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

Mamiya N 50mm f/4.5 L (Mamiya 7)

Mamiya · Mamiya 7 · 1999

our own finding

Also known as: Mamiya N 50mm f/4.5 L · Mamiya 50mm f/4.5 L · Mamiya 50mm f4.5 · N50mm f/4.5L · Mamiya 7 50mm · Mamiya 7II 50mm · Mamiya 7 50mm with finder · マミヤ N 50mm F4.5L · マミヤ7 50mm · マミヤ 50mm F4.5

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Mamiya N 50mm f/4.5 L (single version) · #00 electronic leaf shutter in the lens, timed by the body: 4s–1/500 and B Mamiya 7 1999–2014 — —
  1. Elements, groups, angle of view, minimum aperture, closest focus, magnification, area covered, filter size, dimensions and weight are the maker's figures from the Mamiya 7 II Interchangeable Lenses manual (p. 13 in the English and Japanese sections), hosted at butkus.org; the finder figures are from its p. 14. Camera-wiki rounds the weight to 460 g; the Japanese Wikipedia product list agrees on 6群10枚, 1 m, φ67 and 84°.
  2. The 1999 first year is this project's reading, not a dated source: see the original-research note. The 2014 end date is Wikipedia's for the Mamiya 7 system as a whole.
  3. Mamiya's manual gives the 35mm equivalent as 24mm; Dusty Grain and Matt Osborne call it 28mm, Japan Camera Hunter 24mm.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • One optical version only; a lens marked N 50mm f/4.5 L fits the Mamiya 7 and the 7 II alike
  • Distinguished from the 43 by the engraving and the finder: the 43's FV701 is a 0.34× finder, the 50's FV703 a 0.4× one; both share the 67 mm thread with the 150, while the 65, 80 and 210 take 58 mm
  • Not to be confused with Mamiya's other 50s: the Mamiya 6's G 50mm f/4 L does not fit the 7; the RB67 and RZ67 50mm f/4.5 lenses, the 645's 50mm f/4 Shift and the Press 50mm f/6.3 are different lenses on different mounts

Mamiya N 50mm f/4.5 L (single version):

  • Engraved N 50mm f/4.5 L on the front ring; black barrel 55 mm long by 70 mm across (88 mm with hood), 456 g, 67 mm filter thread, bayonet hood supplied (Mamiya 7 II lens manual, p. 13)
  • Sold with its own external finder FV703 (0.4×, dioptre adjustment, spirit level, 83.5% view area, about 70 g) that slides into the hot shoe and locks with a ring; the body's finder shows the 65mm frame when the 50 is mounted, so a 65 frame does not mean a 65 is fitted (lens manual, pp. 5 and 13–14)
  • Rangefinder coupled: focus through the body's rangefinder as with the 43, 65, 80 and 150, then check the framing in the external finder (lens manual, p. 5)
  • Aperture ring 4.5–22, distance scale in m and ft, infrared index, depth-of-field scale (lens manual, p. 2)

Specifications

Construction
10 elements / 6 groups
Aperture range
f/4.5–f/22
Shutter
#00 electronic leaf shutter in every Mamiya 7 lens, timed by the body's electronics: 4s–1/500 and B, X-sync at every speed, electro-magnetic release (Mamiya 7 manual, p. 30). No battery in the body, no exposure.
Min. focus
1 m
Dimensions
70 × 55 mm
Weight
456 g
Filter
67 mm
Years manufactured
1999–2014
Country
Japan
Coating
Multicoated (Mamiya 7 II lens manual, introduction)

What reviewers say

Optical formula

The 1995 Mamiya 7 manual prints cross-sections of the four launch lenses only; the Mamiya 7 II lens manual has a specification table without drawings. No maker's cross-section of the 50 was found.

History

The N 50mm f/4.5 L is the second-widest lens of the Mamiya 7 system, an 84° lens that Mamiya’s manual equates to 24mm on 35mm film, and the wide that most owners buy when they want more than the 65 without the 43’s bulk. It was not one of the launch lenses: the 1995 instruction book shows only the 43, 65, 80 and 150, and the 50 first appears in the Mamiya 7 II interchangeable-lens manual beside the 210. That manual gives 10 elements in 6 groups, the same count as the 43, f/4.5 to f/22, closest focus 1 m at 0.063× (a field of 895 × 1111 mm), a 67 mm filter thread that takes one filter without vignetting, a bayonet hood in the box, 55 mm long by 70 mm across (88 mm with the hood) and 456 g. Japanese Wikipedia agrees on 6群10枚, 1 m and φ67.

There is one version. The Mamiya 7 of June 1995 and the 7 II of January 1999 share the mount and the whole lens line, so the 50 fits both. Every Mamiya 7 lens carries its own #00 electronic leaf shutter, timed by the camera: 4 s to 1/500 and B, flash sync at every speed, and no exposure at all without the body’s battery. The lens is rangefinder coupled and focuses through the body like the 43, 65, 80 and 150, but the body’s finder has no 50 frame; it shows the 65 frame instead, and the picture is composed in the FV703 finder supplied with the lens, a 0.4× Albada bright-frame finder with dioptre adjustment and a spirit level that slides into the hot shoe and locks with a ring. Wikipedia gives 2014 as the end of the system. No serial ranges, production figures or list prices were found, and no source gives the lens’s own release date, which is why the 1999 first year here is this project’s inference and is flagged as such.

The reviewers who own one talk about the finder more than the glass, because the glass gives them nothing to complain about. Matt Osborne bought the 50 as his second lens precisely so that he could guess the framing inside the body’s finder and leave the external one at home, and says of the line that all the lenses are sharp so that is not really an issue; wide-angle work on the 7 never grew on him and he moved to the long end. Mark S. at Beau Photo keeps the 50 and 150 in his rental pool and calls each lens razor-sharp. Michael Nguyen lists it as the 24mm-equivalent wide in a lineup of sharp lenses, with the reservation that the Mamiya glass lacks the character of the Makina’s Nikkor. Jorge Ferrufino calls it the second wide-angle option, built like the 43, and puts the line’s limits at its f/4-and-slower apertures and 1 m close focus rather than its sharpness. Nobody has tested it against the 43, and Theo at Photo Thinking, who has used the rest of the line, says plainly that he has not had the pleasure of the 50 or the 210.

What to check when buying: that the FV703 finder, its case and the bayonet hood are present, since the finder is specific to the lens and is the expensive part to replace; the gold-plated contacts on the rear mount, since aperture and shutter are driven electronically and a dirty contact stops the exposure; that the shutter fires at every speed on a body with a fresh battery; the glass against a bright light for haze and balsam separation, which owners report on the 80; and the barrel, which is light and partly plastic, the standing complaint about Mamiya 7 lenses set against glass that nobody complains about. What remains open: the month the 50 shipped, its designer, its price, and how many were made.

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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.

Example photos

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Mamiya N 50mm f/4.5 L (Mamiya 7)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $1,300 across 4 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-21 (middle half $1,200–$1,600). 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 N 43mm f/4.5 L (Mamiya 7) · Mamiya N 65mm f/4 L (Mamiya 7) · Mamiya N 210mm f/8 L (Mamiya 7)

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.