Mamiya 75-150 lens review

[frank]

Well we arrived at our weekend location and because I sometimes have internet access here I decided to start with some small notes on the lens.

The first impression is that the lens is very well build, but okay I expected that of course.
The lens is not small but to be honest the whole combination is nicely balanced.
Autofocus is fast and accurate even in some low light and highcontrast settings I tried it on.
I can't give judgment over image quality yet because I run from a laptop now.

The lens hood is a very tight fit something I absolutly love from the Mamiya system but also sometimes find a bit hard to turn, however I had the same with my 80mm and 120mm and after a few days the system loosend a bit up which meant it was much easier to turn and change the hood from the normal position to the turn arround position I use to store my camera in the bag.

The reach from 75-150 is very nice, it's not really wide but as a walkarround lens it gives for MY shooting style a perfect balans between close up and overview shots, one very pleasing detail is the focus distance, with 50cm this is really a nice heads up for close ups.
I sometimes do miss the 3-4x zoom from the canon system but on the other hand the picture is what I eventually want and the Mamiya is so much better there I can easily adjust my style for this

So after the weekend I will post the examples and more of my findings, sorry to keep you waiting for that long

Greetings,
Frank

[byronK]

has the price been established yet?   i've been told this is an apo lens and am therefore expecting to be top notch optically...and also carrying a top notch price...

[frank]

Don't know about pricing, but I will ask them.
I'm back (well actually only 5 minutes) so I will start downloading the files this afternoon.

[byronK]

hey frank,
just got off the phone with the mamiya rep and the price in us dollars should be around $3250.  i have also confirmed that the lens is not an apo, but a "d" lens which should with its' coatings should give similar performance to an apo...i am very interested in reading your impressions and seeing your samples.....
regards,

[frank]

As promised here the review of the lens and of course the continue of the ZD back because this all fits together:

First I have to say that the ZD back really has me hooked on the dynamic range and colors.
I took most of the following pictures during midday with bright sun but a cloudy sky, with the 5D these skies almost always blew out.
There is no HDR used here, only the standard ACR settings.

First some nice streets we encountered during our trip to belgium.





I also talked alot about the 3D look of the Mamiya, and also with the 75-150 lens this 3D look is definitly there, as seen in these shots we took on a graveyard (don't ask )









And let's look at some 100% crops.
First the original picture.



and the 100% crop shot on f5.6



And here again the original:


And the 100% crop shot on F4.5 so WIDE OPEN


and here another original:


And the 100% crop shot at f5.6


The 75-150 proved to be a wonderful walkarround lens during my trip and was the only lens used, although this was mainly because my 35mm AF was not in the mail in time to take with me so the widest I could get was 75
Especially playing with the DOF of the system is a blast with some results that really made me happy I made the switch.

shot at f4.5


shot at f4.5


shot at f4.5


Also the colors are stunning from this combi, were my 5D already delivered very nice colors the ZD back really captures the colors much more solid and more saturated resulting in shots like this:


I also shot a serie inside a supermarket to see how well I could work with the setup with slower shutterspeeds and how it would hold color under the difficult lighting in the supermarket. I did not do any colorcorrection, this was pure the AWB settings:


Because the weather was really bad during our trip we decided to go to the zoo for some tests of the AF, I shot with both cameras the 5D with my favorite zoo lens the 100-400L and the Mamiya with the 75-150 f4.5.
I can be very short about this experience.
The AF of the 5D will eat the Mamiya (well that wasn't a surprise) so for fast moving animals you can better leave the Mamiya at home.
Although the AF is no slow performer it's just too slow for fast moving objects, the continues AF will help a bit but you have to remember that you have to shoot with small apertures of at least f8 if you want anything sharp of your animal in movement.
I decided to choose some slower animals and aim for the 3D look I wanted and of course DR and color.

These shots jumped out to me for the review, and I think they show you what the Mamiya ZD back can do with the 75-150 f4.5









Finally at night I got the chance to get one nice sundown shot before the sky broke down in tears

[frank]

conclusion

For now I will end both reviews with the following conclusion.

I'm a big fan of the full frame sensors from Canon, however especially for my fashion and hobby landscaping/street I wanted more depth to my pictures, according to some this was due to larger sensors, others claimed microcontrast or detail, or even the bits used to capture a scene.

For me it is a combination of all factors.
The pricing of Medium format has been the factor that hold me back to make the switch, I have to change to a complete new system but keep my Canon setup for private use, sports, birding etc.

The ZD back however with it's very friendly price tag has given me the push to do it now.
Someday in the future I will 100% sure make the switch to a new back, but that's normal for a technogeek like myself, I love to play with new things and new technologie.

With the 5D I was convinced that Canon made a wonderful gesture to people without unlimited funds to make the switch to something wonderful, the full frame sensor. I already had the money for the 1DsII but decided to buy the 5D and wait.
The longer I used the 5D the less I had my senses set on the 1DsII and the more I wanted to go up in sensor size and bitdepth.
 
