mamiya c330 55mm lens

hi all, i have a chance to purchase a 55mm lens for my c330, need some

feedback on this lens, sharpness? does anyone have examples they can post?

also is there a problem with vignetting? i have this problem with my 65mm

lens, even with a single filter. thanks in advance.

I had this lens as part of my TLR press kit in the 'eighties; I wasn't really impressed with it. Unlike the longer lenses, my specimen seemed soft at any aperture, even after it went back to Mamiya for checking. In the end, I gave up on it.

 

On the other hand, Mamiya lenses seem to be dirt cheap just now, as witness the black 180mm which mwclassic.com are offering for 29 GBP ($60) at the moment. If it's in that price range, it must be worth taking a gamble.

I have two black 55mm lenses for my C330f, one early on in the production run and one later (6 digit serial number). The older one has the pale yellow coating color, the later one has the purplish color. I don't think any Mamiya TLR lenses were multi-coated except maybe some of the later 80mm S versions--maybe the ones with the deep purple coating color. The older lens is sharp in the center and soft on the edges, but that was "fixed" by swapping front elements. The newer lens is very sharp all over. Both are equally flare prone, so use those shades. I don't know about vignetting as I used the lenses for shooting weddings, and never put filters over them except for square resin ones, and very rarely on the wide angle. And you aren't going to be able to tell much re sharpness with online images. I would try to find one of the later ones.

I have a black version, and it's a solid performer. I don't know what you expect in sharpness, but I have also a Fujica gl690 with a 50mm super angulon design lens which is considered one of the sharpest lenses ever made for that format (sharp all over a 6x9 neg), and its as said, very very sharp. What did I bring that out for? The truth is, in normal prints for medium format (1 meter wide, for example) I hardly can tell the difference (especially if you scanned and processed in photoshop, sharpened, etc). With good fixed lenses that haven't been abused, the marginal difference in sharpness is negligible compared to the difference a tripod makes, or using the right aperture, depth of field with medium format wide angles is really tricky. Just buy it and learn to use it, you can get a lot out of it.

Mamiya tlrs take either a 46mm or 49mm filters. The 55 takes a 46mm filter. I put a 46mm to 49mm step up ring on mine to cut down on the number of filters. I really like a graduated neutral dentsity filter for landscape and I could not find one for 46mm but 49mm is available. Even with a 46mm filter, I did not see any vignetting. By the way I like both the 55 and 65mm lenses.

I have a 55mm for the Mamiya.... I use it on my walkabouts in NYC - the lens is slower than I would like f4.5 and that makes my night and live band shoots a little bit more difficult from the f2.8 80mm.

I like the lens a lot - it is plenty sharp and allows me to shoot comfortably on the packed streets.

I would recommend you get it - if only to have another way of seeing with your system :-)

David6of7