For my recent downtown Austin series, I’ve been shooting with an adapted Mamiya 35mm lens. It’s a manual focus lens designed for the Mamiya 645 medium format film cameras. I’m using an adapter from FotodioX, which I’ll review separately in a couple of days. Their website indicates they now have 3 different adapters that allow you to use the Mamiya lenses on the Fujifilm GFX digital medium format cameras.
Why use an old adapted lens? It’s usually an inexpensive way to use lenses on another system, particularly if you already own the lens. About six years ago, I ended up collecting 5 Mamiya lenses, though the 35mm f3.5 is the only one I’m planning to use. Architecture is my primary purpose, and I wanted the widest possible angle.
Most new Fujifilm GFX lenses run $1699 and up — quite pricy, though with fantastic image quality. The Mamiya Sekor C 35mm f3.5 N version, which I own, runs between $280 and $350 on eBay. So how does it compare? Better than I thought, actually. I’ll elaborate below.
Image Coverage
Because I’m adapting a medium format film lens, I get complete coverage on the Fuji GFX when using a standard adapter. I don’t get any excessive vignetting, which might occur if I were adapting a full-frame Canon or Nikon lens. I’m using the FotodioX tilt-shift adapter, which does vignette if I do excessive lens shifting, however.
On the Fuji GFX, the 35mm becomes a 28mm equivalent — the typical 0.79 crop factor. On the original 645 film system, this 35mm is equivalent to a 21.7mm lens. 645 film is bigger than Fuji’s medium format sensor and has a 0.62 crop factor.
This works in my favor. Since I’m using the tilt-shift adapter for architecture, which can reduce the lean of tall buildings. I can shift the lens a fair amount without getting the vignetting due to the lens’ large image circle.
Sharpness
I’ll start by saying that I didn’t do side by side sharpness comparisons of my Fuji lenses to this Mamiya. If I find the lens satisfyingly sharp, and it creates images that please me. I don’t see the need for extensive comparison tests. The bottom line is that this lens is adequately sharp for my needs. Yes, the lens does appear to be slightly softer. It doesn’t create that eye-popping sharpness that I see with the Fuji lenses. However, in some ways, the Mamiya lens can be more pleasing. Creating a less clinical image with character. When using good technique, shooting on a tripod, and using a small aperture of f16, I found corner sharpness to be excellent.
Either way, if you don’t print large or pixel peep, you won’t notice the difference. I did analyze my Mamiya images a 100% magnification and found them satisfactory.
Lens Flare
A bigger concern than the sharpness of this lens is the lens flare. It doesn’t always show up. You need strong sources of light like the sun and street lamps at certain angles. Here’s an example. You can see a few hexagon-shaped flares near the light. Also, there is a greenish smudge near the top-left corner. Here’s another example of even more flare, though this doesn’t bother me as much. The position of the flare seems to matter to me.
I don’t have a lens shade, which may help reduce the flare. Either way, I’m resigned to not shooting close to strong light sources. Or artistically using any resulting flare, when possible.
Distortion
I also see some barrel distortion near the edges. Though how noticeable depends mostly on the picture. Architectural photos with straight lines near the edges are probably the worst-case scenario. In regular photographs, you may not notice this at all. Modern lenses often have lens profiles built into Capture One or Lightroom that auto-correct these types of distortions. I applied a generic barrel distortion correction, and while not perfect, it did improve the situation.
The distortion becomes worse and more complex to fix when shifting the lens with the tilt-shift adapter. I know this is a specialized case, which I will cover more in my FotodioX tilt-shift adapter review.
Build Quality
As with many lenses from the past, the Mamiya 35mm f3.5 is solid and made mostly of metal. The focusing is smooth, and the aperture stops have a nice clickiness to them. Build quality is equal to or superior to most modern lenses.
Conclusion
At about $300 for the lens and another $120 for the standard adapter, it’s a worthwhile combination to use. Since it’s a manual focus lens, it’s best for static subjects like landscapes or architecture. I shoot my Fujifilm GFX 50R often on a tripod and manually focus my lenses anyway, set to the hyper-focal distance. I do this even with my autofocus Fuji lenses. It’s an easy way to get everything in focus at f16. Therefore, using this manual focus Mamiya is no difficult than using a native Fuji lens for my urban landscapes and architecture. Keep in mind, you don’t get the aperture setting recorded in the photos’ EXIF data.
