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

Mamiya-Sekor 65mm f/3.5 (C-series TLR)

Mamiya · Mamiya TLR · 1958

Also known as: Mamiya-Sekor 65mm f/3.5 · Mamiya Sekor 65mm f3.5 TLR · Mamiya 65mm f/3.5 blue dot · Mamiya-Sekor 1:3.5 f=65mm · Mamiya Sekor 65mm Seikosha-S · Mamiya C330 65mm f/3.5 · Mamiya C220 65mm lens · Sekor 65/3.5 TLR · マミヤ セコール 65mm F3.5 · マミヤ C330 65mm · マミヤ 二眼 65mm F3.5 · ブルードット 65mm

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Mamiya-Sekor 65mm f/3.5, chrome, Seikosha-MX · 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) 1958–1959 — —
Mamiya-Sekor 65mm f/3.5, chrome, Seikosha-S · Seikosha-S, 1s–1/500 and B, M/X sync Mamiya TLR 1958–1969 — —
Mamiya-Sekor 65mm f/3.5, black Seiko shutter, no aperture click-stops · Seiko, 1s–1/500 and B, M/X sync Mamiya TLR 1968–1980 — —
Mamiya-Sekor 65mm f/3.5, 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: 365 g for the chrome lens (3.1), 340 g for the black (4.2). English Wikipedia gives 27.1 cm, 49 mm and 340 g; Japanese Wikipedia 5群6枚, 0.271 m and φ49; the Mamiya system brochure's 63° picture angle matches Patterson.
  2. The 1958 first year is Patterson's: the 65 was added during the life of the Mamiyaflex C2 (1958–62), and the MX shutter's sales ended in March 1959. The remaining dates are loose by his own account: the Seikosha-S period 'ought to have been the mid-1960s until superseded', the black series c.1969 with his chronology table starting the 65 in 1967–68, click-stops and the blue insert 'from around 1980', and the C330s ended in January 1994.
  3. No launch price in any currency was found. The Mamiya twin-lens system brochure lists the lenses without prices.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Chrome bezel means Seikosha (MX to 1/400 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 only C-series lens between the 55 and the 80: a 63° retrofocus wide-angle with the 49 mm thread it shares with the 55, 180 and 250, and the square flap-top hood of that group rather than the round-to-square hood of the 80, 105 and 135 (Patterson, 2.2)
  • Chrome keeper rings with internal ribs in the 49 mm thread are original equipment on the black lens, not a damaged filter
  • Bodies before the C33 have no 65 correction scale: the C33 and later use the 80mm setting plus the 55/65 finder insert, and the '2' series finders lack the 65 push-down frame (Patterson, 5.1 and 6.4)
  • Not Mamiya's other 65s: the RB67 and RZ67 65mm lenses, the Press/Universal 65mm f/6.3 and the Mamiya 7's N 65mm f/4 L are different lenses on different mounts

Mamiya-Sekor 65mm f/3.5, chrome, Seikosha-MX:

  • Chrome shutter bezel with the short curved release, the small cocking lever and the miniature sync lever with a red insert that mark 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 65mm f/3.5, 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)
  • 49 mm filter thread with chrome guard rings originally fitted; 50 mm square clamp-on hood with a hinged top flap; closest focus 27 cm at 0.93×; 365 g (Patterson, 3.1)
  • Late examples (c. C33) may have come with a finder mask for corrected exposure and parallax; a wide-angle sportsfinder mask was also sold to give the 65 field in early hoods (Patterson, 3.1 and 6.4)

Mamiya-Sekor 65mm f/3.5, 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)
  • 49 mm filter thread, originally with chrome reinforcing 'keeper' rings whose internal ribs are mistaken for a filter thread; 50 mm hood; closest focus 27 cm at 1:1.2; 340 g (Patterson, 4.0 and 4.2)
  • No click-stops: the earliest have the focal length in centimetres, 1970s lenses in millimetres (Patterson, 4.0)
  • A clear insert for the finder base gives corrected parallax and exposure indices for the 55 and 65, which need more correction than the bodies' 80mm setting provides (Patterson, 5.2 and 6.4)

Mamiya-Sekor 65mm f/3.5, 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); one coded FF example has click-stops but no blue insert, so the two features do not always travel together (Patterson, 2.6)
  • Same optics, 49 mm filters, 27 cm and 340 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 65 serial, so nothing dates a chrome example beyond its shutter type.
5789xxx – 57892xx
The only black 65 serials Patterson tabulates, both seven digits: code AI at 5789xxx and BG at 57892xx. Other codes he records on the 65 are BI, CA, CF, CK, EA, EC, JG, HC, HI, DJ and FF, the last a click-stop lens without the blue insert. Mamiya has no serial date table and the letter series restarts per item, so these are his readings rather than factory data.

