The Mamiya/Sekor 50mm 2.8
August 12th, 2009 | 
Author: 
The Mamiya/Sekor 50mm 2.8 lens
I haven’t written much about Photography or gear lately but this little jewel demands some attention. Long story short, I went looking for a watch maker and found a few cameras instead. I spotted the 1966 Mamiya 500TL and had to have it but it came with two other cameras I really had no interest in other than shelf weights. A Zenit and a Pentax came with the deal but I left them behind after throwing the lens onto my M42 adapter and firing off a few dozen shots with it.
It's a Bee!
Zero fringing!
Do you hear that Canon?, Nikon?, Sigma?, Tokina?
I shot for two days and imported and scanned every shot for the next two days searching for any sign of chromatic aberration and as of this moment I haven’t been able to find a single pixel of that nagging magenta halo. I’m guessing the trick is the recessed front element which cuts down the need for additional elements inside the lens. The distance from the front to rear element is minimal. I’ll update that as I gather the information.
Bokeh for days and days
As soon as I replace the dumb adapter with one that has the focus confirmation, my Canon 1.8 and Tokina 1.8 will be tossed into the gear locker with that funny looking antique peanut slave and my Bakelite film brush.
The Lens is normally mated to Mamiya’s first TTL SLR the 500TL made in 1966 which for the time was quite advanced compared to the competitors.
I’ll post shots of the body when I go back out to the valley but for now I’m going to enjoy this phenomenal piece of glass.
Fantastic colour and no added magenta on the highlights
Breaking News:
The stiff focus barrel is starting to grind so it’s in the gear cabinet until I have the time to take apart and clean. Fortunately I found another with camera attached on line. It should be here in a couple of weeks. It’s a Mamiya Sekor F/2 newer model.
Posted in 
Tags:
Sick shots dude! When can I try it out on mine?
I’ll be over this weekend so I’ll bring it with me.
You’re back in BIZ! Can you host my site for me now?
Your site moved with mine. It was down because of the redirect and the name server problem. It’s working fine now. I’m loading the remaining domains tonight.
I just e-mailed you your new login and settings for Dream Weaver. Remember to change the directories for uploading or they’ll be saved in the root and you won’t see any changes.
Some things wrong with my upload. I think the files are too large, is there a limit? I’m putting up a pic for the GF and it stops.
I raised the upload limit so you should be able to post anything up to a raw image file.
The colour seems better than usual. Is that the lens or are you doing something different with software?
The colour and contrast on the lens is a lot better than my Canon 50mm 1.4. I’ve sold one of my Canon 50mm’s and thinking of selling another. I have a Zeiss 50mm I’m looking at right now too so I’m going to need a bigger bag.