I just noticed in a KEH catalog that they were selling a lens for the Mamiya 7 rangefinder that I'd never heard of - a scale-focusing 210mm f/8 with an accessory finder. Touted as a landscape lens, since it more or less has to be shot near infinity with no RF coupling, or on a tripod with a tape measure, and at f/8 is not an action-stopping lens.

Anyway, I was intrigued, and (back on topic) wondered if something like this appealed to any Leica M shooters - and if anyone ever heard of this lens before - I've never seen it in a Mamiya 7 brochure. It's either very new or very limited distribution.

How about a scale-focusing APO-Telyt-M 180 or 200, with accessory finder. Would you find a use for it?

The fact that KEH has TWO used ones when I've never even seen a new one makes me wonder if it - umm - doesn't SATISFY a large percentage of owners and gets dumped pretty fast.

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), February 28, 2002

Answers

Andy, I had an M7 with 50/80/150 lens combo. Sold it a couple of years ago. Uhm, I knew of the 210/8 lens and never gave it much thought. The near focus is long, I think something like 20 meters. Of course, since this is a scale focus lens with a 210mm focal length, the chances of getting accurate focus close-in with a very shallow DoF isn't good. So, its a highly specialised lens, for shooting long distances at small apertures. It's expensive too. I suppose one redeeming quality is the fact that the lens is a telephoto and is remarkably compact for a 200mm class lens in 6x7 format. Also, I understood that the optics were superb, as with all the other Mamiya 7 lenses.

I suppose this begs the question, Dan, why did you sell that M7 and go with Leica. Well, because the M7 didn't have any fast lenses (f4 is the max). I was really happy shooting the M7 handheld with Delta3200 rated at EI1600 and making 8x10 or 11x14 prints (with minimal grain and a great general look). And, the Mamiya is not nearly as hand-holdable as a Leica. But, put Delta 400 in an M6 and shoot a Summicron wide open hand you have the same thing! The finer grain of the 400 speed film makes up for the larger negative area, and you have a smaller package to boot. Of course, the Mamiya in a solid tripod with fine grain film is tough to beat. There are arguments on both sides of this, but in the end, I much prefer the Leica kit to the Mamiya kit.

-- Dan Brown (brpatent@swbell.net), February 28, 2002.

I also had a Mamiya 7 (2 of them) with 43/65/150 lenses and sold it all a few years ago. I knew about the 210 too, and like Dan the big problem I had with the system was the slow lenses. And the not-so- accurate framelines. I rarely used the 150, So a 210 f8 lens did not interest me at all. I am much happier with the 90 and/or 135 on my Leica.

:-),

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), February 28, 2002.

At one time Leica offered non-Visoflex mounts for 200mm Telyts along with a viewfinder for framing. The popularity (NOT) of this setup speaks for itself.

-- Douglas Herr (telyt@earthlink.net), February 28, 2002.

There are R-to-M adaptors available so you could mount any R lens on an M body and scale-focus it. There are also adaptors for Nikon F-to- M.

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), February 28, 2002.