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

Mamiyaflex C / C2

Mamiya · Mamiya TLR mount · 6×6cm on 120 film, 12 exposures; 120 only on both bodies (English Wikipedia's table, Graham Patterson's system summary) · 1956

single source, unconfirmed

Also known as: Mamiyaflex C · Mamiyaflex C2 · Mamiyaflex C Professional · Mamiyaflex C2 Professional · Mamiya Flex C · Mamiya C2 · Mamiya C1 · マミヤフレックス C · マミヤフレックス C2 · マミヤフレックス Cプロフェッショナル

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Mamiyaflex C Professional Mamiya TLR 1956–1958 — No figure published by any source consulted
Mamiyaflex C2 Professional Mamiya TLR 1958–1962 — No figure published by any source consulted
  1. The Mamiyaflex C's launch year is 1956 in most references and 1957 in English Wikipedia's prose, the shiura.com list (January 1957) and a Japanese dealer's blog; Patterson prints both. 1956 is used for the family and the variant; see `disputed`.
  2. The set prices in yen come from one hobbyist's model list on the shiura.com forum (post 993, 2017), which quotes month, set price, lens and case prices for every C body; no other source consulted prints them, so they are single-source. No US price was found.
  3. Weights: 1,540 g (English Wikipedia, C) and 1,250 g (English Wikipedia and Patterson, C2) are the only published figures; English Wikipedia does not say what either includes, and Patterson labels his as body only. Kamerastore's 1,600 g with 80mm for the C is a shop listing and is not carried.
  4. No production figure was found for either body.
  5. The Mamiya PF of 1957, a police and forensic model on the twin-knob body that became the C2's base, with a magnification scale for the 80mm, is recorded by Patterson and the shiura.com list; it is a special order, not a version, and is not a variant here.
  6. 35mmc's C330 review dates the Mamiyaflex C to 1952, which no reference source supports; the date is not carried.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • 'MAMIYAFLEX' on the nameplate: the C3 of 1962 and everything after says 'Mamiya'
  • Knob wind and a hand-cocked lens: the C3 and C33 have a crank
  • Front support pins and a single right-hand focus knob (C) against a flat base and two chrome focus knobs (C2)
  • Chrome lenses marked in centimetres (f=8cm) with Seikosha-MX shutters to 1/400 on the earliest outfits; Seikosha-S to 1/500 on later C2 outfits

Mamiyaflex C Professional:

  • 'MAMIYAFLEX' nameplate above the viewing lens; no model number on the body (Patterson; the Commons photo)
  • Two pointed support pins under the front of the body in place of a flat base, which needed a special tripod adapter (Patterson; Japanese Wikipedia calls the two front legs the external giveaway)
  • A single focus knob on the right side, in white anodised aluminium, with a focus lock on the left (Patterson; shiura.com)
  • Lens retaining wire hinged from the opposite side to the C3 and later bodies; light-baffle control on the right (Patterson)
  • Red window on the back and start-mark film loading; small tripod boss (shiura.com)

Mamiyaflex C2 Professional:

  • 'Mamiyaflex' upper front label (Patterson); focus knobs on both sides, both chrome (camera-wiki; Patterson)
  • Longer, flat base without the front support pins, with a reinforced back for large tripods (camera-wiki; Japanese Wikipedia)
  • Frame counter around the advance-knob barrel; red window kept only as a film-loaded indicator (Patterson)
  • Distance scales for the 80, 105, 135 and 180mm on the right and an exposure-correction scale on the left (camera-wiki); a cold shoe at the upper left (Patterson)
  • Lens retaining wire and lock/unlock control both on the right side (Patterson)

Specifications

Format
6×6cm on 120 film, 12 exposures; 120 only on both bodies (English Wikipedia's table, Graham Patterson's system summary) · 12 on 120 exposures
Finder
fixed folding waist-level hood with magnifier and a sports-finder frame for the 80mm; masks for the other focal lengths on the C2 (Patterson; Japanese Wikipedia) · by scale: the C has a scale on the standard, the C2 two ruled lines on the screen used with the exposure-correction scale (Patterson); an early Paramender design existed for the C parallax correction
Shutter
none in body; leaf shutter in each lens pair — Seikosha-MX on the first chrome lenses, Seikosha-S from the C2's run; cocked by hand with a lever on the lens · 1s–1/400 (Seikosha-MX) or 1s–1/500 (Seikosha-S), B · flash sync all speeds (leaf shutter); X and M selector on the lens
Film advance
knob with automatic frame counting and spacing (Patterson); manually reset counter on the C, counter around the knob barrel on the C2; no shutter interlock on either
Back
removable back with a red window; a sheet-film back was an option on the C2 (Patterson); 120 only
Meter
none
Motor drive
Not compatible
Weight
1540 g
Dimensions
114 × 164 × 103 (W × H × D) and 1,540 g for the Mamiyaflex C, from English Wikipedia, which does not say whether a lens is included; 1,250 g for the C2 (English Wikipedia; Patterson, body only) mm
Country
Japan
Original price
¥34,000 for the Mamiyaflex C set with 105mm f/3.5 and case (¥32,910 + ¥1,090), January 1957; ¥36,500 for the C2 set with 105mm f/3.5 and case (¥35,410 + ¥1,090), June 1958 — from a model list on the shiura.com camera forum, single source (today ¥213,000)
Accessories
Lens pairs: 80mm f/2.8, 105mm f/3.5 and 135mm f/4.5 at launch, in Seikosha-MX shutters; 65mm f/3.5 and 180mm f/4.5 added during the C2's run (camera-wiki; English Wikipedia; Patterson) · Finder masks for the non-standard focal lengths on the C2 (Japanese Wikipedia; shiura.com); sheet-film back for the C2 (Patterson) · Tripod adapter for the C's front support pins; an early Paramender design (Patterson)

Focusing screens are fixed on both bodies (camera-wiki; Patterson). The Photo Nerd's claim of six interchangeable finders and five screens on a C2 is not repeated by any reference source and is not carried.

