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

Mamiya Press

Mamiya · Mamiya Press mount · 6×9cm (56×84mm) on 120 in the 6×9 roll film holder or 6×7cm (56×67mm) in the 6×7 holder, with masks for 6×6 (56×56mm) and 6×4.5 (56×42mm) counted through the red window; 6.5×9cm dry plates (57×84mm), 2¼×3¼ inch cut film (52×80mm) and film packs (57×80mm) in their holders (Press Standard manual). · 1960

single source, unconfirmed

Also known as: Mamiya Press · Mamiya Press Deluxe · Mamiya Press 23 · Mamiya 23 Deluxe · Mamiya 23 Standard · Mamiya Press Standard · Mamiya Press G · Mamiya Press S · Mamiya 23 · Revue Press · マミヤプレス · マミヤ プレス · マミヤプレスG · マミヤプレスS · マミヤプレス スタンダード · Mamiya Press 90mm

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Mamiya Press (1960) Mamiya Press 1960 — —
Press G Mamiya Press 1963 — —
Press S Mamiya Press 1964 — —
23 Standard (Press Standard) Mamiya Press 1965 — —
  1. Weight and dimensions are from a Kamerastore dealer listing, a single source; the manual gives only an outfit weight of about 4 7/16 lb with lens and holder. The manual's dimension line did not survive the scan legibly and is not used.
  2. Version dates: English Wikipedia has Press G November 1963, Press S June 1964, 23 Standard July 1965; the Japanese Wikipedia product list and Sunrise Camera have G 1962, S 1963, Standard 1964. See `disputed`.
  3. The Press S lens is a 105mm f/3.5 by English Wikipedia and Camera no Kikuya's listing, a 100mm f/3.5 by the Japanese product list. See `disputed`.
  4. Emulsive's US$299.50 is for a late-1965 Deluxe kit with a 100mm lens; the standard lens of the period was the 90mm f/3.5, and Emulsive does not say which 100mm. It is carried as printed.
  5. The ¥39,500 figure for the Standard reached this page only through a search extract of a Japanese BBS thread whose fetched text was unreadable; single source, unconfirmed.
  6. The Polaroid 600 and 600 SE are later Mamiya-built cameras on the Universal design; they are covered on the Universal page and excluded here.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Finder window with slide-in masks and no bright-line frames; eyepiece that moves for parallax
  • Bayonet flange lens mount released by a lock button at the lower right of the body front, about 60 degrees of turn (manual)
  • Hinged support plate under the body; two tripod sockets, one on the base and one on the flashgun mount for vertical shots (manual)
  • Left-hand grip with cable release; accessory clip on top of the rangefinder housing
  • Bellows with struts: Press or Press G. Flat back: Press S (fixed 105mm) or 23 Standard

Mamiya Press (1960):

  • No bright-line frames: the finder field is corrected by masks over the window, and parallax by moving the eyepiece (manual)
  • Collapsible chrome 90mm f/3.5 as standard lens (camera-wiki); rear bellows with locking struts giving up to 15 degrees of tilt and 31mm of extension (English Wikipedia)
  • M-type (Mamiya) back mount; grey leatherette on the Deluxe (English Wikipedia; Kamerastore: dark grey body with greenish leatherette and a light grey rangefinder housing)

Press G:

  • G-type (Graflok) back attachment in place of the M-type; black leather instead of the Deluxe's grey (English Wikipedia)
  • Bellows back retained (Sunrise Camera)

Press S:

  • Fixed lens: Mamiya Color Sekor 105mm f/3.5 by English Wikipedia, 100mm f/3.5 by the Japanese product list; Camera no Kikuya's listing shows a 105mm f/3.5
  • No rear bellows; M-type back (English Wikipedia)

23 Standard (Press Standard):

  • Satin chrome top on a black body (English Wikipedia)
  • Interchangeable lens mount, no rear bellows (English Wikipedia; Japanese product list)

Serial-range notes

No published scheme
No source consulted relates serial numbers to years for any first-generation Press. The version is read from the back mount (M or G type, bellows or flat), the lens (fixed 105mm on the S) and the finish (grey Deluxe, black G, chrome-topped Standard).

