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

Mamiya C220

Mamiya · Mamiya TLR mount · 6×6cm on 120 (12 exposures) or 220 (24 exposures) by a rotating pressure plate in the back; on the C220 the counter is switched by hand, on the C220f it follows the plate · 1968

single source, unconfirmed

Also known as: Mamiya C220 · Mamiya C220 Professional · Mamiya C220f · Mamiya C220 F · Mamiya C-220 · C220 · C220f · マミヤ C220 · マミヤ C220f · マミヤフレックス C220

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
C220 Professional Mamiya TLR 1968–1982 — No figure published by any source consulted
C220f Professional Mamiya TLR 1982–1995 — No figure published by any source consulted
  1. The C33 (1965) and C3 (1962) are the crank-wind, self-cocking parents of the whole line, not versions of the C220: the C3 brought the crank and double-exposure prevention, the C33 self-cocking, automatic parallax correction and a 220 back (Japanese Wikipedia's product list). The C22 of 1966 is the direct predecessor, the C33 stripped of self-cocking and the parallax display and given a knob. Their listings are excluded here.
  2. Three weights are published and none says what it includes: 1.44 kg (English Wikipedia, C220 article), 1,150 g (English Wikipedia, Mamiya C article) and 1,553 g (Emulsive, Ian Bartlett, his own outfit). The 1.44 kg figure is carried as weight_g.
  3. No list price in yen or dollars, and no production figure, was found in any source consulted. camera-wiki's remark that the C220 sold in the early 1980s at a fraction of the C330f's price is not given as a figure.
  4. The C220f's introduction year is 1982 in every source; its end year, 1995, rests on camera-wiki's C-series table and GotFilm's list.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Nameplate above the viewing lens: C220 Professional or C220 Professional F
  • Advance knob on the right side, not a crank; a crank-wind body with these lenses is a C330, C330f, C330s, C33 or C3
  • Cocking lever on the lens that must be moved before every exposure; the C330 family cocks with the wind
  • 120/220 switch above the counter (C220) or none (C220f); folding crank in the knob (C220) or a plain larger knob (C220f); raised-M covering (C220) or leatherette (C220f)

C220 Professional:

  • 'Mamiya C220 Professional' nameplate; advance knob with a small folding crank (camera-wiki)
  • Switch above the frame-counter dial to select the 120 or 220 counter (camera-wiki)
  • Separate multiple-exposure dial on the right side of the body (camera-wiki)
  • Mamiya's own body covering with a tiny raised letter M; the C220f went back to plain leatherette (camera-wiki)
  • Waist-level finder with a sports-finder mode; fixed magnifier riveted in (camera-wiki; 35mmc)

C220f Professional:

  • 'C220 Professional F' nameplate; larger advance knob without the folding crank, set lower on the body (camera-wiki; Japanese Wikipedia)
  • No 120/220 switch: the counter follows the rotation of the pressure plate and resets when the back opens (camera-wiki)
  • Back released by a separate knob on the left side of the body (camera-wiki)
  • Multiple-exposure control as a ring around the advance knob rather than a separate dial (camera-wiki)
  • Plain leatherette covering; fully enclosed waist-level finder without the sports-finder mode (camera-wiki)

Specifications

Format
6×6cm on 120 (12 exposures) or 220 (24 exposures) by a rotating pressure plate in the back; on the C220 the counter is switched by hand, on the C220f it follows the plate · 12 on 120; 24 on 220 exposures
Finder
fixed waist-level hood with magnifier (sports-finder mode on the C220, fully enclosed hood on the C220f); the C-series Porrofinder, CdS Porrofinder and prism finder fit in its place · no automatic indicator; a scale on the bellows standard gives parallax and exposure-factor correction by distance, and the Paramender tripod accessory shifts the camera by the lens separation parallax correction
Shutter
none in body; leaf shutter in each lens pair — Seikosha-MX on the first chrome series, Seikosha-S on the second, Seiko (SLV) on the black series; cocked by hand with a lever on the lens · 1s–1/400 (Seikosha-MX) or 1s–1/500 (Seikosha-S and Seiko), B · flash sync all speeds (leaf shutter); X and M selector on the lens
Film advance
knob, a little over one and a half turns between frames (Emulsive); with a small folding crank on the C220, a larger plain knob on the C220f; no interlock with the shutter, so double exposures are a dial (C220) or a ring around the knob (C220f) away
Back
hinged back with a rotating pressure plate for 120 or 220; C220 counter switched by hand, C220f counter automatic and reset by opening the back
Meter
none in the body; the CdS Porrofinder is the metered finder
Motor drive
Not compatible
Weight
1440 g
Dimensions
118 × 167 × 113 (W × H × D), 1.44 kg, from English Wikipedia's C220 article, which does not say whether a lens is included; English Wikipedia's Mamiya C article gives 1,150 g for the C220; Emulsive weighed a C220 outfit at 1,553 g mm
Country
Japan
Accessories
Lens pairs: 55mm f/4.5, 65mm f/3.5, 80mm f/2.8, 105mm f/3.5, 135mm f/4.5, 180mm f/4.5, 250mm f/6.3 (English Wikipedia; the 80mm f/3.7 of the early line also fits) · Porrofinder and CdS Porrofinder, prism finder, chimney magnifier, finder masks · Paramender, side grips and pistol grip, lens hoods

Japanese Wikipedia's product list calls the finder fixed and the C22 note records that self-cocking and the parallax display were the features left off this branch of the line; 35mmc's Paul Quellin notes the magnifier is riveted, so no diopter correction is possible on a C220

Where sources disagree

Weight (grams)
  • 1.44 kg — English Wikipedia, C220 article, contents unstated
  • 1,150 g — English Wikipedia, Mamiya C article, contents unstated
  • 1,553 g — Emulsive (Ian Bartlett), his own C220 outfit

The three figures are consistent with a body-only weight near 1,150 g and about 1.4–1.55 kg with an 80mm pair, but no source says so.

