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

Mamiya-Sekor 135mm f/4.5 (C-series TLR)

Mamiya · Mamiya TLR · 1956

Also known as: Mamiya-Sekor 135mm f/4.5 · Mamiya Sekor 135mm f4.5 TLR · Mamiya 135mm f/4.5 blue dot · Mamiya-Sekor 1:4.5 f=135mm · Mamiya-Sekor f=13.5cm 1:4.5 · Mamiya Sekor 135mm Seikosha-S · Mamiya C330 135mm f/4.5 · Mamiya C220 135mm lens · Sekor 135/4.5 TLR · マミヤ セコール 135mm F4.5 · マミヤ C330 135mm · マミヤ 二眼 135mm F4.5 · ブルードット 135mm

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Mamiya-Sekor 13.5cm f/4.5, chrome, Seikosha-MX (1956 baseline) · Seikosha-MX, 1–1/400 s in the old sequence (1, 1/2, 1/5, 1/10, 1/25, 1/50, 1/100, 1/200, 1/400); top speed set only with the shutter uncocked Mamiya TLR (manual-cocking bodies only) 1956–1959 — —
Mamiya-Sekor 135mm f/4.5, chrome, Seikosha-S · Seikosha-S, 1s–1/500 and B, M/X sync Mamiya TLR 1958–1969 — —
Mamiya-Sekor 135mm f/4.5, black Seiko shutter, no aperture click-stops · Seiko, 1s–1/500 and B, M/X sync Mamiya TLR 1969–1980 — —
Mamiya-Sekor 135mm f/4.5, Blue Dot (click-stopped aperture, later Seiko shutter) · Seiko (later type with raised-tip leaf), 1s–1/500 and B, M/X sync Mamiya TLR 1980–1994 — —
  1. Optical construction, picture angle, minimum aperture, filter and hood diameters, closest focus, reproduction ratio, weight and sync are from Graham Patterson's Mamiya TLR System Summary (June 2015 release), which compiles Mamiya's literature; he records no weight for the chrome lens and queries its f/45 minimum. English Wikipedia gives f/4.5–45, 33°, 90.2 cm, 25.2 cm field, 46 mm and 370 g; Japanese Wikipedia 3群4枚, 0.902 m and φ46. The Mamiya system brochure gives the picture angle for the other lenses but its 135 entry did not survive the scan.
  2. The dates are Patterson's and are loose by his own account: MX sales December 1956 to March 1959; the Seikosha-S 'ought to have been the mid-1960s until superseded'; the black series c.1969 with his chronology table entering the black 135 at '1970?'; click-stops and the blue insert 'from around 1980'; the C330s ended January 1994.
  3. No launch price in any currency was found.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Chrome bezel means Seikosha (MX to 1/400 with 13.5cm engraving, or S to 1/500); all-black shutter means Seiko and the black series; a blue insert in the cocking lever and click-stopped apertures mean the post-1980 shutter
  • The 46 mm thread is shared with the black 80 and 105, not with the 49 mm wides and the 180/250; the 48 mm round-to-square hood fits the black 80, black 105 and both 135s (Patterson, 2.2)
  • Closest focus sorts the two black-era figures: Patterson gives 82.3 cm for the chrome lens and 90.2 cm for the black
  • Sports-finder mask aperture for the 135 measures 29.5 mm (Patterson, 6.4); a body scale for the 135 exists on every model from the Mamiyaflex C onward
  • Not the RB67's or 645's 135s, nor the Mamiya 6 or Press lenses: those are different lenses on different mounts

Mamiya-Sekor 13.5cm f/4.5, chrome, Seikosha-MX (1956 baseline):

  • Engraved 13.5cm rather than 135mm on some, if not all, MX lenses (Patterson, 3.0.1)
  • Chrome shutter bezel with the short curved release, the small cocking lever and the miniature M/X lever with a red insert of every Seikosha-MX lens (Patterson, 3.0.1)
  • Will not mount on the auto-cocking bodies (C33, C330, C330f, C330s): the cocking lever sits higher and its 67°30' stroke does not match the bodies' 112°30' (Patterson, 2.1 and 3.0.1)

