Digital Solution for Mamiya 645 manual lenses?

[Aoresteen]

<p>I have a bunch of manual Mamiya 645 lenses from 35mm to 300mm. I use a M645 1000s and that's as far as my knowledge goes for M645 bodies.</p>

<p>I'd like to use my manual lenses with a digital back which I can not do with the 1000s. So that means a new body and a compatible back.</p>

<p>I don't want to manually stop down the lens so I think that excludes all the Auto focus bodies, correct?</p>

<p>So that leaves the Super, Pro, and ProTL. What digital backs are available for them? I will be buying used.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

[ondebanks]

<blockquote>

<p>I don't want to manually stop down the lens so I think that excludes all the Auto focus bodies, correct?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Correct. But excluding the AF bodies shuts you out from 95% of the digital back options, including everything from the past 6 or 7 years, so are you sure you want to draw that particular line in the sand?</p>

<blockquote>

<p>So that leaves the Super, Pro, and ProTL. What digital backs are available for them? I will be buying used.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Mainly very old, and relatively hard to come by backs. Imacon and Sinar were the only companies widely supporting the 645 ProTL interface (covers the Super and Pro as well). They adopted the "detachable camera adapter" model in the late 1990s and early 2000s; Hasselblad partially maintained it up to the mid-2000s after they absorbed Imacon; but no company does it anymore.</p>

<p>So your options are:<br>

Imacon Flexframe (tethered only), Imacon iXpress (semi-portable), Hasselblad CF [not CFV!] (portable). These ranges have camera-specific adapters, so you'll want to find a matching 645 ProTL adapter .</p>

<p>Sinar Sinarbacks (tethered only). Again, uses camera-specific adapters. </p>

<p>Leaf Volare & Cantare (tethered only) from the late 1990s. Again, uses camera-specific adapters; but Leaf abandoned that approach after this line. I have never seen the 645 Pro version, outside of a catalog reference.</p>

<p>Then there are the really rare oddballs from the mid to late 1990s, like Megavision backs, and the Dicomed "LittleBigshot".</p>

<p>One thing to beware - many of these tethered-only systems require obsolete and complex computer connectivity - specific PC boards, SCSI ports, Cardbus connectors, and the like. If at all possible, buy them as a complete working kit with the original computer hardware and software included. Better yet, try to get a back which runs over Firewire instead - e.g. Sinar switched from fibre-optic boards to Firewire for the later Sinarbacks. Even then, you may have to use a Mac (Sinar and Leaf didn't support Windows), and an old model at that.</p>

<p> </p>

[Aoresteen]

<p>Ray,</p>

<p>Thanks for the very complete response! Looks like the Hasselblad CV is the one I want.</p>

<p>As to my line in the sand about the AF bodies, I have a bunch of Olympus OM lenses & Contax C/Y lenses that I use with my Olympus Four Thirds DSLR bodies and all require manual stop down. I've found that it's a PITA to manually stop down and I really want to avoid it if I can with my Mamiya 645 lenses.</p>

[john tonai]

<p>Having used the 80, 45 and 150 from the M645 days on the current digital Mamiya (with a Leaf Credo 40, I would strongly recommend looking at upgrading the lenses. The digital back shows off the shortcomings of the older lenses</p>

[ondebanks]

 

<blockquote>

<p>Having used the 80, 45 and 150 from the M645 days on the current digital Mamiya (with a Leaf Credo 40, I would strongly recommend looking at upgrading the lenses. The digital back shows off the shortcomings of the older lenses</p>

</blockquote>

<p>That's a good point, John, but I think much depends on the resolution (pixel size, not pixel count) of the back. Your Credo uses 6 micron pixels, whereas nearly all the ones I mentioned use 9 or 11 micron pixels - much more forgiving of lens performance, if one goes pixel-peeping. I have no complaints really with M645 lenses on my 9 micron back, though the later manual focus lenses are clearly better corrected for chromatism.</p>

 

[john tonai]

<p>Ray, good point about the pixel size-especially if the OP want to use an older digital Mamiya </p>