Mamiya C330 180mm black vs 180mm super

[golden]

Hi all, about a year ago I purchased 180mm lens off the auction site that was

advertised as a 180 super, when I got it I realized that it did not

say "super" on the barrel anywhere, I contacted the dealer and He told me that

he was sorry for misleading and asked me to return it for a full refund,

instead we talked about it and he partially refunded my money and I decided to

keep the lens, now my question is this: the lens i have is very sharp, it is

the 180 black, What is the difference between it and the super, I read things

all the time about the super and the older chrome, but never just the 180

black, can anyone shed light on this. thanks in advance

[golden]

Well I started searching again on this topic and I missed a thread discussing this very thing. It said the difference is the super has the purple coating (like the 80mm black S, awsome lens) while the 180 black has the auburn coating (which I have) the 180 black is basically the same optic as the old chrome lens, just in a different shutter. Is this correct? thanks

[kelly_flanigan1]

Here I have the older 18cm lens in chrome and am still waiting for the shutter to break.:) I got it cheap because they are suppose to be harder to repair. When it breaks there will be another data point to add to the chrome lens shutter failure dogma preached. I got it when Carter was President. A lens this long needs a lens hood when not used under studio/controlled conditions. The old 18cm lens here tested as excellent on axis at at the corners at F11 in an ancient Mod Photo test. Mine seems to be about the same; with F11 as the best and F8 to F16 being great too. Camera/subject movement and miss focus issues can completely quash performance of a long lens like a 18cm; its a heavy rig here on the old C3.

[dave_s]

The lenses have a different optical formula. Check out Graham Patterson's excellent Mamiya TLR site <A HREF="http://www.btinternet.com/~g.a.patterson/mfaq/m_faq-contents.html">here</A>, and in specific the entries on the 180 and the 180 Super <a HREF="http://www.btinternet.com/~g.a.patterson/mfaq/m_faq-4.html#Heading74">here</A>. In brief, the 180 has 4 elements in 3 groups; the 180 Super has 5 elements in 4 groups.

[jack_welsh]

I have the super, the coating isn't purple.

[flavio_egoavil]

<p>Answering this old thread because it pops up quite early on the google search results.<br>

The optical formula is different in the 180 super. It's a 5-element formula. I have both versions but haven't really compared them.<br>

Wide open (4.5) the "super" should be better. That being said, if you're doing portraits, you don't really want razor-sharpness all the time, so the old 180mm lens should be just fine.<br>

Stopped down at f11-16, both should perform practically the same.<br>

Neither is multicoated, both have single coatings. Photographers have gotten amazing photos with single coated lenses from the 1940s right till the early 1980s, so why should we worry? Just fit a hood.</p><div></div>

[flavio_egoavil]

<p>Update: I took my chrome 180mm f4.5 (non-super) for a test on my Mamiyaflex C2, using Neopan Acros film. <br>

So it is sharp. I'm afraid i don't have a scan, but this is a picture that includes newspaper pages pasted on a wall. Each magazine page -folded out- is 1/32th of the total frame area. Each magazine page is classfields. While the text of the classfields is not resolved, the headers for each classfield section is clearly readable when i use a 10x loupe over the print. Diaphragm was f8 or f11, if i recall correctly.<br>

In short, extremely sharp and a nice surprise. Moreover, out of focus areas are rendered smoothly.<br>

All in all, a very good lens. I have a 180mm super as well, but now i choose to take the old chrome 180mm whenever i hit the streets.</p>