Where sources disagree

First
  • 1956 — camera-wiki (article and C-series table), Japanese Wikipedia's product list, English Wikipedia's table and product list, GotFilm, Patterson's chronology
  • 1957 — English Wikipedia's prose; shiura.com model list (January 1957, Showa 32); Camera no Naniwa blog; Patterson's detail entry, which prints '10/1956 or 1/1957'

Better supported: 1956

The two are compatible with an announcement in late 1956 and sales from January 1957, which is how Patterson reads it.

Weight (grams)
  • 1,540 g — English Wikipedia, Mamiyaflex C, contents unstated
  • 1,250 g — English Wikipedia and Patterson for the C2, Patterson as body only

The family figure is the C's; the C2's is carried in the variant and in dimensions_mm.

What reviewers say

History

The Mamiyaflex C of 1956 is where the interchangeable-lens twin-lens reflex begins. Mamiya had built fixed-lens Mamiyaflex TLRs since the late 1940s; the C put the viewing and taking lenses on a single plate that lifts off the front standard, with a light baffle behind it so the pair can be changed mid-roll, and focused that standard on a rack-and-pinion bellows that reaches far closer than any fixed-lens TLR. The film runs straight from spool to spool instead of bending round a roller, which is why the body is taller than a Rolleiflex. Three chrome lens pairs were sold with it, 80mm, 105mm and 135mm, each in a Seikosha-MX leaf shutter running 1 second to 1/400. The rest of the camera is plain: a knob wind with automatic spacing and a counter that has to be reset by hand, a shutter cocked with a lever on the lens, a fixed screen, a hood with a sports-finder frame for the 80mm, and a red window on the back. Camera-wiki notes that only one other TLR, the Koni-Omegaflex, ever offered changeable lenses.

The C2 of June 1958 fixed the things that made the C awkward on a tripod. The original stands on two pointed support pins under the front and needed its own tripod adapter; the C2 has a longer, flat base and a reinforced back. It gained a second focus knob so the camera can be focused with either hand, distance scales on the standard for the 80, 105, 135 and 180mm, an exposure-correction scale for the bellows draw, masks for the finder hood, a redesigned lens-change lock and a cold shoe. The 65mm and 180mm pairs arrived during its run, and so did the Seikosha-S shutter with a 1/500 top speed, so a C2 outfit may carry either shutter. What did not change is the transport: there is a film lock but no shutter interlock, and every reviewer of a C2 mentions the double exposures and blank frames that follow a lapse in the wind-then-fire routine. The C3 of 1962 replaced it with a crank and double-exposure prevention, and dropped the Mamiyaflex name.

The published numbers are few. English Wikipedia gives 114 × 164 × 103 mm and 1,540 g for the C and 1,250 g for the C2, without saying what either includes; Graham Patterson’s system summary repeats the 1,250 g as a body-only weight. The set prices come from a single Japanese forum list: ¥34,000 for the C with the 105mm f/3.5 and case in January 1957, ¥36,500 for the C2 in June 1958. The launch year of the C is itself split, 1956 in camera-wiki and the Wikipedia lists and 1957 in English Wikipedia’s prose and the Japanese sources, which Patterson reconciles as October 1956 or January 1957. No production figure exists for either body.

Telling the two apart is easy from the front. Both say MAMIYAFLEX on the nameplate, which no C3 or later body does. The C has the front pins, one focus knob on the right in white anodised aluminium and a focus lock on the left; the C2 has a flat base and two chrome knobs. On either, the lens retaining wire and the light-baffle control sit on the opposite side from where the C3 put them. Buying one means buying a sixty-year-old shutter: check that every speed on the Seikosha runs, that the cocking lever on the lens has not been forced, that the bellows are light-tight at full extension, and that the counter and spacing behave, since a worn transport is what 2life Photography’s C2 suffered from. Lenses from the whole C series fit the standard, but Patterson warns that the early MX-shuttered pairs do not fit the self-cocking C33 and later bodies, so an outfit bought for a Mamiyaflex may not move on with its owner.

The three reviews found are all of the C2 and agree on its character. The Photo Nerd calls it a studio camera, twice the size of an early Rolleiflex and without double-exposure prevention, redeemed by the lenses and the close focus; hinghshen’s hands-on says patience is the requirement and moved on to a C330; 2life Photography got sharp square negatives from the 80mm f/2.8 and a repair bill for the wind. As a user’s camera it is the least convenient body in the line. As the beginning of the only interchangeable-lens TLR system, it is the one the collectors want.

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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

Mamiyaflex C / C2
Mamiyaflex C with the 8cm f/2.8 Sekor in a Seikosha-MX shutter; the two front support pins and the single right-hand focus knob are visible — Sébastien Amiet (nikleitz2009), 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 $180 across 20 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-21 (middle half $130–$280). First day tracked.

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

Show 16 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 C22 · Mamiya C220 · Mamiya C3 / C33 · Mamiya C330

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.