Specifications

Format
6×9cm (56×84mm) on 120 in the 6×9 roll film holder or 6×7cm (56×67mm) in the 6×7 holder, with masks for 6×6 (56×56mm) and 6×4.5 (56×42mm) counted through the red window; 6.5×9cm dry plates (57×84mm), 2¼×3¼ inch cut film (52×80mm) and film packs (57×80mm) in their holders (Press Standard manual). · 8 at 6×9 or 10 at 6×7 on 120 (manual) exposures
Finder
combined coupled rangefinder/viewfinder, reverse-telescope type, double-image focusing spot; field corrected by masks over the window, parallax by moving the eyepiece · 0.66× magnification · none (masks) · manual parallax correction
Base length
60 mm
Effective baselength
39.6 mm (derived from base length × magnification)
Shutter
none in body; leaf shutter in each lens with M and X synchronisation, cocking lever, release lever and time lever on the shutter (manual parts list) · flash sync all speeds, M and X selectable · no self-timer
Film advance
in the roll film holder: Rollfilm Holder K with film wind knob, automatic stop for 6×9 and 6×7 and a red window for the masked sizes (manual)
Back
interchangeable; M-type (Mamiya) mount on the Press, Press S and 23 Standard, G-type (Graflok) on the Press G; bellows with locking struts on the Press and Press G only
Meter
none
Motor drive
Not compatible
Weight
970 g
Dimensions
160 × 135 × 68 body only (Kamerastore listing); weight_g is that listing's body-only figure, 1,864 g with 90mm f/3.5 and 6×9 holder; the manual says approximately 4 7/16 lb (about 2.0 kg) with standard lens and roll film holder mm
Country
Japan
Original price
US$299.50 for the Press Deluxe kit with 100mm lens, late 1965 (Emulsive); ¥38,000 for the Press S (Camera no Kikuya listing); ¥39,500 for a Press Standard with 90mm f/3.5 and grip (Japanese BBS post via a search extract, unconfirmed)
Accessories
Rollfilm Holder K, 6×9 (8 exposures) and 6×7 (10 exposures) types, with 6×6 and 6×4.5 masks and viewfinder masks for the standard lens · Focusing screen holder; plate holder for 6.5×9cm dry plates with cut film clamp; film pack holder · Lens hoods for the 90mm and 150mm (the 65mm needs none); filters in 40.5mm (90 and 150) and 43mm (65) · Separate reverse-telescope viewfinder for the 65mm on the accessory clip; sports-type frame finder · Hand grip with cable release; flashgun mounting piece on the body's flashgun mount

The manual: reduction to 66 per cent of life size, triangulation base 60mm; coupling ranges 3.5 ft to infinity with the 90mm and 65mm, 7 ft to infinity with the 150mm. The 65mm uses its own reverse-telescope finder on the accessory clip. English Wikipedia gives the same 0.66× and 60mm.

Where sources disagree

First
  • November 1963 — English Wikipedia; camera-wiki and the List of Mamiya products give 1963
  • 1962 — Japanese Wikipedia product list; Sunrise Camera

Better supported: 1963

First
  • June 1964 — English Wikipedia; Camera no Kikuya's listing gives 1964
  • 1963 — Japanese Wikipedia product list; Sunrise Camera

Better supported: 1964

First
  • July 1965 — English Wikipedia; the List of Mamiya products gives 1965
  • 1964 — Japanese Wikipedia product list; Sunrise Camera

Better supported: 1965

camera-wiki treats Press 23 and Press Standard as later designations of the original model rather than dated versions.

Press S fixed lens
  • Mamiya Color Sekor 105mm f/3.5 — English Wikipedia; Camera no Kikuya's listing
  • Color Sekor 100mm f/3.5 — Japanese Wikipedia product list

Better supported: 105mm f/3.5

Weight (grams)
  • 970 g body only — Kamerastore listing
  • About 4 7/16 lb (2.0 kg) with standard lens and roll film holder — Press Standard manual
  • 1,030 g for a Press G — Japanese BBS post (shiura.com), via a search extract

Better supported: 970 g body only

What reviewers say

History

The Mamiya Press of September 1960 is a 6×9 rangefinder built to do a Graflex press camera’s job in a hand-held body: lenses with their own leaf shutters on a bayonet flange, roll film holders that come off, a grip on the left with a cable release in it, and a bellows behind the body that tilts up to 15 degrees and extends 31mm for close-ups and perspective control. Hayata Camera Lab, a Tokyo repair shop, calls it the first Japanese hand-held press camera to reach 6×9 and says it was modelled on Linhof’s Technika Press 23 of 1958. The standard lens was the collapsible chrome 90mm f/3.5, with a 65mm f/6.3 and a 150mm f/5.6 beside it; the finder had no bright lines, only masks slid over the window for the smaller formats and an eyepiece that moved for parallax. The manual gives the rangefinder a 60mm base and 0.66× magnification, coupling from 3.5 feet with the 90 and 65 and from 7 feet with the 150. It reached the United States in 1962 as the Press Deluxe, and Foto-Quelle sold it in Germany as the Revue Press.