Mamiya-Sekor 135mm f/4.5, chrome, Seikosha-S:

  • Chrome shutter/aperture bezel; speed scale on the left, aperture on the right, set by a thin knurled ring and a small pointer (Patterson, 3.0.2)
  • Some early Seikosha-S lenses still carry the focal length in centimetres (Patterson, 3.5)
  • 46 mm filter thread and 48 mm hood; closest focus 82.3 cm at 0.25× (Patterson, 3.5); no weight recorded

Mamiya-Sekor 135mm f/4.5, black Seiko shutter, no aperture click-stops:

  • All-black Seiko shutter; speed and aperture scales read against a common index on the left, wide knurled speed ring, aperture knob on the right (Patterson, 4.0)
  • 46 mm filter thread and 48 mm hood, the round-to-square rigid hood shared with the black 80 and 105; closest focus 90.2 cm at 1:5.5; 370 g (Patterson, 4.7 and 2.2)
  • Diaphragm and shutter sit behind the lens elements and are exposed when the rear cap is off (Patterson, 4.7)
  • No click-stops and no blue insert; the earliest have the focal length in centimetres, 1970s lenses in millimetres (Patterson, 4.0)

Mamiya-Sekor 135mm f/4.5, Blue Dot (click-stopped aperture, later Seiko shutter):

  • Blue insert in the tip of the shutter cocking lever, Patterson's mark of the newer shutter whose raised leaf tip resists the blades locking as they close (2.5)
  • Aperture click-stops at the full stops, from around 1980 (Patterson, 4.0); millimetre engraving
  • Same optics, 46 mm filters, 90.2 cm and 370 g as the earlier black lens

Serial-range notes

chrome lenses
No two-letter sticker was used on the chrome series and Patterson tabulates no chrome 135 serial, so nothing dates a chrome example beyond its shutter type and the 13.5cm engraving of the earliest.
296xx – 655xx
Five-digit black lenses in Patterson's code table: AJ at 299xx, AL at 296xx–305xx (which he dates 1974/5), EA at 53xxx, DE at 511xx, HB at 620xx, HH at 655xx.
6253xx – 661xxx
Six-digit black lenses Patterson tabulates without codes: 6253xx, 6364xx, 6365xx, 6476xx, 6595xx, 6599xx and 661xxx. Whether the five- and six-digit series overlap in time is not stated. Mamiya has no serial date table and the letter series restarts per item, so these are his readings rather than factory data.

Specifications

Formula
4 elements in 3 groups, long-focus (Patterson; Japanese Wikipedia 3群4枚); type not named by Mamiya
Construction
4 elements / 3 groups
Aperture range
f/4.5–f/45
Shutter
Leaf shutter in the taking lens on every version: Seikosha-MX 1–1/400 (chrome, 1956–59), Seikosha-S 1s–1/500 and B (chrome), Seiko 1s–1/500 and B (black series); M and X sync, flash at every speed
Min. focus
0.902 m
Weight
370 g
Filter
46 mm
Years manufactured
1956–1994
Country
Japan
Coating
Single-coated on the chrome lenses and the black ones; Patterson does not name the 135 among the late black lenses that may be multi-coated

What reviewers say

History

The 135mm f/4.5 is the short telephoto of Mamiya’s interchangeable-lens twin-lens reflexes and one of the three lenses the first Mamiyaflex C of 1956–57 was sold with, beside the 80mm f/2.8 and the 105mm. Every version is a matched pair on one board, a viewing lens above a taking lens carrying its own leaf shutter with flash sync at every speed. Graham Patterson’s system summary, which compiles Mamiya’s literature, gives 4 elements in 3 groups in a long-focus layout, a 33° picture angle, f/4.5 to f/45, a 46 mm filter thread and the 48 mm round-to-square hood it shares with the black 80 and 105. Japanese Wikipedia agrees on 3群4枚. It is the simplest lens in the line, and the only one whose diaphragm and shutter sit behind the glass, exposed when the rear cap comes off.

