nichtraucherhaushalt. kostengünstig (recycling) - für den Käufer!!

www.ebay.de

Or this one together with the lens:

Pentacon 300mm F4 f. Mamiya 645 | eBay.de

Top in Schuss kein Pilz, kein nichts.

www.ebay.de

I appreciate the pointers. I’m confused by the first one: It says “für Pentacon” (Pentacon Six adapter for Pentacon??) and I didn’t see that it mentions the M645. The second one with the adapter already on a lens looks like a good deal though.

Thanks
-NT

Alexander6x6 · Jun 4, 2025

ntenny said:
Thanks. Most disappointing.

I appreciate the pointers. I’m confused by the first one: It says “für Pentacon” (Pentacon Six adapter for Pentacon??) and I didn’t see that it mentions the M645. The second one with the adapter already on a lens looks like a good deal though.

Thanks
-NT

Oh, my bad, sorry. This adapter appeared in the search results and I just looked for the overall shape. It is worth to ask. If it its not for Pentax645 though.

ntenny · Jun 4, 2025

Hmmm, it looks like shipping on the big lens is prohibitive, and the seller of the adapter doesn’t seem to know what camera it fits. I may have to go with one of the basic adapters and hope for the best.

-NT

Kino · Jun 4, 2025

Have you explored this by seller Grizzlybear on Ebay?:

Adapter from Pentacon 6 / Kiev 60, 88CM (lens) - to Mamiya 645 (camera), NEW! | eBay

Kiev 6/6C, Kiev 60, Kiev 88 CM, Exakta 66, Pentacon 6 --> Mamiya 645. lens- Kiev 60, Kiev 88 CM, Exakta 66, Pentacon SIX. Allows to focus on infinity. For your convenience I accept.

www.ebay.com

ntenny · Jun 4, 2025

Kino said:
Have you explored this by seller Grizzlybear on Ebay?:

I’ve seen it, I just wonder if it’s good. It looks a lot like the one offered by hartblei.com. There are a couple of other candidates on eBay, notably a Pixco adapter from Japan at a higher price point and a couple of no-names. If no one knows, I’ll probably take my chances with the one from grizzly33bear.

-NT

Kino · Jun 4, 2025

I have bought from him several times in the past and he's always been easy to communicate with and responsive. Most of the stuff he sells is New Old Stock from the original Arsenal Factory that made the Kiev 88 cameras.

Write to him; ask questions. He's responsive.

OAPOli · Jun 4, 2025

I had a dealing with Hartblei.com two years ago. I wasn't scammed; they were very helpful in servicing a Kiev-88.

Alexander6x6 · Jun 5, 2025

OAPOli said:
I had a dealing with Hartblei.com two years ago. I wasn't scammed; they were very helpful in servicing a Kiev-88.

But this is not the original Hartblei company. You get something else but not Hartblei products. As I already mentioned, this site is from the former Hartblei's sales manager, who owns this domain since 2000.

Alexander6x6 · Jun 5, 2025

Kino said:
Have you explored this by seller Grizzlybear on Ebay?:

It is grizzly33bear, and the people behind this Ebay shop are from hartblei. com.

Alexander6x6 · Jun 5, 2025

ntenny said:
Hmmm, it looks like shipping on the big lens is prohibitive, and the seller of the adapter doesn’t seem to know what camera it fits. I may have to go with one of the basic adapters and hope for the best.

-NT

If I were you, I would request about the possibility to ship the item to the USA.

ntenny · Jun 5, 2025

Alexander6x6 said:
If I were you, I would request about the possibility to ship the item to the USA.

I did ask about the lens, and it was way too expensive to ship here.

In the end I bought the adapter from grizzly33bear (before seeing your post identifying them as hartblei.com); it’s claimed to be NOS from the Arsenal factory. It’ll be a while before it gets here, however.

-NT

Alexander6x6 · Jun 5, 2025

ntenny said:
I did ask about the lens, and it was way too expensive to ship here.

In the end I bought the adapter from grizzly33bear (before seeing your post identifying them as hartblei.com); it’s claimed to be NOS from the Arsenal factory. It’ll be a while before it gets here, however.

-NT

Arsenal did never produce this adapter. Hartblei was the first one who introduced it together with the Pentax 645.

In 2005, Kiev Camera USA took it over, along with the employees who had left Hartblei for the higher earnings promised by Mike Fourman. A few months later, Mr. Fourman kicked them out of his business. Since then, they have been working for Arax or grizzly33bear.

Arsenal only produced Kiev-88/Pentacon Six to M42 screw mount/ Nikon F mount, M42 to Nikon F (no infinity) and K58 reversal adapter ring for Pentacon Six.

ags2mikon · Jun 5, 2025

I have bought from Grizzlybear from ebay and it was fine. The shipping does take a while. Does anybody know what happened to Mike Fourman?

Marcelo Paniagua · Jun 5, 2025

Just my vouch for grizzly33bear. Not the cheapest store on ebay but pretty helpful and easy to deal with. Bought some stuff from that shop and completely satisfied with

outwest · Jun 5, 2025

Not recent, but I have 3 adapters. Seems that the "to M42" came with a lens. The one I got about 26-27 years ago is "to Nikon" and the last one I got maybe 10 years ago is "to Mamiya 645". All work just fine and make great use of the excellent lenses. The 30mm f/3.5 works well and the 180 f/2.8 is very handy on the 645. The beautiful 300 f/4 is great on anything and is especially nice for astrophotography because of the 75mm free aperture.

ntenny · Jun 5, 2025

I just got home from taking the plunge and buying a 180/2.8. That is one good-sized hunk of glass and metal, and this one obviously has had a working life—everything seems to be in good operating condition, but the barrel has lots of cosmetic wear.

There are two small silver levers/tabs on the sides of the lens, opposite one another. One of them is DOF preview, but as far as I can tell the other one doesn’t do anything. It has two positions, but I couldn’t find any function that was affected by it. Does anyone know?

Thanks
-NT

ags2mikon · Jun 5, 2025

The other one is for tripod mount rotation. That way you can rotate the camera and make all of your friends think you used a Hasselblad.

ntenny · Jun 20, 2025

OK, the adapter from grizzly33bear arrived (in remarkable time considering that it was shipping from Kyiv) and seems to work great. It wasn’t obvious to me in advance how it was going to work, and in particular the locking ring tightens COUNTER-clockwise, but once decoded, it goes on and off the lens properly and fits on the camera. I haven’t had a chance to put any film through yet.

The adapter does not actuate the diaphragm pin on the lens, so it becomes a manual-aperture lens that should work with stop-down metering. (This is all as I expected, but I wanted to document it for future searchers.)

Thanks to everyone for the information and discussion.

-NT

Subversive Mk II · Nov 12, 2025

ntenny said:
OK, the adapter from grizzly33bear arrived (in remarkable time considering that it was shipping from Kyiv) and seems to work great. It wasn’t obvious to me in advance how it was going to work, and in particular the locking ring tightens COUNTER-clockwise, but once decoded, it goes on and off the lens properly and fits on the camera. I haven’t had a chance to put any film through yet.

The adapter does not actuate the diaphragm pin on the lens, so it becomes a manual-aperture lens that should work with stop-down metering. (This is all as I expected, but I wanted to document it for future searchers.)

Thanks to everyone for the information and discussion.

-NT

Only thing I've found with these adapters is they tend to gall and get stuck if not removed for ages. I've taken to using some candle wax on the adapter edges and flanges where they grip onto the lens and body.

Pentacon Six to Mamiya 645 adapters

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