Of course the 1DsIII will be something wonderful, probarbly 16 MP or maybe more, sure with 14 or 16 bits capture, and maybe a 4:3 format (than it will be 22MP probarbly), but there is a limiting factor that also Canon knows. You have to make sure that at one point you can't cramp more pixels in the same sensor without sacrificing detail.

Sure High ISO is MUCH better on the Canon, but to be honest my standard ISO in the studio is 50/100 and nothing more so that's no issue for me, and even ISO400 on the ZD is usable for most circumstances when needed, noise ninja will give you tremendous results.

Dynamic range and quality of the pixels however cannot be beat by new filtering or technologie.
And that is allready shown painfully when comparing the shots from both 5D and ZD back on my monitor or print.

The 5D files look very digital and harsch compared to the much more natural looking ZD files. I had the same results from a Hassy I shot with a while ago (H2D22 and H3D39) the files come off the sensor without the real need of sharpening, while the 5D files although the best DSLR output I have ever seen to be honest always need some sharpening (this is normal due to the use of filtering inside the 5D).

This however make the ZD files look much more detailed and natural, by sharpening you will always loose some very small details (normal for the sharpening) making the pictures look a bit harsch or more harsch/digital when you use more sharpening.

Some people will claim that I used the wrong lenses on the Canon 5D, well ok for this review I shot most with the tamron 28-75 but as mentioned before that was pure for the first part of the review, I know the 5D by heart with the 70-200 f2.8 L, 135mm f2.0, 85mm 1.8 and many other lenses, I have used it for a long time and shot countless sessions with it.
So my remarks are not done with a brandnew 5D I got for the first time.

Especially the pictures just posted are for me without a doubt NEVER possible with the 5D, the depth, colors and dynamic range can never be copied with whatever lens you throw at it. Sorry.

Now is it worth the money ?
You have to be aware of the costs, and you have to make sure for yourself if it's worth the investment.
I don't think most people will get more customers because you use MF, on the other hand it will draw people to your pictures, as one of my customers said (he doesn't know anything about cameras) I had the most natural looking shots he ever saw (this was my first commercial session with the 5D).

For me it was already sure I wanted to make the switch ONE day, I was waiting for the pricing coming down and hoped that with the 1DsIII this would happen and for a long time this would have been my new camera.
When the ZD however was announced it allready had my attention but I absolutly didn't want to have the camera because I wanted to have an open system, so the idea was to get the Hasselblad system, however with the H3 system they did what I did not want, close the system.
Also the pricing of the lenses put me off to be honest.

Enter the ZD back....
Use all the 645 and 645AF lenses which can be bought on the net for wonderful prices and own a system now and upgrade later with whatever you want when pricing comes down.

For me that was a no brainer.....

For you...................... ?
See the pictures and thing about it, can you really live without it

Greetings,
Frank

[triGuru]

Hello,

Can you post menu screens of Mamiya ZD Digital back, your camera setup photos etc. It would be informative and interesting.
Also more examples of pictures (whole image, 100%, 300%) and some different *.MEF files would be nice to be available for download (Adobe Raw Converter 4.0 supports *.MEF files so many of photographers could check Mamiya ZD back RAW files for themselves).

You are really only one and the best  reviewer of Mamiya ZD digital back!

Happy Shooting!

[frank]

If you mail me I can give you a link with some examples I won't put them online due to the heavy traffic this will generate.

[Andy_T]

Hi Frank,

very good reviews ... just a pet peeve of mine, how do you find the bokeh on that 75-150/4.5 Mamyia lens?
I see 2 images, namely the cemetery image with the 'May August' cross and the image of the two rats (or chipmunks, whatever ) that - to me - have too much bright-edge bokeh.

I know that these are quite taxing situations (backlit foliage), and I also have had my share of bright-edge bokeh with my 80-200/2.8 L in similar situations, but if I was making up my mind of getting a $ 3,250 lens, I'd at least try to get a used 300$ CZJ Sonnar 180/2.8 with adapter for the Mamyia 645 (e.g. http://hartblei.com/accessories/accessories.htm ) and compare it...

Best regards,
Andy

[frank]

I did not yet have enough material from other lenses to compare.
I know I find the bokeh better than what I was used from the Canon, but comparing it to the Mamiya 120mm Macro I like that one more, it's smoother, but than I have heard that's the best lens Mamiya makes.

[byronK]

i picked up my 75-150 yesterday, and all i can say is what a lens!  the initial shots of flowers are simply breathtaking.  i'll be shooting with it this weekend, so i'll have more feedback early next week...all in all i am very impressed with the mamiya optics.  i am contemplating adding the manual focus 200 2.8 apo lens to give me a little extra lenght...but will have to put the manaul focusing screen in,  as i find mf difficult even with the focus light confirmation using the standard screen.  the other lens which i am extremely high on is the 55 2.8.  i  struggled with whether to get the 55 or the 45, but concluded after looking at my shooting style that the 55 was as wide as i needed.  the 55 is just a stellar performer!
regards

[SeanMcFoto]

I have the 55 and I'm wishing I had the 45! I'm so used to shooting with a 10-20 on the 20D!

[frank]

Also think about the 35, it's stellar and you can never get too wide