Which lens for C330?

OptiKen · Nov 23, 2015

I'm trying to put together a small system for my Mamiya C330 TLR camera.
I have a good 80mm and good 180mm (boy is that heavy!).
Now I'm looking for a good (general use) wide angle lens mostly for landscape photography.
I am not a 'landscape' or 'portrait' or 'still-life' photographer.
I'm a hobbiest and as such I shoot whatever tickles my fancy at the moment.

Which would you suggest and advantages and disadvantages of either: 65mm or 55mm ?

Sirius Glass · Nov 23, 2015

I owned a Mamiya C330 with the 65mm, 80mm and 250mm lenses. The 65mm lens was too narrow and too close to the 80mm lens. I strongly recommend the 55mm lens.

For comparison, when I sold the Mamiya for the Hasselblad, I avoided the 60mm lens and got the 50mm lens. On the Hasselblad system the 50mm lens complements the 80mm lens. Again, skip the 65mm lens and get the 55mm lens.

Jeff Bradford · Nov 23, 2015

The 55mm if you can get it. I have never seen one in person. I have no complaints about the 65mm. There really aren't any bad lenses among the selection. I think my most-used is the 135mm.

Sirius Glass · Nov 23, 2015

55mm lenses are available [see below] and I have handled them. There is nothing wrong with the 65mm lens, it just is not wide enough almost all the time.

Dead Link Removed

benjiboy · Nov 23, 2015

The 55mm lens pair if you have the 80 mm, the 65mm is a very good lens, but too close to the 80 to make it a sensible purchase, even the 55 isn't particularly wide, but will focus down to 1:1 lifesize.

Gerald C Koch · Nov 23, 2015

Having the 55mm I agree with all those that recommend this focal length.

michr · Nov 23, 2015

I have the 55mm and it's wide but not exceptionally so, certainly not ultra-wide. The 65 is a bargain in comparison, and there's nothing about the 55 which makes it extremely desirable.

The real limitation is the square format, which just isn't a good fit for landscape work. You're going to crop a lot of ground or sky unless you're creative with the subject matter.

Sirius Glass · Nov 23, 2015

It would be harder in a Mamiya Cxxx to go wider that a 55mm lens. If it were possible, I would recommend it.

There is no limitation to square. Hasselblad advertised for years that "Square is the perfect format", so we know that is true. If one composes for the format, then there should rarely be a need for cropping other than the tree growing out of a subject's head or branches coming out of the subject's ear. If Ansel Adams who shot 6x6 in his later years did not have a problem with square, then you should not have a problem with square. Besides if I remember correctly Ansel Adams shot landscapes and he even shot 6x6 landscapes. You just need to get with the program <<wink>> <<wink>>

Kirks518 · Nov 23, 2015

I have and love the 55mm. So.... get the 55mm.

I find the 180mm to be too long, and I much prefer the 105mm and the 135mm to the 180mm.

Ken Nadvornick · Nov 23, 2015

I have and have used both the 55mm and 65mm on a C330S. Both are excellent. The 55mm in 6x6 is roughly equivalent to a 30mm in 135mm format, while the 65mm is roughly equivalent to a 35mm.

For close-in handling on crowded streets and sidewalks, the 55mm works nicely. If you can only have one, I agree with the others and would recommend the 55mm.

But one thing to also keep in mind is that most non-zooming basic flash units are designed to cover no wider than about 35mm in 135. So if one is using the 55mm one must have access to either a zoom flash head that will cover, or a pop-in wide-angle flash filter, or a bare bulb flash unit for full coverage.

When using basic flashes and I need to have more even edge-to-edge flash coverage, I reach for the 65mm when possible.

Ken

David Brown · Nov 23, 2015

Ken Nadvornick said:
I have and have used both the 55mm and 65mm ... Both are excellent. The 55mm in 6x6 is roughly equivalent to a 30mm in 135mm format, while the 65mm is roughly equivalent to a 35mm.

So have I. (Objective data.)

Subjectively, it's up to you but when I only take one of the two, it's the 55mm.

TheToadMen · Nov 23, 2015

Be patient and wait fo a good for both lenses in time. In the end I did get both in good working order for a nice deal.

Bert from Holland
http://thetoadmen.blogspot.nl

MattKing · Nov 23, 2015

I've settled on a 65mm and 135mm two lens kit. It is wonderfully compact.

In the past I had a 55mm and an 80mm as well.

I "down-sized" because I decided to emphasize compactness and simplicity in my TLR stuff. My 645 and 67 kits handle my needs for wider and longer lenses.

I liked the 55mm when I owned it, but would have preferred it if it had a larger maximum aperture because I always found it difficult to focus in poor light (like wedding receptions).

The 65mm has a weird (for Mamiya TLRs) filter size of 49mm and therefore requires its own lens cap. I've learned to deal with it.

The 65mm is nice, and the 135mm is superb.

Ron789 · Nov 23, 2015

I have a 55mm that I'm willing to sell. It is in excellent shape. Just send me a PM if you're interested.

Sirius Glass · Nov 23, 2015

Ken Nadvornick said:
I have and have used both the 55mm and 65mm on a C330S. Both are excellent. The 55mm in 6x6 is roughly equivalent to a 30mm in 135mm format, while the 65mm is roughly equivalent to a 35mm.

