Lenses

I have an assortment of lenses for my cameras. It’s not a huge assortment but adequate to get any job done that has come up in the last two decades. I will list each lens and what I typically use it for and why I chose it.

80mm F-1.9 Normal Lens

This is my main lens in the normal length. It is used mostly for full length portraits when I cannot get back quite far enough to use a slightly longer focal length. It is notably a faster than typical lens in the range. Faster being of course it’s ability to gather more light thereby making for a brighter image when looking through the camera. This is very helpful at weddings where lighting may not always be as bright as you would prefer. A slower lens will give you a darker image in the viewfinder and possibly contribute to less than perfectly focused negatives. This lens is somewhat larger because of it’s extra light gathering glass but to me the little extra weight is well worth the benefits of having a brighter image to focus and compose with.

80mm F-2.8 Normal Lens

I purchased this lens purely as a backup for the F-1.9 lens. It is smaller and was very inexpensive at the time I purchased it. I have never had to use it but felt that at a wedding, it was necessary to have a backup for the lens that was used for most of the critical images. Being F-2.8, the image seen in the viewfinder is somewhat darker than the F-1.9.

105mm-210mm F-4.5 Zoom Lens

This is the lens that causes the greatest amount of surprise when people ask me what I shoot my portraits with. They are literally in shock much of the time. For me, this lens was a very logical choice. I like to be efficient with my space, time, money and flexibility. Having a box full of lenses in a single package really made sense for me. Over its entire focal length range, I could do portraits from head and shoulders to full length without having to change lenses and more importantly, without having to drag my camera and tripod back and forth large distances across the camera room. I hate when tasks like this get in the way of smoothly moving through a sitting. Customers don’t get any joy out of watching you switch lenses in the middle of a sitting. It just breaks things up. I would rather keep going while I have things working well.

Let me elaborate about this lens because there are zoom lenses that I would not touch at any price. This wonderful lens has separate focus and zoom rings. This means a lot since some zoom lenses today change focus when you change focal length and you have to constantly touch up the focus when you change the focal length. This lens maintains focus throughout the adjustable range of focal length. This means that from one place in my camera room, I can go from a tight head shot down to a half length portrait with the twist of the zoom ring and notably without moving the tripod. Fixed lenses make it necessary that you move the camera back and forth every time you wish to change the crop. For me this would just not be fun and would really get in the way of things like fast, efficient and creative. I love my zoom!

I still get questions concerning the image quality with this lens. All I can do is grin when asked that question. I have printed tack sharp 30 X 40's and even 40 X 60's with great contrast and sharpness from negatives made with this lens. It is simply an awesome piece of glass. Any concerns about lens sharpness are totally without foundation.

The 105mm-210mm zoom is the longest lens that I own and at 210mm has been as long as I have ever needed. Using a longer lens than normal for portraits is important because it flattens the look of the subject and avoids distortion caused by being too close. Portraits can be done well with wider lenses but certain precautions must be taken to ensure a minimal of distortion to the subject. These might include keeping arms, hands, legs, and feet near the body rather than allowing them to advance toward the camera where they would be enlarged because of their relative closeness to the lens. Watching camera height is also necessary when using a wider lens. Being too high or too low will cause distortion in the subject making the part of their body that the lens is closes to appear larger than it really is.

While I am sure I would enjoy have a longer lens such as 300mm, I have never been able to justify the purchase with a real need. It’s one of those things where you want it rather than need it. Even if I had it I would probably spend more time using if for scenic, vacation and recreational photography than studio business.

NEW
55mm-110mm F-4.5 Zoom Lens

Here is a lens from Mamiya that is fairly new but an absolute delight to behold. The 55mm to 110mm fills a place in the camera bag that will save any photographer, but in particular, wedding photographers a significant amount of time because this one lens can be used to photograph an entire wedding. For the 645 format, 80mm is a normal perspective lens. 55mm would be a slightly wide lens with uses ranging from large groups at weddings to spectacular interiors. 110mm is a slightly long lens with uses ranging from couples and individual portraits at weddings to location portraits of groups, brides, couples and individuals. The beauty of the 55mm-110mm zoom lens is that it combines both of these lenses in a continuously adjustable range of focal lengths inbetween the two extremes mentioned without being heavy and bulky. With this lens, a wedding photographer could photograph the couple at 110mm for a true portrait look, throwing the background creatively out of focus and on the very next frame, photograph a wedding party of 40 in a small sanctuary at 55mm without the need to switch lenses. This is a dream come true lens, particulary since it has seperate zoom and focus controls. You can zoom in close to check your focus and then zoom back out to get the shot knowing that the focus will be right on the money. This is a lens that could easily replace 3 of the lenses shown on this page making it possible to have an entire assortment of focal lengths from buying only two zoom lenses. Bravo Mamiya!

110mm F-2.8 Long Lens

Actually it’s not all that long but it is long enough as compared to a normal lens to make it a great choice for outdoor family and individual portraits. It’s light, fast enough to give me a bright image to focus by much less expensive than my zoom which rarely travels out of my studio. The 110mm lens is a very nice focal length for a wide variety of applications. Head and shoulders look very nice and it is easy to throw the background out of focus by using a slightly wider aperture such as F-4. Full length and group portraits are no problem either. You must get back a short distance but not all the way into the next county as might be required by a longer portrait lens. For me the 110mm has been a perfect compromise between a normal lens and a lens that was just too long and heavy to haul around in the great outdoors.

It is my understanding that Mamiya no longer makes this lens. That fact however, does not mean that the lens is not to be found. There are many still available on the used market.

55mm F-2.8 Slightly Wide Angle Lens

This lens is a real honey. My favorite application with this one has always been group photography at weddings. There are just times that a normal lens is not wide enough to get everyone in without knocking a hole in the back wall to shoot through. A really wide lens would show too much obvious distortion so the 55mm is a perfect choice. In fact it is not so wide that you cannot do half length and upper body couple portraits with it when you need to get the shot but have no time to switch lenses. This is a lens that I rely heavily upon. It is a real work horse at weddings and especially in homes where a family group in a small living room cannot be done with a normal lens. You still have to watch for distortion but with just a little care, you can do really good work with it.

45mm F-2.8 Wide Angle Lens

This lens is used primarily in situations where we wish to create a dramatic representation of the architecture of a structure. You can do a portrait of a couple at a church using a low or high camera angle and show a very unexpected view of the building that is quite dramatic. Care must be used to avoid severe distortion of people but the dramatic images possible with a wide lens are well worth the effort.

This lens also gets a lot of use in commercial applications where we are photographing an interior and wish to make the building look larger than it really is. There are also situations where the entire room could not be shown with anything longer than a wide lens. Maintaining a perpendicular camera angle to the walls in front of the camera are essential to avoid converging lines. In other situations, giving the camera a significantly high angle will create very dramatic converging lines and emphasize the size of the structure. Looking up into a 40 floor hotel atrium is quite spectacular with a wide lens. The building looks quite cavernous and dramatic.

The 45mm is my widest lens. I must confess that I have always wanted an even wider lens but have never taken the plunge. It would probably be used more for personal photography than business. It would create novel images that could be used as an occasional alternative to more conventional length lenses. Even a fish eye has its dramatic uses and yes if you gave me one I would find a use for it but the cost is usually pretty high and should be justified unless you have lots of surplus cash to spend.

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