Mamiya G 75mm f/3.5 L (Mamiya 6)

The 75mm f/3.5 is the standard lens of the New Mamiya 6, the 6×6 rangefinder shown at Photokina in 1986 and sold from 1989, and the lens the camera was designed around: at 43 mm long it is short enough for the body’s retractable mount to draw it into the housing, taking the outfit from 106 mm to 75 mm deep (manual specifications). Mamiya’s leaflet says the rangefinder’s short lens-to-film distance let it design a high-performance standard lens, smooth at full aperture for portraits and very crisp and sharp with no distortion when stopped down, with negligible field curvature close up, and for these reasons it calls the lens an Orthometar. The published construction is 6 elements in 4 groups, 55° angle of view (about a 41mm on 35mm film), closest focus 1 m at 0.089×, a 58 mm filter, a bayonet hood, 64 mm diameter and 250 g.

The shutter lives in the lens: a #00 electronic leaf shutter, B and 4 s to 1/500, released electromagnetically by the body, synchronised for flash at every speed and fitted with an electronic self-timer. The body’s two SR44 cells power it, and gold-plated contacts on the lens’s rear carry the aperture to the meter. One version was made and it never changed between the 1989 camera and the 1993 6 MF. It does not fit the Mamiya 7, whose 80mm f/4 is a different lens on a different mount, and it has nothing to do with the fixed 75mm f/3.5 on the folding Mamiya Six of the 1940s and 1950s, which sellers list under the same name.

Every reviewer read for this page rates the glass highly and reserves complaints for the body. Michael Nguyen at Japan Camera Hunter finds the 75 sharper wide open than a Rolleiflex SL66’s 80mm and values the near-silent shutter for street work, while faulting the oversensitive release and stiff plastic dial. Charlie Tadlock at Emulsive puts all three lenses on the same level, sharp as a tack, and calls the system the best medium-format camera for his purposes at 1,150 g with this lens mounted. Aloysius Chow’s first roll on 35mmc found the rangefinder a little less precise than the best 35mm cameras and the advance lever flimsy. The one accessory argument concerns the bayonet close-up attachment: earlier writers called it baroque, and Simon Foale’s 35mmc piece answers that it frames accurately through the finder’s parallax correction and brings the 1 m minimum to a 34 cm square field with very sharp results.

When buying, treat the lens and body as one electronic system. Fit fresh SR44 cells before judging anything; the shutter and the finder LEDs are dead without them. Fire every speed, listen for the self-timer, and wipe the contacts with a dry cloth as the manual instructs. The advance lever, the film-start interlock and the retractable mount’s lock are the body’s weak points, and repairers are scarce, which Chow and Mike Eckman both note. A slightly off rangefinder matters little with a 75 at f/3.5 but check it at 1 m against the lens scale. The 58 mm filter and bayonet hood are shared with the 50, so a two-lens kit needs one set.

What could not be sourced: a launch price for the lens by itself (Mike Eckman’s December 1992 figures of $2,570 with this lens and $1,450 body only give a kit price, not a list price), a blade count, the coating, a production total, and what the letters G and L and the name Orthometar formally denote beyond Mamiya’s own explanation in the leaflet.