So my recommendation of the 55mm lens follows my pattern in medium format 38mm, 50mm, 80mm ... and in 135 format 20mm or 21mm, 28mm, 50mm, ... Every time I had a 35mm lens in 135, I promptly sold it to buy a 28mm lens.

mrosenlof · Nov 23, 2015

I have all of the black shutter lenses in the Mamiya TLR system except the 250mm. For several years, the 65 and 135 were the only lenses I had and they were a good combination. Many have already written about the 55 and 65. I think both are decently sharp, maybe the 55 is sharper for me, but I don't think to an really significant level. I suggest the 55 because it takes 46mm filters which work much better on the TLR lenses. With a 49mm filter on the 65/180/259, the slip on hood or lenscaps don't fit, the filter threads on the extra thin lens is delicate and easily damaged.

I tend to like longer lenses more than wide, so it kind of surprises me to recommend the 55. I like the 180 quite a bit, but there's more hassel involved when using it.

jovo · Nov 23, 2015

I have and use a C220 and C330. My lenses are 55, 80, 135 and I'm really happy with the kit. Having a common filter size is a huge advantage when schlepping the thing around. I also have a 65, but the shutter needs fixing. I will probably let that go and stick with what I have that works so well.

flavio81 · Nov 24, 2015

I have (or had) the following, my comments:

55mm: Wide, but never used it too much, not so easy to focus.

65mm: Sharp even wide open, uses 49mm filters, f3.5, so it's the most versatile lens and the one i'd recommend as general purpose lens. Slightly similar to 80mm but with extra depth of field.

80mm: Don't use it too much because i have the:

105mm: Beautiful for portraits and also for general purpose, although depth of field is narrow.

135mm: Haven't used it too much because mine is in bad shape

180mm "chrome": Creamy, beautiful bokeh and very sharp at about f11.

180mm "super": Very sharp at all apertures, bokeh good although i feel the "chrome", older version is better in this respect.

Roger Cole · Nov 24, 2015

Sirius Glass said:
It would be harder in a Mamiya Cxxx to go wider that a 55mm lens. If it were possible, I would recommend it.

There is no limitation to square. Hasselblad advertised for years that "Square is the perfect format", so we know that is true. If one composes for the format, then there should rarely be a need for cropping other than the tree growing out of a subject's head or branches coming out of the subject's ear. If Ansel Adams who shot 6x6 in his later years did not have a problem with square, then you should not have a problem with square. Besides if I remember correctly Ansel Adams shot landscapes and he even shot 6x6 landscapes. You just need to get with the program <<wink>> <<wink>>

The only thing perfect about the square is that you don't have to rotate the camera to crop to either e vertical or horizontal rectangle making it work nicely with a waist level finder.

The world, and well seen potential photographs, does not come neatly packaged in fixed ratio squares or rectangles. Some things look better square, some rectangular, and more or less rectangular. An advantage of medium format is that it allows a fair amount of cropping before really impacting print quality badly. I shoot square in my TLR. Probably my prints run about half and half, square or cropped to a rectangle of whatever proportions.

And yes, I see the wink wink, and based on my experience with WA lenses in 645 I agree that in general a 55 is more versatile than a 65 if one also has an 80mm, but that's aside from other considerations like lens speed.

Argenticien · Nov 24, 2015

Thanks everyone, for all the advice. Yes it's not my thread , but I am looking for a wide as well, and this has been very helpful information. I have only the 80mm and 135mm so far, and when I was out shooting sunsets a few weeks ago, the lack of a wide was a considerable problem. I've got used to having a 50mm on my Bronica S2 kit (6x6 format as well), so being limited to 80mm on the Mamiya was quite the limitation.
--Dave

Ken Nadvornick · Nov 24, 2015

Sirius Glass said:
So my recommendation of the 55mm lens follows my pattern in medium format 38mm, 50mm, 80mm ... and in 135 format 20mm or 21mm, 28mm, 50mm, ... Every time I had a 35mm lens in 135, I promptly sold it to buy a 28mm lens.

You have trained your eyes well then...

In case the following may be new information to other readers, here's the rough 35mm equivalent focal lengths for the full set of available Mamiya TLR lenses.

(Values are based on the diagonals of each respective format, and calculated using true film gate sizes. They are only rough approximations because the aspect ratios are different between squares and rectangles. The formats would need to be rotated slightly relative to each other to align their diagonal dimensions.)

[table="width: 225, class: grid, align: left"]

Mamiya TLR Lens (Black)
135 Format Equivalent

55mm f/4.5
30.0mm

65mm f/3.5
35.5mm

80mm f/2.8
43.7mm

105mm f/3.5
57.4mm

135mm f/4.5
73.8mm

180mm f/4.5
98.3mm

250mm f/4.5
136.6mm

[/table]

mnflycaster · Nov 26, 2015

I have the 55,80,and 180. Enough difference to change lenses!

Sirius Glass · Nov 26, 2015

mnflycaster said:
I have the 55,80,and 180. Enough difference to change lenses!

welcome to APUG

Use the 250mm lens, it is a real eye opener.

Which lens for C330?

OptiKen

Sirius Glass

Jeff Bradford

Sirius Glass

benjiboy

Gerald C Koch

michr

Sirius Glass

Kirks518

Ken Nadvornick

David Brown

TheToadMen

MattKing

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Ron789

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mrosenlof

jovo

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flavio81

Roger Cole

Argenticien

Ken Nadvornick

mnflycaster

Sirius Glass

Which lens for C330?

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