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

Mamiya-Sekor 65mm f/6.3 (Press)

Mamiya · Mamiya Press · 1960

single source, unconfirmed

Also known as: Mamiya Press 65mm f/6.3 · Mamiya Press 65mm f6.3 · Mamiya-Sekor 65mm f/6.3 · Mamiya Sekor 65mm f6.3 Universal · Mamiya Universal 65mm f6.3 · Mamiya Super 23 65mm f6.3 · Sekor 65/6.3 · マミヤプレス 65mm · マミヤ セコール 65mm F6.3 · セコール 65mm F6.3

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Mamiya-Sekor 65mm f/6.3 (chrome-plated type, time lever) · Seikosha-S #0, B and 1s–1/500, M-X sync; time lever holds the blades open at B Mamiya Press 1960 — —
  1. Element and group counts, picture angles, minimum aperture, filter size, hood and shutter-arresting method are from Mamiya's own tables: the Press Standard manual (p.6), the Super 23 manual (p.51), the 1969 Universal manual (p.18), the Universal Lenses booklet and the later Universal manual (p.46). Angle of view 75°40' on 6×9, 67°50' on 6×7, 63° on 6×6 and 56°10' on 6×4.5.
  2. Closest focus of 1.0 m is the first column of the Super 23 manual's metric depth-of-field table and Japanese Wikipedia's figure; English Wikipedia gives 3.5 ft (1.1 m), which is the first column of the manuals' tables in feet. No maker document states a closest focus as a specification.
  3. Weight of 350 g is English Wikipedia's and camera-wiki's figure; no Mamiya document consulted gives a weight for the 65.
  4. Year: no source dates the lens. The Press Standard manual lists it as the system's only wide angle, and the Super 23 manual says the older 65mm finder for the conventional Mamiya Press fits with an adapter; 1960 is the first Press body's year, used here as the floor.
  5. Shutter name: Seikosha-S zero size in the Press Standard manual, Seikosha-S #0 in the Super 23 manual, Seikosha #0 in the 1969 Universal manual and Seiko #0 in the later one. camera-wiki says the chrome lenses have the Seikosha-S and the later ones the Seiko #0; the 65 is listed as chrome type only.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • One version: chrome-plated front-reading speed dial, 43 mm filter thread, slip-on hood, the smallest lens in the range
  • Blades held open for ground-glass focusing with the time lever at B, like the chrome 90, 100mm f/2.8 and 150; not the press-focus lever of the black lenses
  • Rangefinder coupled; framed with its own optical finder on the accessory shoe, parallax corrected by moving the eyepiece up or down until the distance scale shows the focused distance (Universal Lenses booklet p.5)
  • The Press Standard manual says the wide angle needs no lens hood; the later Universal manual lists a slip-on hood

Mamiya-Sekor 65mm f/6.3 (chrome-plated type, time lever):

  • Chrome-plated shutter speed dial read from the front: the only type Mamiya's tables list for the 65 (single asterisk in the 1969 Universal table, Chrome in the later manual)
  • Very small barrel with a recessed shutter housing, 43 mm filter thread and a slip-on hood; the Press Standard manual says the wide angle needs no hood
  • Engraved Mamiya-Sekor 1:6.3 f=65mm; sold with its own optical finder for the accessory shoe, parallax set by moving the eyepiece up and down

Specifications

Formula
4 elements in 4 groups, Topogon type (Press Standard, Super 23 and Universal manuals for the counts; Japanese Wikipedia, English Wikipedia and camera-wiki for the type)
Construction
4 elements / 4 groups
Aperture range
f/6.3–f/32
Shutter
Seikosha-S #0 leaf shutter in the lens (Seiko #0 in the later Universal manual): B and 1s–1/500, cocked by a lever on the barrel, M-X flash sync at every speed; a time lever holds the blades open at B for the focusing screen
Min. focus
1 m
Weight
350 g
Filter
43 mm
Years manufactured
1960
Country
Japan
Coating
Single-coated (Photo Thinking, of the Press lenses generally)