Optically, while not nearly as good as a Fujifilm GFX lens, it’s over $1000 less expensive. The image should be more than satisfying for all but the most demanding. I think the lens can be used professionally, too. If you don’t have a scene with excessive lens flare and you don’t need absolute architectural accuracy.
I may still buy the Fujifilm GF 30mm f3.5 lens someday. I get a slightly wider 24mm equivalent, the autofocus can be useful, and I’m sure the optic is superior. The lens lists for $1699, so I’m not planning an immediate purchase. The downside is, I can’t get the tilt-shift with this Fuji lens. I’m using the FotodioX Pro TLT ROKR, which is a $300 adapter that allows the tilt-shift capability with the Mamiya. I’ve really grown to love this feature when shooting architecture. Look out for the TLT ROKR adapter review in a couple of days.
Click here to see pictures made with the Mamiya 35mm f3.5.
I have a free monthly newsletter that’s perfect for busy people. Signup for the Newsletter to get the best of my posts, old and new, plus additional content not available anywhere else.
11 thoughts on “Mamiya 35mm f3.5 on the Fujifilm GFX 50R”
Leave a comment
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
atmtx photo blog 
I am looking for a cost effective way to get the shift function for Architecture, and Art. How would this Mamiya 35mm lens with shift adapter perform on a Sony A7IV full frame camera?
Hi Gam, You will need to use a different adapter from Fotodiox to attach the Mamiya lens to the Sony. Looks like this one should work.
https://fotodioxpro.com/collections/lens-mount-adapters/products/m645-sne-tr
I have not used this adapter. However, it should work similar to the one I have. The lens should be more than enough to cover Sony’s imaging circle. If you shift to the extreme edges of the Mamiya lens, expect to see some softness and distortion. However, small shifts should work well.
Thanks for the speedy reply. I can see great use for the shift function, but I’m not sure what I would use the tilt function for. Do you have any examples of your work using the tilt function?
Hi Gam. I bought the adapter for the shift functionality. I think I played a little with the tilt but haven’t posted any pictures.
I think your calculation of focal length is incorrect. The 645 size is larger than the GFX sensor so calculating by 0.62 seems odd, I’m assuming it would be more like 1.2x or something like that since using a lens made for full frame on crop results in a 1.5x or 1.6x multiplier.
These crop estimates are compared to Full frame. Full frame has a crop factor of 1 (meaning these is no crop).
APS-C, smaller than full-frame, has a crop factor of 1.5. Micro 4/3 has a crop of 2.
Fuji GFX has a cropped medium format sensor which is larger than full-frame with a crop of 0.79. The traditional 50mm full frame equivalent on a GFX is 63mm. (63mm x 0.79 = 49.77mm)
The Mamiya 645 has a larger film area than the GFX so the crop factor less calculated at .62. The Standard 50mm full frame equivalent on a Mamyia 645 is 80mm. (80mm x 0.62 = 49.6mm)
It’s very clear your “21mm equivalent” shot is nowhere near 21mm as you calculated with your math. It does even look wide enough to be 35mm.
The 0.62 you’re talking about is conversion from 35mm to 645 which has a 2.6x larger sensor size than 35mm. That 0.62 conversion does not apply to GFX.
Hi Elliot, I think you might have misread what I wrote in the original post.
“On the Fuji GFX, the 35mm becomes a 28mm equivalent — the typical 0.79 crop factor. On the original 645 film system, this 35mm is equivalent to a 21.7mm lens. 645 film is bigger than Fuji’s medium format sensor and has a 0.62 crop factor.”
As I indicated the 21.7mm equivalent is for the original 645 system with a 0.62 crop. On the GFX it has a 0.79 crop at about a 28mm equivalent.
In your previous comment you said:
“The Mamiya 645 has a larger film area than the GFX so the crop factor less calculated at .62.”
It seemed like you were saying the crop for 645 to GFX was .62, I may be mistaken, but the wording was weird.
I actually made it home today and my M645 adapter arrived. I tested my 645 150mm on my 50S II and it appears to be a near identical focal length to my 135mm FF lens. I also tested a 645mm 45mm lens and if 0.79 was the correct crop factor for these leaves it would match my FF 35mm lens and I tested both the 135mm and the 35mm beside the GFX on my Sony. The 45mm at 0.79 should be 35.7mm and it was tighter than my 35mm and wider than my 50mm, I pegged it around 40mm which would would but the multiplier at 0.9x and not 0.79x.