enrico_pocopagni1

Hello Jay,

'C' stands for coated (RB lenses only); 'ULD' is Ultra Low Distortion glass (like RZ 50 latest version); 'Z' indicates RZ lens (electrical contacts in the lens for electronic shutter timing); 'W' means Wider f stops (halfway stops can be set); 'N' is New and improved lens design (like the 180 W-N).

Hope this help.

Greetings.

Enrico Pocopagni

Hello Robert,

My RZ 90 (assuming the optical scheme is the same of RB) is the best performer of my outfit.

Negligible distortion, comfortable subject to camera distance, light and relatively fast.

DOF is not so great (after all in 35mm it's a short tele), but if you want to blur the backdrop, I suggest you to keep your subject at a good distance from, or try the 110 or even the 150.

Greetings.

Enrico Pocopagni

take a look at www.mamiya.co.uk

Greetings.

Enrico

Hello Daniel,

before sending the lens for repair, try this (it's free :-):

on the lens barrel, between locking collar and aperture dial there is a little slider on the left side: this slider locks the shutter for long time exposures. Try to push the little metal central push button to release the slider in the Normal position.

Hope this could help.

Greetings.

Enrico Pocopagni

Hello Nate,

75 is a Shift lens, not tilt, thus you can control perspective by shifting lens plane against film plane (parallel to each other), but you can't selectively focus (apart from DOF) because angle between lens plane and film plane is unmodiafiably zero.

For your purpose the right device is the tilt/shift adapter, useable only with 75 and 180 Short Barrel lenses.

Greetings.

Enrico Pocopagni

Hello Terry,

it seems to me this outfit is very complete, but the lens choice is a bit narrowed around the short tele end. 150 and 180 (W-N I hope) are stunningly sharp, but too similar in field of view and in pespective and D.O.F. I think would be better choice 150 and 250 or 180 and 350. the wideangle 65 is approx a 32 on the 35mm format, thus not very wide. Maybe this is not an issue for your kind of work.

AE prism has good precision readings, but is very heavy, and I find it useful mostly outdoors. In studio work you probably use a handheld lightmeter so a single AE prism would be enough.

Price seems quite good, but for a more comparative knowledge you could take a look on e-bay. I satisfactorily bought this way in the U.S. most of my RZ equipment.

Greetings from Italy.

Enrico Pocopagni

Hi Kornelius,

I appreciate Mamiya bayonet mount: unlike most of other cameras, lens enters its throat in a straightforward fashion, without rotation, so there is no button to push to free the barrel's rotation when unmouting the lens, less metal consumption and electrical contacts (for the RZ only) match directly without rotating friction.

Collar locks tightly, so it seem to me an optimal method.

Greetings

Enrico Pocopagni

Hello Jim,

I'm a happy owner of a RZ. Even considered the lighter construction and the presence of electronical devices, the whole system (camera + back + finder + lens) is rock solid and 100% reliable.

From an user point of view the major difference among two cameras is, for the RB, the need to advance the film AND cock the shutter with two distinct operations, with two separate levers, one on the back, the other on the side of body. It is certainly a minor issue grace of the presence of security locks that pervent unwanted double exposures.

RZ electronic shutter offers you times up to 8 sec. (RB only 1 sec.) and half stop speeds (standard with the RZ II, only with newer AE finder with the RZ, as in my case).

For any other thing RB and RZ are equivalent. If you decided to go that way, I'm shure you'll never regret it, no matter what camera you'll choose.

Greetings.

Enrico

Hello Vunghi,

if the lens you bought is in good cosmetic shape, it's likely it was not misused or abused.

Try to manually cock and fire the shutter to feel if there's some abnormal stiffness or sound.

Holding the stop down lever, verify the even and progressive motion of the aperture blades from wide open to all way closed.

Verify for some looseness of the flange lock and the aperture ring.

For psychological purpose only :-) place a powerful light source at the body side of the lens and watch in the front lens for some inner dust.

And finally enjoy one of the best RZ lenses.

Greetings.

Hello David,

if I remember well, RB body is longer than RZ, thus with RB lenses on RZ body you'll be able to focus beyond infinity. The only disadvantage of this situation is the necessary use of the focusing screen.

Greetings.

Enrico

Hello david,

I've never experienced any particular sound focusing from extremely near to infinity with my metering prism nor with WLF. And I strongly doubt there's an auto - adjusting device to correct exposure accordingly with enlargement. In such operation would be involved the focal length too, but body isn't aware of the lense fitted. I think that contacts are only intended to inform meter of the aperture and to control electronic shutter.

Greetings.

Enrico

Hello Neil,

If my memory works you can't share darkslides between RB an RZ backs. Maybe you can between different version of RB, but I'm unshure, 'coz I have a RZ. Take a look at Mamiya User forum for better information.

Greetings

Last minute idea: the "T" (time aperture) slide on the lens locks the finder meter if it's slided on the T position (green N covered).

Hope this helps.

Greetings.