The versions are shutters and barrels rather than new glass. The first lenses, some or all of them engraved 13.5cm, sit in a chrome Seikosha-MX with the old speed sequence to 1/400, a small cocking lever and a red-tipped sync lever; Patterson gives their sales period as December 1956 to March 1959 and warns that they will not mount on the auto-cocking C33, C330, C330f and C330s. The chrome Seikosha-S that replaced them runs 1 second to 1/500 plus B, focuses to 82.3 cm at 0.25× and served through the C2, C3, C33 and C22; the earliest S lenses still carry the focal length in centimetres. The black Seiko lens came with the C220 of 1968 and the C330 of 1969, Patterson’s chronology table entering the black 135 at 1970 with a query: 1 to 1/500 plus B, closest focus 90.2 cm at 1:5.5, and 370 g. Within the black lenses he sorts early, middle and late by engraving and click-stops, centimetres first, then millimetres without click-stops through the 1970s, then click-stops at the full stops from about 1980, usually with a blue insert in the cocking lever that marks a newer shutter with a raised leaf tip. His code table for the 135 runs from BG in 1972 through AL in 1974/5 to IJ in 1982 and FF, which he calls late.

Nobody has written the 135 up on its own. Thomas Eisl, who owned four C-series bodies, lists it as a telephoto and finds the image quality of all the lenses very good, with no significant difference between the older lenses and the newer blue dot ones; Anton McCloud, with a C330, says of the whole range that ‘all of them are blooming brilliant’ and refuses to rank the blue dot above the rest. Marius Constantin’s buying guide places it as the short telephoto for head-and-shoulders portraits. A reader of Paul Quellin’s C220 review recalls working professionally through the 1970s and 80s with a C330 and the 80, 65 and 135, which is how the lens was mostly used.

Buying one is mostly about the shutter. Set 1 second and listen, then fire at every speed; Constantin’s rule is that a clean chrome lens beats a hazy or sluggish black one, and Mamiya America told Patterson in 1999 that some parts for the early Seiko shutters were exhausted. An MX lens only fits the manual-cocking bodies, and any lens must be mounted with its cocking lever on the correct side of the body arm or the next wind can damage it. Check the 46 mm thread for dents, the commonest fault Patterson records, and look through the rear with the cap off, since the diaphragm and shutter blades of this lens are exposed there. Eisl warns that the plastic aperture levers of the black lenses break, that some lenses wobble on the board and soften the image, and that cellar-stored examples come with fungus. Serial numbers date nothing, since Mamiya has no table; the gold two-letter sticker, if it survives, is the only period clue.

What remains open: the year the Seikosha-S replaced the MX and the year the black series replaced the chrome for this focal length, the weight of the chrome lens, a list price in any currency, and whether any black 135 was multi-coated.

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 135mm f/4.5 (C-series TLR)
Mamiya-Sekor 135mm lens pair, black series (Jereme Rauckman) — Jereme Rauckman, Eau Claire, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Sample photo taken with the Mamiya-Sekor 135mm f/4.5 (C-series TLR)
Mamiya C33 Professional with the 135mm f/4.5 (alexkerhead) — alexkerhead, Brooklyn, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Mamiya-Sekor 135mm f/4.5 (C-series TLR)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $130 across 21 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-21 (middle half $75–$190). First day tracked.

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

Show 41 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 80mm f/2.8 (C-series TLR) · Mamiya-Sekor 105mm f/3.5 (C-series TLR) · Mamiya-Sekor 180mm f/4.5 (C-series TLR) · Mamiya-Sekor 65mm f/3.5 (C-series TLR) · Mamiya-Sekor 250mm f/6.3 (C-series TLR)

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.