Specifications

Formula
6 elements in 5 groups, retrofocus (Patterson; Japanese Wikipedia 5群6枚); type not named by Mamiya
Construction
6 elements / 5 groups
Aperture range
f/3.5–f/32
Shutter
Leaf shutter in the taking lens on every version: Seikosha-MX 1–1/400 (chrome, to 1959), 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
0.27 m
Weight
340 g
Filter
49 mm
Years manufactured
1958–1994
Country
Japan
Coating
Single-coated on the chrome lenses and the black ones; Patterson does not name the 65 among the late black lenses that may be multi-coated

What reviewers say

History

The 65mm f/3.5 is the moderate wide-angle of Mamiya’s interchangeable-lens twin-lens reflexes, a 63° lens that sits between the 55mm and the 80mm and was the widest lens in the line until the 55 arrived in 1967. Like every C-series lens it is a matched pair on one board, a viewing lens above a taking lens with its own leaf shutter and flash sync at every speed. Graham Patterson’s system summary, which compiles Mamiya’s literature, gives 6 elements in 5 groups in a retrofocus layout, f/3.5 to f/32, a 49 mm filter thread, a 50 mm square hood with a hinged top flap, and a closest focus of 27 cm at which the bellows put a 6.7 cm square on the film at nearly life size. He records 365 g for the chrome lens and 340 g for the black; English and Japanese Wikipedia agree on 27.1 cm, 49 mm and 340 g. Mamiya never named the design type in anything consulted.

The versions are shutters and barrels rather than new glass. Patterson lists the 65 among the four Seikosha-MX lenses, whose sales ran from December 1956 to March 1959, but also records it as an addition during the life of the Mamiyaflex C2 of 1958, so the chrome MX 65 with the old speed sequence to 1/400 and the red-tipped sync lever can only have sold for a year or so, and it will not mount on the auto-cocking C33, C330, C330f and C330s. The chrome Seikosha-S that replaced it runs 1 second to 1/500 plus B and served through the C2, C3, C33 and C22; Patterson thinks the optics are the same as the MX lens but calls it unverified. The black Seiko lens came with the C220 of 1968 and the C330 of 1969, his chronology table starting the black 65 in 1967–68. 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. On the 65 he records at least one click-stop lens without the insert. The black 65 came with chrome keeper rings in its thin alloy filter thread, a clear finder insert with corrected parallax and exposure indices for the 55 and 65, and a sports-finder mask; earlier hoods could take a small wide-angle mask that gave the 65 field of view.

Nobody has written the 65 up on its own. Thomas Eisl, who owned four C-series bodies, files it as the system’s wide-angle 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 the 65 as the moderate wide for street, documentary and landscape work. The one recurring practical remark, from a Flickr group thread, is that the 65 is quick to focus because it needs little bellows extension, and that at full extension it reaches 27 cm for a 6.7 cm subject.

Buying one is mostly about the shutter and the body. Set 1 second and listen, then cock and 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 49 mm thread for dents, the commonest fault Patterson records, and do not take the ribbed keeper ring for a damaged filter. Bodies before the C33 have no 65 scale; the C33 and later use the 80mm setting on the side dial plus the finder insert, which is often missing. 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.

What remains open: the month the 65 joined the C2’s lens list, the year the black series replaced the chrome for this focal length, a list price in any currency, whether any black 65 was multi-coated, and whether the MX and S optics are in fact identical.

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 wanted — shot with a Mamiya-Sekor 65mm f/3.5 (C-series TLR)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $190 across 16 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-21 (middle half $150–$200). First day tracked.

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

Show 31 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 55mm f/4.5 (C-series TLR) · Mamiya-Sekor 80mm f/2.8 (C-series TLR) · Mamiya-Sekor 135mm f/4.5 (C-series TLR) · Mamiya-Sekor 250mm f/6.3 (C-series TLR)

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.