What reviewers say

Optical formula — 4 elements in 4 groups, Topogon type (Press Standard, Super 23 and Universal manuals for the counts; Japanese Wikipedia, English Wikipedia and camera-wiki for the type)

History

The 65mm f/6.3 is the original wide angle of the Mamiya Press and the smallest lens Mamiya made for it. The Press Standard manual names three interchangeable lenses, the standard 90mm f/3.5, the wide-angle 65mm f/6.3 and the long-focus 150mm f/5.6, all coupled to the rangefinder, and gives the 65 as 4 elements in 4 groups with picture angles of 75°40’ on 6×9, 67°50’ on 6×7, 63° on 6×6 and 56°10’ on 6×4.5. The cross-section in the Super 23 manual shows four thin separated meniscus elements around the diaphragm, the Topogon form that Japanese Wikipedia, English Wikipedia and camera-wiki all name. The aperture runs to f/32, the filter thread is 43 mm, and the weight is 350 g by the Wikipedia figure, since no Mamiya document gives one. Closest focus is 1.0 m, the first column of the Super 23 manual’s metric depth-of-field table and the figure Japanese Wikipedia prints; the manuals in feet start at 3.5 ft, which is where English Wikipedia’s 1.1 m comes from.

There is one version and it is chrome. Mamiya’s tables mark the 65 as a chrome-plated type, with the speed dial read from the front, while the 50 and 75 were black only and the 100s and 150 came both ways. Its shutter is the Seikosha-S #0, B and 1 to 1/500 second with M and X sync at every speed, cocked by a lever on the barrel; the blades are held open for the ground glass by a time lever at B, the method of the chrome lenses, where the black lenses have a press-focus lever. The Press Standard manual says the wide angle needs no hood; the later Universal manual lists a slip-on hood for it. Framing is by a separate optical finder on the accessory shoe, with parallax corrected by moving the eyepiece up or down, and the Super 23 manual notes that the older 65mm finder made for the original Press fits the later body with a finder adapter, which is the best evidence consulted that the 65 goes back to the first Press. No source dates the lens itself, so the year given is the 1960 body’s.

Reviewers like it more than its aperture suggests. Theo Panagopoulos at Photo Thinking calls the results nothing short of superb, sharp pretty much all around from f/6.3 and complete by f/8, with exposure consistent across the frame to within part of a stop, and says the external finder is a pleasure to look through; he also notes that the Press lenses, and the 65 above all, have become the default optics for the 3D-printed medium-format cameras, some of them covering 4×5. Martin Ellard on 35mmc taped one to a Sony A7R II and got frames that were pretty damn sharp at f/8, with the leaf shutter working at 1/125 and 1/250. Greg at Camera Reflections confirms the low distortion and good sharpness of the Topogon design, finds the handling fiddly because the barrel is tiny and the shutter housing recessed, and reports that opening it up to f/4.5 gave image quality that was not usable, which settles the question of why Mamiya stopped at f/6.3.

When buying, check the finder is present, since the lens is useless on the camera without one and the 65 finder is its own part; run the shutter through its speeds, try the time lever and confirm the M-X switch moves. The small front element sits deep in the barrel and is well protected, but the aperture and speed rings are close together and can be stiff. No list price in yen or dollars was found for the 65, no production figures, no serial-number scheme, and no launch date; the weight is Wikipedia’s, not Mamiya’s.

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 taken with the Mamiya-Sekor 65mm f/6.3 (Press)
Mamiya-Sekor 65mm f/6.3 with its optical finder — Zebrio (Brian Scott Peterson), via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Sample photo taken with the Mamiya-Sekor 65mm f/6.3 (Press)
The 65mm f/6.3 and finder: the smallest lens of the Press range — Zebrio, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Mamiya-Sekor 65mm f/6.3 (Press)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $300 across 15 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-21 (middle half $280–$390). First day tracked.

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

Show 18 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-Sekor 50mm f/6.3 (Press) · Mamiya-Sekor 75mm f/5.6 (Press) · Mamiya-Sekor 90mm f/3.5 (Press) · 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)

Sources (14)

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.