Tony Howell Photography

Mamiya Lens Tests by Tony Howell

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Phase One LogoPhase One 645AF

Camera used for these tests

Phase One 645AF (same as Mamiya 645AFD III) with P45 digital back 39 Megapixels resolution

Produces 112mb (8 bit) files suitable for huge prints.

Manually-focused images using Mamiya FD 402 focus magnifier, tripod, no wind, bright but overcast. I used glasses but am not great at focusing (long sighted!). I still prefer it to AF though. Mamiya Electronic release used. I'm not technically-minded, I'm only interested in how lenses perform in real situations. These tests are not comprehensive, but will hopefully help anyone interested in buying these products, or anyone who already owns them but hasn't tested them yet (why haven't you!). I'm just sharing this information because I looked for it on the web, but couldn't find enough about these lenses. Mamiya lenses are excellent if you understand how to get the best from them, and they're at bargain prices on the used market.


Mamiya 105-210mm f4.5 for 645AF

Brief Summary: - Zoom lens with good resolution, good corners, centre best at f8. CA (Chromatic Aberration) in corners at all apertures but easily removed with software. Average wide open at f4.5. Best in the middle to end of the zoom range. Better at 210mm than 105mm. Recommended lens I use a lot. Nice and sharp in the centre. Beware if you're new to medium format digital - any lenses this long have very shallow depth-of-field, as you can see in the last image. 8/10.

105-210mm

Okay, here's the subject I used to do this brief test at 105mm

Lens Test

Manually-focused images using Mamiya FD 402 focus magnifier, tripod, no wind, bright but overcast. I used glasses but am not great at close-ups (long sighted!).

Centre at f8 (a little down from centre). The best result from this lens. Compared to the best lens I own (Mamiya 120mm macro) this is very good: -

Lens Test

Centre at f4.5. Contrast and sharpness somewhat lost due to large aperture, CA visible
above the white line (a magenta fringing): -

Lens Test


Bottom Left Corner at f8 (still in the zone of sharp focus). Slight Chromatic Aberration, but a good result: -

Lens Test

Bottom Left Corner at f4.5, contrast and sharpness somewhat lost due to large aperture: -

Lens Test

The bottom right corner showed similar results to the ones above.

Top right corner at f8 (out of the zone of sharp focus). CA (Chromatic Aberration or colour fringing) is seen as green lines. This can easily be removed in software, but is only noticeable on large prints. If you don't print above
50cm you won't see it : -

Lens Test

Top right corner at f4.5 (out of the zone of sharp focus). Sharpness lost & CA (green fringing): -

Lens Test

I recommend this lens, it's very sharp, has a good range and works well at f8-f11 which is what I use
most of the time on a tripod

Here's a recent shot followed by a 100 % crop: -

Winter trees

1/500th, f5.6 (strong wind forced a fast shutter and wider aperture) ISO100, 105-210mm at 105mm, tripod.
100 % crop: -

Winter trees

I would recommend doing your own tests with all your lenses. I learn a lot from doing this, and know what to expect from this lens when out in the field.

Back to lens tests main page

Mamiya 120mm macro review | Mamiya 105-210mm review | Mamiya 55-110mm review
Mamiya 300mm review | Mamiya 50mm Shift lens review