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

Mamiya-Sekor 90mm f/3.5 (Press)

Mamiya · Mamiya Press · 1960

single source, unconfirmed

Also known as: Mamiya Press 90mm f/3.5 · Mamiya Press 90mm f3.5 · Mamiya-Sekor 90mm f/3.5 · Mamiya Sekor 90mm f3.5 Seikosha-S · Mamiya Press 90mm collapsible · Mamiya 23 90mm f3.5 · Sekor 90/3.5 Press · マミヤプレス 90mm · マミヤ セコール 90mm F3.5 · セコール 90mm F3.5

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Mamiya-Sekor 90mm f/3.5 (chrome, collapsible, Seikosha-S) · 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 (58°30' on 6×9, 51°50' on 6×7, 50° on 6×6, 42° on 6×4.5), the Seikosha-S shutter and the aperture scale to f/45 are from the Mamiya Press Standard instruction manual (pp.6 and 11). English Wikipedia gives f/3.5–45 and 4 elements in 3 groups; camera-wiki the same. Japanese Wikipedia's product list prints 4群7枚 for the 90, which contradicts the maker's 4-3 and is not used.
  2. Closest focus: the Press Standard manual's depth-of-field table for the 90 runs to 3.5 ft (1.07 m) and Kamerastore's listing gives 1.07 m; English Wikipedia gives 3.3 ft (1.0 m). No maker document states it as a specification, and the figure is carried as single-source.
  3. No weight is given by any Mamiya document, English Wikipedia or camera-wiki; Kamerastore's listing says 418 g and 84 × 57 mm, a dealer's figures, not used in the specification fields.
  4. Years: 1960 is the first Press body's year, with the 90 as its standard lens (camera-wiki; English Wikipedia calls it the standard lens for earlier cameras). No source gives a discontinuation date; the 90 is absent from the Super 23 (1967) and Universal (1969) lens tables but still has shutter and finder instructions in the 1969 Universal Lenses booklet.
  5. Shutter name: Seikosha-S zero size in the Press Standard manual; camera-wiki says the original chrome lenses carry the Seikosha-S and the later ones the Seiko #0. The 90 is a chrome lens only.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • One version: chrome front-reading speed dial, collapsible lens-shutter assembly, 40.5 mm filter thread, Tessar-type 4-element glass, aperture to f/45
  • Blades held open for ground-glass focusing with the time lever at B, like the chrome 65, 100mm f/2.8 and 150 (Universal Lenses booklet p.2)
  • Rangefinder coupled; framed with the built-in 90mm field on the original Press and with the whole finder field on the Universal, whose bright lines are for 100, 150 and 250 (booklet p.5)
  • Must be pulled out of its collapsed position before shooting, like the retracting 100mm f/3.5 that replaced it

Mamiya-Sekor 90mm f/3.5 (chrome, collapsible, Seikosha-S):

  • Chrome-plated shutter speed dial read from the front, chrome and black barrel: the Universal Lenses booklet lists the 90 only among the chrome-plated-type lenses
  • Collapsible mount: the lens-shutter assembly retracts into the body so that infinity can still be reached with the bellows back extended (Japanese Wikipedia); the 100mm f/3.5 that replaced it retracts for the same reason
  • Engraved Mamiya-Sekor 1:3.5 f=90mm, 40.5 mm filter thread, aperture scale to f/45 (Press Standard manual); on the Universal it is framed with the whole finder field, since that body has no 90mm frame

Specifications

Formula
4 elements in 3 groups, Tessar type (Press Standard manual for the counts; English Wikipedia and camera-wiki for the type)
Construction
4 elements / 3 groups
Aperture range
f/3.5–f/45
Shutter
Seikosha-S #0 leaf shutter in the lens: 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
1.07 m
Filter
40.5 mm
Years manufactured
1960
Country
Japan

What reviewers say

No reviews aggregated yet — this family is still in the research queue. Written one? We'd love to index it.

Optical formula — 4 elements in 3 groups, Tessar type (Press Standard manual for the counts; English Wikipedia and camera-wiki for the type)

No cross-section of the 90 was found in any Mamiya document consulted: the Super 23 manual and the Universal booklets draw the six or nine lenses of their own tables, which do not include the 90, and the Press Standard manual prints no lens drawings.

History

The 90mm f/3.5 is the lens the Mamiya Press was born with. The first Press of September 1960 was sold with the collapsible chrome 90 as its standard lens, and its finder has the 90mm field and a mask for the 150 built in; the Press Standard manual of the mid-1960s 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 90 as 4 elements in 3 groups with picture angles of 58°30’ on 6×9, 51°50’ on 6×7, 50° on 6×6 and 42° on 6×4.5. English Wikipedia and camera-wiki call the design a Tessar type. The aperture scale runs from 3.5 to 45, the filter thread is 40.5 mm, and the shutter is the Seikosha-S in zero size, B and 1 to 1/500 second with M and X sync, with a time lever that holds the blades open at B for the ground glass. Closest focus is about 1.07 m, the 3.5 ft at which the manual’s depth-of-field table for the 90 ends and the figure Kamerastore lists; Wikipedia says 1.0 m.

The lens collapses, and the reason is the back. Japanese Wikipedia says the 90 is a 沈胴式, a retracting mount, so that the bellows back can still be used with the lens at infinity; the Press and the Super 23 tilt and extend their backs on struts, and the standard lens has to be able to move toward the film to allow it. The 100mm f/3.5 that took over as the standard lens on the Super 23 of 1967 retracts for the same reason, and both manuals warn that the lens must be pulled out before ordinary photographs. On the Super 23 and the Universal there is no 90mm bright line, only frames for 100, 150 and 250, and the Universal Lenses booklet of 1969 tells the owner of a 90 to compose with the whole finder field. That booklet still lists the 90 among the chrome-plated-type lenses for shutter operation, but neither the Super 23 nor the Universal lens table includes it, and no source gives the year it was dropped.

There is one version: chrome-plated speed dial read from the front, the collapsible barrel, the Seikosha-S. Its successors are different lenses on different pages, the retracting 100mm f/3.5 in chrome and then black, and the 100mm f/2.8; a 90mm f/3.8 or f/3.5 K/L for the RB67 shares nothing but the focal length. The Japanese product list prints 4 groups and 7 elements for the 90, which contradicts the maker’s 4 in 3 and is left out here. No Mamiya document gives a weight; Kamerastore’s 418 g is a dealer’s scale and is noted rather than entered.

No review indexed by this catalogue is of the 90. Kikie Wilkins’s Emulsive double review of the Super 23 and Universal does not mention it, Andrew Welsh at Shoot It With Film lists it among the lenses occasionally available and says nothing more, and Camera Reflections’ comparison covers the 50, 65, 75 and 100. What can be said is that it is a single-coated Tessar of the early 1960s in a shutter that will be over sixty years old.

When buying, the collapsing mount is the first check: it should pull out and lock cleanly, and a lens that has been left collapsed with the bellows extended can have a bent guide. Run the Seikosha-S through its speeds, try the time lever at B, confirm the M-X switch moves, and look for haze and cleaning marks on a front element that sits exposed when the lens is out. Make sure the body is one whose finder suits it; on a Universal the 90 is framed by guesswork. No list price in yen or dollars was found for the 90, no production figures, no serial-number scheme and no discontinuation date.

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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-Sekor 90mm f/3.5 (Press)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $110 across 9 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-21 (middle half $95–$150). First day tracked.

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

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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 65mm f/6.3 (Press) · Mamiya-Sekor 75mm f/5.6 (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 (11)

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.