Hi, I’m new to this forum and MF digital in general. I’m in the process of putting together a kit to replace my LF gear with a Mamiya 645/digital back combo. I’m particularly interest in the optical performance of the Mamiya 150mm prime and the 45mm prime. They are awfully inexpensive and somewhat flimsy feeling - but if they are great performers optically I can over look that. Should I not judge a book by the cover in this case?

You advice is greatly appreciated.

David

I'm way out of date on Mamiya 645, but I'm assuming that since you are planning to use a digital back you're considering the AF body and lenses. Our experience was with the manual focus versions of the 150 and 45 (or was it a 50?). Ours were superb performers, and I have to assume that if Mamiya intended the AF successors to be acceptable to established customers, they also would be up to snuff.

BTW- The manual versions have leaf shutters, which were really useful not only for landscape, but also for very high flash sync (>1/500) to freeze very fast motion. If that kind of shooting is within your realm, I'd check on the leaf shutter feature. We didn't realize how much we would use it till we had already bought the gear.

Hi
Both those lenses are very sharp. I have shot AD campaigns with both of those lenses. As far as build quality goes I never had a problem with any of my Mamiya lenses. The big advantage of these lenses are they are very light weight. On ebay these lenses are less expensive than Canon.

I've used the 45mm lens on a mamiya ZD and think it's a great lens, regardless of the price. There are pictures posted elsewhere on this forum with this lens, do a search - or better yet - rent it, in both cases you'll see it delivers great results.

-Nik