Mamiya 645, 35mm Lens?

[alpenglow]

Greetings all,

 

I'm considering getting a used Mamiya 645 35mm f/3.5 wide angle lens. I want to

use it wide open for night photography, and I was wondering what it's quality is

like. For those of you that have this lens, any feedback would be greatly

appreciated.

 

Best,

Mike K.

[charles.]

I have the older (non N) version, and it is not great, but not horrible at 3.5. It gets better by f8-11 (sharp in 16x20 prints to my eye atleast). I dont know how much better the mamiya N version is, but I think the general consensus on this forum is that the pentax 645 35mm lens is better.

[alpenglow]

Thank you Charles for the reply.

 

I really need this lens to work well wide open, so I think I'll probably pass on the sale. For my night-time photography, I just don't have the luxury to stop down.

 

Cheers,

Mike K.

[pete_andrews10]

The Mamiya C 35mm lens has never been optically redesigned since the first version, so there's very little point in getting a more expensive N revision, since all you're paying for is a different looking barrel.

 

The 35mm is a reasonable performer for this class of lens IMHO. The extreme corners are very smeary wide open, but this is standard for a lens with a 90 degree angle-of-view and f/3.5 aperture. Remember that this lens is about equivalent to a 20mm lens on the 135 format.

 

Stopping down improves the corners slowly, but you have to hit f/16 before you could call them at all sharp. Centre sharpness is good to excellent throughout the aperture range, however.