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

Mamiya-Sekor Z 65mm f/4 W (RZ67)

Mamiya · Mamiya RZ67 · 1982

single source, unconfirmed

Also known as: Mamiya 65mm f/4 RZ67 · Mamiya RZ67 65mm f4 · Mamiya-Sekor Z 65mm f/4 W · Mamiya Sekor Z 65mm f/4 · Sekor Z 65mm W · Mamiya M 65mm f/4 L-A · Mamiya 65mm L-A · Mamiya RZ 65mm 4 · セコールZ 65mm F4 · セコールZ 65mm F4 W · マミヤ RZ67 65mm · マミヤ M 65mm F4 L-A

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Mamiya-Sekor Z 65mm f/4 (1982 original) · Seiko #1 electronic leaf shutter, 8s–1/400, B and T; mechanical 1/400 without a battery Mamiya RZ67 1982 — —
Mamiya-Sekor Z 65mm f/4 W (half-stop aperture ring) · Seiko #1 electronic leaf shutter, 8s–1/400, B and T; mechanical 1/400 without a battery Mamiya RZ67 — — —
Mamiya M 65mm f/4 L-A (floating group, ULD glass) · 9 elements in 8 groups with a floating-element design and ultra-low dispersion glass (Pro IID brochure) · Seiko #1 electronic leaf shutter, 8s–1/400, B and T; mechanical 1/400 without a battery Mamiya RZ67 — — —
  1. Z figures (7 groups/7 elements, 69°, f/32, 32 cm, 77 mm, slip-on hood) are from the RZ67 Professional instruction book at butkus.org; L-A figures including weight and dimensions are from the RZ67 Pro IID brochure (Mamiya, 2004) and manual. The 715 g for the Z and Z W is Emulsive's figure only; no Mamiya document consulted gives a weight for the older lens.
  2. Japanese Wikipedia gives 7群9枚 and 0.379 m for the L-A against the brochure's 9 elements in 8 groups and 0.35 m, and 0.32 m for the Z where the book says 32 cm; the maker's figures are used where they differ.
  3. No source consulted dates the W ring or the L-A lens. The 1982 start is the instruction book of the RZ67 Professional, which lists the 65mm f/4; the L-A appears in the Pro IID literature of 2004.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Name ring sorts the three: MAMIYA-SEKOR Z 65mm f/4 is the original, the same with W the half-stop ring, and MAMIYA M 65mm f/4 L-A the floating-element lens
  • Only the L-A has a floating-element ring to set; the Z and Z W have no ring beyond aperture and shutter speed, focusing being on the body's bellows
  • The L-A is the long, heavy one: 113 mm and 1,060 g against roughly 715 g for the W
  • All three take 77 mm filters and the rectangular slip-on hood shared with the 50mm

Mamiya-Sekor Z 65mm f/4 (1982 original):

  • Engraved MAMIYA-SEKOR Z with no W after the aperture; aperture ring marked in whole stops (the W series added half-stop markings, Japanese Wikipedia)
  • RZ67 Professional instruction book: 7 groups, 7 elements, 69°, minimum aperture f/32, closest focus 32 cm, 77 mm filter, slip-on hood
  • Twelve electrical contacts on the rear mount; the shutter fires only through the body (RZ67 manual)

Mamiya-Sekor Z 65mm f/4 W (half-stop aperture ring):

  • W after the aperture on the name ring; aperture scale spaced wider with half-stop clicks (Japanese Wikipedia; Emulsive)
  • Same 7 elements in 7 groups, 77 mm filter and slip-on hood as the original; 715 g per Emulsive

Mamiya M 65mm f/4 L-A (floating group, ULD glass):

  • L-A after the aperture and the Mamiya M name in place of Mamiya-Sekor (Japanese Wikipedia: the Sekor name was dropped on the M series; L-A marks a close-distance correction mechanism, 近距離補正機構)
  • A floating-element ring on the lens that is set to the distance read from the body's focusing scale (Emulsive's 'triple focus' procedure)
  • Pro IID brochure: 9 elements in 8 groups, 68°, f/32, 0.35 m, 0.7× at closest, 80 × 100 mm area covered, 77 mm filter, slip-on hood, 113 mm long × 97.2 mm diameter, 1,060 g
  • Pro IID manual: with the bellows fully extended, 85 mm from the front rim at 0.7×

Serial-range notes

two-letter sticker on the rear of the lens
Mamiya dated RB and RZ lenses with a two-letter code stuck to the back of the lens: the first letter is the year, the second the month, A = January. Year letters run A–J for 1971–1980, A–T for 1981–2000 and A–N for 2001–2014, so the decade has to be read from the generation (Mamiya Repair). No serial-to-year table for the 65 has been published.

