Luminous Landscape Forum

Equipment & Techniques => Cameras, Lenses and Shooting gear => Topic started by: haring on February 18, 2011, 03:11:25 pm

Title: Which Mamiya macro lens?
Post by: haring on February 18, 2011, 03:11:25 pm

Which Mamiya macro lens should I buy? I would like to use it for product photography.

I have a Mamiya AFD 645 III camera so the latest Phase One LS lenses are out of question.

Thanks!

Title: Re: Which Mamiya macro lens?
Post by: mediumcool on February 23, 2011, 09:52:09 am

Hi. I got kicked off another forum re my answers on a similar thread begun by you, so keep your fingers crossed!

Three parts to this:

Mamiya 120mm f4 Macro in various models (superb lens by all accounts—never used one)
All to date are Manual Focus; older lenses with an aperture ring are MA*, newer units without aperture ring are Auto Aperture/stop down on your AFDIII.

Mamiya 80mm f4 Macro MF/MA on AFD models (excellent—I have one). Gets to 1:1 with extension tube. Floating elements for close-range correction.

Large format lens or enlarger lens on Mamiya 645 bellows
This is the most versatile and flexible alternative if you can find a Mamiya bellows with movements (645 Bellows N)—then you can use tilt/swing and rise/fall to control depth of field and perspective respectively, just as you would with a large-format view camera.

*MA means manual aperture and stop-down. Not good for, say, candids at weddings, but fine for a non-moving still life.

HTH

Title: Re: Which Mamiya macro lens?
Post by: mediumcool on February 24, 2011, 12:19:08 am

M645 bellows B&H (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/33492-REG/Mamiya_210_240_Auto_Bellows_N_645.html)


(http://www.bhphotovideo.com/images/images345x345/33492.jpg)

Title: Re: Which Mamiya macro lens?
Post by: mediumcool on February 26, 2011, 08:22:38 am

eBay ad for Mamiya Bellows kit (http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Mamiya-645-Auto-Bellows-Canon-EOS-adapter-RARE-Lens-/290538086019?pt=Camera_Lenses&hash=item43a56b5e83#ht_50143wt_1141)

The 135mm lens looks as though it has white spots in it, possibly explaining the low contrast of the sample shots, way down the bottom of the posting!.

A Componon should do a lot better than this, particularly at close distances.

Title: Re: Which Mamiya macro lens?
Post by: amsp on February 27, 2011, 05:32:34 am

The 120mm macro is stellar, it's a no-brainer.

Title: Re: Which Mamiya macro lens?
Post by: mediumcool on February 27, 2011, 07:44:58 am

I like choice.