Enrico

Hi Francis,

I checked right now my outfit (old Body, new prism), and it seems to me you've done everything alright. Lens and back are attached (obviously). Prism dial position is irrelevant (only selects manual mode vs auto mode aperture priority), a-.-s switch is irrelevant, only selects metering pattern modality (Average, Spot .auto select). I give up. Mamiya forum is the last resource. I'm sorry.

Greetings. Enrico.

Hello F D,have you turned on the red dot the speed dial on the body of the camera? You have to do so in order to let the light meter work. Other cause of malfunction is oxide on contacts, but I assume you have carefully cleaned everything. Mamiya user forum is always the main help source.

Greetings.

Enrico Pocopagni

Mitchell,

usually Z stands for RZ, so likely this lens has an electronically controlled shutter, thus isn't suitable for RB line of cameras featuring a mechanical shutter. I owned one wich I changed for a RZ 50 ULD, much better for resolution at infinity and distortion correction.

Greetings.

Hello Jim,

the (green)N and (white)T stands for Normal and Time exposure. If you want the shutter to last for the time you set on the body (or AE finder) dials keep the slider the normal way (green N appears). If you want a long exposure (over 8 sec.) depress the metal release and slide it toward the arrow. On the left T appears. Once you fire the shutter, it will stay open until you depress the metal release and slide it back again. Be careful to perform the second operation in a very gentle way, because the shutter is open, and if you shake the lens you could add a certain amout of fuzziness, depending on how long steady exposure lasted.

Greetings. Enrico

Hello all; I noticed that my Z360W with circular screw-in filter

(like Mamiya polarizer) works fine. On the contrary, when I slide

Cokin P filters (like warm or graduated ND)in their mount, the image

in the finder becomes fuzzy and focusing almost impossible. Lens is

pre-focused and locked, sliding filter is carefully performed,

filters seems to me perfectly flat. Will final image be fuzzy as

well?, to what physics is this behavior due?, how can I prevent

this. All my other lenses (50 ULD, 90 and 180W-N) behave the normal

way, either with screw-in and Cokin filters. Many thanks.

Hello Andy,

the site Miles indicated you is the main authority. Anyway, Z is the general indicator for RZ (electronical contacts in the lens to control electronic shutter), W stands for Wider f stops (to let easily reach fractional f stops), N stands for New (180 W/N have a renewed lens and barrel design), ULD stands for Ultra Low Distortion glass (like the new floating system 50), SB stands for Short Barrel (75 and 180 SB are designed with a shorter barrel to accomodate the thickness of the tilt/shift adapter to focus at infinity).

There are many other you will find at mamiya.com.

Greetings.

Enrico

Hello Arie

same question (more or less) was previously posted.

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0047jS

Greetings

Enrico

Hello Mitchell,

are you sure the Sekor C 300 f5.6 is suitable for mamiya RB67? I own a RZ and I know RB and RZ share same line of focal length: 43 fish-eye, 50, 65, 75, 90, 127, 140 Macro, 150, 180, 210, 250, 350 APO, 360 f6, 500. I think Sekor 300 is for some 645 Mamiya model. You should find some more useful advices on Mamiya.com web site.

For the non-C lenses, I heard around they are not top performers (especially for low contrast): My gear is: 50ULD, 90, 180W-N, 360, all from very good to fantastic lenses for sharpness, contrast and colour rendition. My portfolio contains a folder for each lens, with several proofs. I've used 360 for landscape only up to now, I think it's a bit too long for portrait, especially for minimum focusing distance and for its extreme sensitivity to vibrations. My best portraits were made with 180. I heard very good things about 250, and I'm planning to buy one sooner or later, though I'm not a professional photographer.

In my opinion there's an obvious and visible performance boost between coated and non coated lenses you could benefit of epecially if you are planning B&W photo.

I hope this could help.

Greetings from Italy.

Hi Winkie,

try this link: http://www.macuserforums.com/webx?14@171.9Hn0aeJ9egV.0@.ee7084c

Greetings. Enrico

Hello Frank,

if I recal well older Mamiya Z line of lens is discontinued, so price issue is meaningless if you buy new. Optical scheme, antireflective coating, weight, size etc. should be the same. W stands for "wider f-stops gaps", so W lenses are easier to use in case of fractional apertures (not a major issue most of the time).

You can find useful information on Mamiya User forum.

Best regards.

Enrico

Hello Keith,

I own a 50 ULD, wich I bought 2nd hand on e-bay as a substitute of my former 50 non-ULD. Its geometry is better correct a lot, though it's not totally free of distortion (in landscape work this shouldn't be a major issue). Color rendition is spectacular as saturation is. And again it's much more overall sharp than its predecessor, I think grace of the floating lens design. Last addictions in my portfolio's 50 folder are proof of its performances. You can see them if you like.

Best regards.

Enrico

Hello Beri,

in my set of lenses (50 ULD, 90, 180W-N, 360), 90 is the best performer for resolution, sharpness and contrast. Considering that 90KL has a floating element design, performances should be even better.

Greetings.