Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

Mamiya 7

Mamiya · Mamiya 7 mount · 56×69.5mm on 120 (10 exposures) or 220 (20 exposures); 24×65mm on 35mm film with the Panoramic Adapter Kit (16 exposures from a 36-exposure cassette, 10 from a 24). · 1995

single source, unconfirmed

Also known as: Mamiya 7 · Mamiya 7 II · Mamiya 7II · 7II · マミヤ7 · マミヤ7II · Mamiya-7 · Mamiya 7ii · Mamiya 7 80mm · Mamiya 7 II 80mm

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Mamiya 7 Mamiya 7 1995–1999 — —
Mamiya 7 II Mamiya 7 1999–2014 — —
  1. Weight and dimensions are the Mamiya 7 manual's figures; kakaku.com quotes the 7 II at 920 g and 160 × 112 × 66mm, the difference being where the depth is measured.
  2. No launch price in any currency was found. Photo Thinking's Australian reference and the used prices in the reviews are not list prices and are not recorded.
  3. The 7 II's champagne gold and black finishes rest on kakaku.com's two product entries; the titanium colour of the first body on Photo Thinking. No Mamiya document naming the colours was reached.
  4. The 2014 end of production comes from secondary sources only (English Wikipedia, Japan Camera Hunter, Photo Thinking); no Mamiya discontinuation notice was reached.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Bright-line frames for 65, 80 and 150 only; the 43, 50 and 210 come with their own optical finders
  • Internal dark-slide curtain worked by a dial on the base; lens removal is locked while it is open and the release while it is closed
  • Speed dial with B, 4s to 1/500, A and AEL; the meter cell sits in the finder window, so the camera meters happily with the lens cap on (35mmc)
  • Titanium-coloured shell and two lugs on one end: Mamiya 7. Black or champagne, three lugs, multiple-exposure control: 7 II
  • Film advance lever with 120, 220 and 135 settings; the Panoramic Adapter Kit's mask fits inside the gate

Mamiya 7:

  • 'Mamiya 7' on the front plate; titanium-coloured plastic shell over the aluminium-alloy casting (Photo Thinking), the only finish offered on the first body
  • Two strap lugs, both on the same end, so the camera hangs vertically (Photo Thinking, Japan Camera Hunter)
  • No multiple-exposure control

Mamiya 7 II:

  • 'Mamiya 7 II' on the front plate; black or champagne gold finish (kakaku.com lists both), not the titanium colour of the first body
  • A third strap lug so the camera can hang horizontally (Photo Thinking)
  • Multiple-exposure capability and a one-touch exposure-compensation control added (Japanese Wikipedia product list; camera-wiki)

Serial-range notes

No published scheme
Nothing consulted ties serial numbers to years. The 7 and 7 II are told apart by the nameplate, the finish and the third strap lug, not by number. A Photrio thread on identifying Mamiya's finder upgrade to early 7 bodies exists but refused the fetch and is not relied on here.

Specifications

Format
56×69.5mm on 120 (10 exposures) or 220 (20 exposures); 24×65mm on 35mm film with the Panoramic Adapter Kit (16 exposures from a 36-exposure cassette, 10 from a 24). · 10 on 120, 20 on 220; 16 or 10 panoramic frames on 35mm exposures
Finder
combined coupled rangefinder/viewfinder, automatic bright-line frame selection by lens, automatic parallax compensation · 0.57× magnification · 65mm, 80mm, 150mm framelines · automatic, one frame at a time, selected by the mounted lens · automatic parallax correction · 83% coverage
Base length
60 mm
Effective baselength
34.2 mm
Shutter
none in body; #00 electronic leaf shutter in each lens, electromagnetic release; an internal dark-slide curtain covers the film for lens changes · B, 4s to 1/500 (set on the body dial, timed in the lens) · flash sync all speeds, X contact, hot shoe and PC terminal · self-timer
Film advance
single-stroke lever, 185° throw, with automatic first-frame stop; 120, 220 and 135 positions
Back
hinged, fixed; 120/220 by pressure-plate setting; 35mm via the Panoramic Adapter Kit's spools and mask
Meter
silicon photodiode in the viewfinder, not through the lens, EV 3 to 18 at ISO 100 with the 80mm f/4; aperture-priority AE, AE lock and manual; exposure compensation +2 to -2 EV in 1/3 steps; ISO 25 to 1600; one 6V 4SR44, 4LR44 or 2CR1/3 cell
Motor drive
Not compatible
Weight
920 g
Dimensions
159 × 112 × 69 body only; 159 × 112 × 123 with the 80mm f/4 (manual); weight_g is the bare body, 1,210 g with the 80mm mm
Country
Japan
Accessories
Panoramic Adapter Kit for 35mm film (mask, spools, finder mask), 24×65mm frames · Optical viewfinders supplied with the N 43mm f/4.5 L, N 50mm f/4.5 L and N 210mm f/8 L · External Battery Case for cold weather · Polarising filter with finder-mounted viewing filter · Lens hood for the 43mm and 50mm

Manual figures: 0.57× magnification, 83% of the field visible at infinity, base length 60mm, effective base length 34.2mm. The 43mm, 50mm and 210mm lenses have no frame in the body finder and are composed through the optical viewfinder supplied with each; the rangefinder still focuses them. The 7 II's finder is the same design with reduced flare. Shutter speed, exposure display and the safety-interlock warning are LEDs in the finder.