Specifications

Formula
Retrofocus wide-angle, 7 elements in 7 groups (Z and Z W); 9 elements in 8 groups with a floating group and ULD glass (M 65mm f/4 L-A)
Construction
7 elements / 7 groups
Aperture range
f/4–f/32
Shutter
Seiko #1 electronic leaf shutter in the lens, 8s–1/400 plus B and T, flash sync at every speed, controlled and powered by the body's 6 V battery; without a battery the body fires the lens at a fixed mechanical 1/400 only (RZ67 manual)
Min. focus
0.32 m
Filter
77 mm
Years manufactured
1982
Country
Japan
Coating
Multicoated (Mamiya's Pro IID brochure speaks of its own 'coating technologies'; no per-lens coating name is published)

What reviewers say

Optical formula — Retrofocus wide-angle, 7 elements in 7 groups (Z and Z W); 9 elements in 8 groups with a floating group and ULD glass (M 65mm f/4 L-A)

No cross-section found: the RZ67 Professional and Pro IID instruction books and the Pro IID brochure at butkus.org and mamiya.org give tables of construction, angle and weight without optical diagrams, and no Mamiya data sheet for the 65 is online.

History

The 65mm f/4 is the RZ67’s everyday wide-angle, roughly a 32 mm on 35 mm, and it was in the first lens table of the RZ67 Professional instruction book in 1982: 7 groups and 7 elements, a 69° field, f/4 to f/32, closest focus 32 cm on the body’s bellows, a 77 mm filter thread and the rectangular 80 mm slip-on hood it shares with the 50. Like every RZ lens it has a Seiko #1 electronic leaf shutter, 8 seconds to 1/400 with B and T, timed and powered by the body’s 6 V battery; with a dead battery the body will fire the lens at a fixed 1/400 and nothing else. The Pro IID manual’s caution applies: below 1 m, stop the 50 and 65 down as far as possible for the corners.

Three versions, two designs. The original Mamiya-Sekor Z 65mm f/4 became the Z 65mm f/4 W when Mamiya widened the aperture scale and added half-stop clicks, which is what Japanese Wikipedia says the W series was; every source consulted keeps the seven-in-seven count, so the W is the same glass in a new ring. The instruction book gives no weight, and the only figure found is Pierre-gilles Lucain’s 715 g at Emulsive. The third version is the Mamiya M 65mm f/4 L-A, which drops the Sekor name as the M series did and is a new lens: the Pro IID brochure gives 9 elements in 8 groups, a 68° field, 0.35 m and 0.7× at closest focus, 113 mm long by 97.2 mm across and 1,060 g, and says it “employs a floating-element design and ultra-low dispersion glass to optimize color correction, eliminating ghost images and fully corrects optical distortion”. Japanese Wikipedia glosses L-A as a close-distance correction mechanism, and its counts for the L-A do not match the brochure’s; the maker’s figures are used here.

The floating group is what the buyer has to learn. Lucain describes the routine as triple focus: focus on the body, read the distance off the scale on the body’s right side, set that distance on the lens’s floating ring, then touch the focus up again. The L-A is absent from the 1982 book and present in the 2004 Pro IID literature, and no source consulted dates it between those, nor dates the W ring. Reznitsky’s chart and the Pro IID manual cover the other direction of compatibility: RB lenses fit an RZ with 7 mm of bellows extension and the speeds set on the lens, at the RBL position on a Pro II, while an RZ lens cannot work on an RB.

Reviewers like both. Lucain found his W by chance and calls it a great lens, very sharp, with breathtaking images, and points out that the L-A can be had for nearly the same money, so it is the one to look for. John Adams III at Shoot It With Film shoots the Z 65 and a 90 between f/3.8 and f/5.6 and finds subjects “pin sharp” with skin rendered “in a soft, lush way”; his caution is that the RZ67 is “completely battery dependent”. Dmitri at analog.cafe notes the 65’s close focus of 8.5 cm on the bellows, which the Pro IID manual gives as 85 mm from the front rim at 0.7× for the L-A. Photographs on Commons from an RZ67 Pro II with the L-A and an R72 filter show it used for infrared landscape.

What to check: run every speed on a working body with a fresh 4LR44, since the shutter cannot fire off the camera; clean, unbent rear contacts; the body’s cocking lever returning and the lens cocking with it; on an L-A, the floating ring turning through its range with marks that agree with the body’s scale. Open questions: the date of the W ring, the date of the L-A, the weight of the older lens from any Mamiya document, a list price in any currency, and the coating name, none of which any source consulted supplies.

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 Z 65mm f/4 W (RZ67)
Island Pag, Croatia, on Rollei Retro 80s through an R72 infrared filter; RZ67 Pro II with the M 65mm f/4 L-A (K S) — K S, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Mamiya-Sekor Z 65mm f/4 W (RZ67)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $430 across 21 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-19 (middle half $370–$440). First day tracked.

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

Show 21 more listings

Listings updated 2026-09-19. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Mamiya-Sekor Z 110mm f/2.8 W (RZ67) · Mamiya-Sekor Z 180mm f/4.5 W-N (RZ67) · Mamiya-Sekor Z 250mm f/4.5 W / APO (RZ67) · Mamiya-Sekor Z 50mm f/4.5 W (RZ67) · Mamiya-Sekor Z 90mm f/3.5 W (RZ67)

Sources (10)

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.