Last
  • 1982 — GotFilm's model list; Emulsive (Ian Bartlett)
  • Not stated — camera-wiki's C-series table, which prints 1968–?

Better supported: 1982

What reviewers say

History

The C220 Professional of 1968 is the plain half of the Mamiya twin-lens pair. It takes the same interchangeable lens pairs as the C330, from the 55mm f/4.5 to the 250mm f/6.3, each with its own Seikosha or Seiko leaf shutter, on the same bellows front standard that focuses closer than any fixed-lens TLR, and it shares the finders, hoods and the Paramender. What it leaves out is the automation: the film is wound with a knob rather than a crank, the shutter is cocked by hand with a lever on each lens rather than by the wind, and there is no interlock between the two, so a double exposure is one dial away and a blank frame is the penalty for forgetting the lever. The line it came from is the C22 of 1966, itself the C33 stripped of self-cocking and the parallax display; the C220 added a rotating pressure plate for 220 inside the back where the C22 had needed a separate plate, and a switch above the counter to match.

The C220f of 1982 tidied the same camera rather than changing it. Camera-wiki’s list of differences is the identification guide: the counter now follows the pressure plate and resets when the back opens, so the 120/220 switch is gone; the back is released by a knob on the left side; the multiple-exposure control became a ring around the advance knob instead of a dial on the body; the knob itself grew and lost the little folding crank of the C220; the body went back to leatherette from Mamiya’s own covering with its tiny raised M; and the waist-level hood became a fully enclosed one without the sports-finder frame. The Japanese Wikipedia product list adds that the knob sits lower on the f and that the C330’s focus lock was left off. The f ran to 1995, a year past the C330s.

The numbers are thin. English Wikipedia gives 118 × 167 × 113 mm and 1.44 kg in its C220 article and 1,150 g in its Mamiya C article, neither saying whether a lens is on; Emulsive’s Ian Bartlett weighed his outfit at 1,553 g. Those three are consistent with a body near 1,150 g and something under 1.6 kg with an 80mm pair, but no source states it. No list price in yen or dollars and no production figure were found; camera-wiki’s remark that a C220 cost a fraction of a C330f in the early 1980s is the only pricing note. The shutters are the lens pair’s: 1s to 1/400 on the Seikosha-MX chrome lenses, 1s to 1/500 on the Seikosha-S and the black-series Seiko, B, X and M, and flash at any speed.

Buying one is mostly about the lens and the finder. The lens is where the shutter, the cocking lever and the sync selector live, so a slow speed that hangs or a cocking lever that has been forced is a lens problem and travels with it; the body’s own faults are the bellows, which should be checked for pinholes at full extension, the back catch, and the knob’s advance spacing, which Bartlett puts at just over a turn and a half per frame. The waist-level magnifier is riveted in, so, as 35mmc’s Paul Quellin found, a C220 offers no diopter correction short of swapping to a prism or Porrofinder. Parallax at portrait distance is read off the scale on the standard, not shown in the finder as on the C330, and the Paramender is the accessory that makes close framing exact. No battery is involved anywhere.

The reviewers, five of them across 35mmc and Emulsive, like it for the same reasons and in the same words: a big bright finder, sharp lenses, particularly the blue-dot black 80mm f/2.8, a camera that makes the work slow down, and weight. Bartlett calls it an engineering marvel and the accessible way into the square; Or Sachs, after two years of looking, calls it the perfect camera for his portraits; Ivan Mendez has owned three, two of them stolen; Trenton Trammell sold a 645 Pro to buy one and admits the 645 was easier to use. 35mmc’s C330 reviewer sends beginners here first, and that is the C220’s place in the line: the cheaper body that takes the whole system.

Expand Collapse

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 C220
Mamiya C220 with the 80mm standard lens pair — Tom Oates (Nabokov), via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Mamiya C220
Mamiya C220 with the black-series 80mm f/2.8 blue dot — Andrew Basterfield, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 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 $270 across 39 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-19 (middle half $190–$340). First day tracked.

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

Show 69 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 7 · Mamiya C330 · Mamiya M645 · Mamiya RB67 · Mamiya RZ67

Lenses for this body: Mamiya-Sekor 105mm f/3.5 (C-series TLR) · Mamiya-Sekor 180mm f/4.5 (C-series TLR) · Mamiya-Sekor 55mm f/4.5 (C-series TLR) · Mamiya-Sekor 80mm f/2.8 (C-series TLR)

Sources (14)

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.