Where sources disagree

Dimensions (mm)
  • 159 × 112 × 69 body — Mamiya 7 instruction manual
  • 160 × 112 × 66 (7 II) — kakaku.com

Better supported: The manual

A rounding and measuring difference, not a different body.

What reviewers say

History

The Mamiya 7 is the Mamiya 6 of 1989 rebuilt around a 6×7 frame. camera-wiki dates its release to 1 June 1995; the Japanese Wikipedia product list agrees on the month. Everything that made the 6 work is here: an electronic #00 leaf shutter in each lens, timed from B and 4 seconds to 1/500 by a dial on the body; a cloth dark slide inside the body, wound across by a dial on the base, so lenses can be changed mid-roll; aperture-priority AE with lock and manual from a silicon photodiode that sits in the finder window rather than behind the lens; and a coupled rangefinder on a 60mm base. What went was the retracting mount, which the 6×7 gate could not accommodate, and what came was reach: six lenses from the N 43mm f/4.5 L to the N 210mm f/8 L where the 6 had three.

The manual’s specification page gives the numbers. The body weighs 920 g and measures 159 × 112 × 69mm, 1,210 g and 123mm deep with the N 80mm f/4 L. The finder magnifies 0.57× and shows 83 per cent of the field at infinity, with an effective rangefinder base of 34.2mm, and it carries bright-line frames for the 65, 80 and 150 only; the 43, 50 and 210 are composed through the optical finders supplied with them while the body’s rangefinder still does the focusing, which is the arrangement Japan Camera Hunter finds hardest to live with on the 43. The meter reads EV 3 to 18 at ISO 100 with the 80mm, film speeds run from ISO 25 to 1600, compensation is plus or minus 2 EV in thirds, and a single 6V 4SR44, 4LR44 or 2CR1/3 cell powers the lot. The image is 56 × 69.5mm, ten to a roll of 120 and twenty on 220, and the Panoramic Adapter Kit puts 24 × 65mm frames on 35mm film, sixteen from a 36-exposure cassette.

The 7 II of January 1999 changed the camera in four small ways, and the sources agree on them. The finder was made brighter and less prone to flare (camera-wiki: an improved finder that reduces glare); a multiple-exposure control was added; exposure compensation became a one-touch setting (Japanese product list); and a third strap lug was fitted so the camera could hang horizontally, the first body having two lugs on one end that hang it vertically and, as Photo Thinking and Japan Camera Hunter both complain, press into the face at the eye. The first body came only in a titanium-coloured plastic shell over its aluminium-alloy casting; the 7 II was sold in black and in champagne gold, which is how kakaku.com lists its two product entries. Weight stayed at 920 g. Production ended in 2014 by every secondary account, nineteen years after launch, and no Mamiya notice of the end was reached.

What to check follows from the design. The rangefinder can drift out of alignment and should be tested at infinity and close up (Photo Thinking); the plastic shell chips at the corners; the shutter release is sensitive enough that Japan Camera Hunter reports accidental frames in normal handling. Because the meter cell is outside the lens, the camera will cheerfully expose a whole roll with the cap on, which Hamish Gill did for half of one. Every lens carries its own shutter, so a body cannot be tested without one, and a lens cannot be tested without a body; the dark slide must be open for the release to work and closed for the lens to come off, and a camera that will do neither has usually been left in the wrong state rather than broken. The 43mm’s external finder makes precise framing difficult, which is the trade for the widest lens available on any medium-format rangefinder.

What remains open: a list price in any currency, which no consulted source prints; the serial-number scheme, which nothing published describes; whether Mamiya upgraded early 7 finders to the 7 II specification on request, which a Photrio thread discusses but which could not be read here; and any production figure, of which there is none. The reviews are unusually consistent on the verdict itself: the sharpest lenses and lightest body in 6×7, at a used price that keeps rising, and a camera that Shoot It With Film’s Drew Evans insists nobody needs in order to get the shot.

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This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Photographs

Mamiya 7
Mamiya 7 — Albert Leung, uploaded by Bernatargentona, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Mamiya 7
Mamiya 7 in the hand, 2021 — minka6 (Flickr), uploaded by Red panda bot, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

More sample photos elsewhere

These photographers keep all rights to their work — enjoy it at the source.

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $3,200 across 29 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-19 (middle half $500–$4,800). First day tracked.

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

Show 58 more listings

Buying from Yahoo! Auctions outside Japan. It is a domestic marketplace: sellers ship within Japan, and most will not register an overseas buyer. A proxy service bids on your behalf, receives the item and forwards it, for a fee and a wait. Buyee, Jauce and ZenMarket each accept a Yahoo auction number directly. Listed alphabetically for information — none is recommended over another, and none of these is an affiliate link.

Listings updated 2026-09-19. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Mamiya 6 (1989) · Mamiya 645 Super / Pro / Pro TL · Mamiya C220 · Mamiya C330 · Mamiya Universal Press

Lenses for this body: Mamiya N 150mm f/4.5 L (Mamiya 7) · Mamiya N 43mm f/4.5 L (Mamiya 7) · Mamiya N 65mm f/4 L (Mamiya 7) · Mamiya N 80mm f/4 L (Mamiya 7)

Sources (16)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this camera, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.