The versions that followed changed the back and the lens rather than the camera. The Press G put a Graflok-type back on the same body, in black leather where the Deluxe was grey, and its M-type and G-type holders never interchanged, so a first-generation body belongs to one family or the other. The Press S dropped the bellows and fixed a Color Sekor 105mm f/3.5 to the front as the economy model; the 23 Standard gave it back the interchangeable mount, still without the bellows, under a satin-chrome top on a black body; and the Deluxe became the 23 Deluxe when sheet-film and film-pack holders were added. English Wikipedia dates these to November 1963, June 1964, July 1965 and 1965; the Japanese Wikipedia product list and Sunrise Camera put each a year earlier, and camera-wiki treats Press 23 and Press Standard as renamings of the original. The disagreements are kept in disputed, and the English dates are used in the table because they carry months.

The holders define what the camera shoots. The manual’s Rollfilm Holder K comes in 6×9 and 6×7 types, eight or ten frames on 120 with an automatic stop, and takes 6×6 and 6×4.5 masks counted through the red window with the automatic stop disabled; the plate holder takes 6.5×9cm dry plates and, with a clamp, 2¼×3¼ inch cut film, and the film pack holder takes packs, all in front of the focusing screen holder. Filters are 40.5mm on the 90 and 150 and 43mm on the 65, whose barrel is its own hood. The manual’s outfit weight is about 4 7/16 pounds with the standard lens and a holder; Kamerastore’s listing puts the body alone at 970 g, or 1,864 g with the 90mm and a 6×9 holder, and 160 × 135 × 68mm. Prices survive only in fragments: Emulsive quotes US$299.50 for a Deluxe kit with a 100mm lens in late 1965, Camera no Kikuya’s listing gives ¥38,000 for the Press S, and a Japanese BBS post reached through a search extract gives ¥39,500 for a Standard with 90mm and grip.

Telling one from another is a matter of the back and the front. A bellows with struts is a Press or a Press G, and the back mount says which; a flat back with a fixed 105mm is a Press S; a flat back with the bayonet is a 23 Standard. Any of them with masks over the finder and no bright lines is first-generation; bright-line frames for 100, 150 and 250 mean a Super 23 or a Universal. The lens comes off by pressing the lock button at the lower right of the front and turning about 60 degrees, and the hinged plate under the body folds out as a stand. There are no interlocks: Henri Toivonen’s review of an original with the 90mm lists the loading procedure, the retractable lens left retracted and the absence of anything to prevent a double exposure, and Rob Miles’s Press 23 is “a nightmare to use” until the sequence is learned, after which “the camera really sings”. Chris Cushing’s overview at Casual Photophile puts the whole line in the same place: the size of a paint can, mid-roll back swaps like a Hasselblad, sharp lenses, and work that rewards preparation.

What is missing is the same as on the other Press pages: no production figures, no serial scheme, no last year for the first generation, and no complete list price. No photograph of a first-generation body could be found on Wikimedia Commons, where the Press category holds only Super 23, Universal, lens and accessory images, so this page has none.

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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

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 $63 across 13 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-21 (middle half $49–$87). First day tracked.

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

Show 22 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 2026-09-21. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Mamiya Press Super 23 · Mamiya Universal Press · Mamiya 7 · Mamiya 7 II

Lenses for this body: Mamiya-Sekor 100mm f/2.8 (Press) · Mamiya-Sekor 100mm f/3.5 (Press) · Mamiya-Sekor 127mm f/4.7 (Press) · Mamiya-Sekor 150mm f/5.6 (Press) · Mamiya-Sekor 250mm f/5 (Press) · Mamiya-Sekor 50mm f/6.3 (Press) · Mamiya-Sekor 65mm f/6.3 (Press) · Mamiya-Sekor 75mm f/5.6 (Press) · Mamiya-Sekor 90mm f/3.5 (Press)

Sources (17)

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.