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

Mamiya APO A 200mm f/2.8 (645)

Mamiya · Mamiya 645 · 1997

single source, unconfirmed

Also known as: Mamiya APO A 200mm f/2.8 · Mamiya A 200mm f/2.8 APO · Mamiya 200mm f/2.8 APO · Mamiya 645 200mm f2.8 APO · Mamiya APO 200/2.8 · マミヤ APO A 200mm F2.8 · マミヤ A 200mm F2.8 APO · マミヤ 645 200mm F2.8

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Mamiya APO A 200mm f/2.8 Mamiya 645 — — —
  1. No Mamiya data sheet for this lens was found. Elements and groups (7 in 5) are given by both English and Japanese Wikipedia; the 77 mm filter by both and by kakaku.com; the 2.5 m closest focus by Japanese Wikipedia, Pebble Place and Kamerastore (English Wikipedia says 2.4 m); 91 × 143.5 mm and 1,100 g by kakaku.com (English Wikipedia: 144 × 91 mm, 1,100 g; Pebble Place weighed its copy at 1,107 g). The angle of view, 20°, is kakaku.com's alone.
  2. The family year is the first Mamiya document consulted that lists the lens, the 645 Pro TL instruction book (the Pro TL was introduced in June 1997 per camera-wiki). It is absent from the 645 Pro book of 1992 and from the Pro-era product sheet, so it was introduced between 1992 and 1997. A search-engine summary attributed an October 1996 announcement to lens-db, which is blocked for this project and was not consulted; kakaku.com's 'release date' of 30 September 2002 is a database registration date and is not used.
  3. Blade count (8, per Wikipedia and Kamerastore) and the 0.24% distortion figure quoted in dealer copy are left out of the specifications for want of a maker's document.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Beige barrel, APO on the ring, built-in telescoping hood, 77 mm filters: nothing else in the manual-focus 645 line looks like it except the larger A 300mm f/2.8 APO, which takes 43.5 mm drop-in filters
  • No shutter-speed ring; a manual aperture ring with the A/M lever, unlike the autofocus 645 AF lenses
  • Not the Sekor C 210mm f/4, a black 58 mm-filter lens at 715 to 775 g

Mamiya APO A 200mm f/2.8:

  • Off-white (beige) painted barrel with APO on the name ring, a built-in telescoping hood and a 77 mm filter thread
  • 7 elements in 5 groups, 2.5 m closest focus, 91 × 143.5 mm, 1,100 g (English and Japanese Wikipedia; kakaku.com)

Specifications

Construction
7 elements / 5 groups
Aperture range
f/2.8–f/22
Min. focus
2.5 m
Dimensions
91 × 143.5 mm
Weight
1100 g
Filter
77 mm
Country
Japan
Coating
Multi-coated: Mamiya's 645 Pro and Pro TL instruction books say all the 645 lenses are multi-coated

What reviewers say

Optical Ratings

Aggregated from the reviews above — follow the links for the full picture.

Chromatic aberration
minimal
Optical formula

No Mamiya data sheet, brochure or instruction sheet for this lens was found in the sources consulted, so no cross-section could be linked.

History

The APO A 200mm f/2.8 is the fast medium telephoto of Mamiya’s manual-focus 645 line, one of the two beige-barrelled APO lenses the company made for it, and the later of the two. No Mamiya data sheet for it was found, so the figures here are secondary: 7 elements in 5 groups and a 77 mm filter thread from both the English and Japanese Wikipedia lists, 2.5 m closest focus from Japanese Wikipedia (English Wikipedia says 2.4 m), and 91 by 143.5 mm and 1,100 g from kakaku.com’s specification page, which also gives a 20° angle of view. Pebble Place weighed its copy at 1,107 g and Kamerastore theirs at 1,112 g, so the round figure holds. The minimum aperture is f/22. Mamiya’s instruction books say all the 645 lenses are multi-coated.

There is one version, and its date sits between two Mamiya manuals. The 645 Pro book of 1992 lists the A 150mm f/2.8, 210mm f/4 N, ULD 300mm f/5.6 N, A 300mm f/2.8 APO and 500mm f/5.6 as the telephotos and has no 200; the 645 Pro TL book of 1997 adds ‘A200mm f/2.8 APO’ and the A 500mm f/4.5 APO. The page carries 1997 as the family year because it is the first maker’s document to list the lens. A search-engine summary put an October 1996 announcement on lens-db, which is off limits to this project and was not read, and kakaku.com’s 2002 ‘release date’ is a database registration date, not a launch.

The two reviews consulted agree. Pebble Place, shooting it on digital backs up to 60 megapixels, found it extremely sharp at wide apertures with minimal chromatic aberration, a ‘nice 3-D feel’, and bokeh ‘wonderful’ enough to compare with a Canon 135mm f/2 on full frame; the reservations are that the sliding hood extends itself in a bag, that focusing at f/2.8 in an optical finder is slow, and that stop-down metering on most bodies suits static subjects. Lensvana files it as ‘rare and exceptional’, creamy, fast and heavy, at about $800. Guy Mancuso, selling his on Luminous Landscape in 2008 for $595, called it very sharp. Nobody consulted has a bad word for the glass; the complaints are weight and price.

Buying one is mostly a matter of finding one. Check the built-in hood for the loose extension Pebble Place describes, the paint on the beige barrel, the 77 mm front thread for dents, and the aperture blades at f/22. On the 645AF, AFD and DF bodies it mounts but meters only stopped down, per Wikipedia. It is not the Sekor C 210mm f/4, a black 58 mm-filter lens of 715 to 775 g at a tenth of the price, and it is not the autofocus 210mm f/4 ULD IF, which has no aperture ring.

What remains open: a Mamiya data sheet, the year and month of introduction, a launch price in yen or dollars, the true closest focus (2.4 or 2.5 m), and the blade count beyond the figure of eight that Wikipedia and Kamerastore give. The flag on this page is for the date and the dimensions, each resting on a single source.

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.

Example photos

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Mamiya APO A 200mm f/2.8 (645)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, EUR: a median of €760 across 4 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-21 (middle half €750–€770). First day tracked.

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

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-Sekor C 210mm f/4 (645) · Mamiya APO A 300mm f/2.8 (645) · Mamiya A 150mm f/2.8 (645) · Mamiya-Sekor Zoom C 105-210mm f/4.5 (645)

Sources (12)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this lens, 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.