Mamiya 7/7II with 43mm or 50mm?

Mamiya 7/7II with 43mm or 50mm?

  • 43mm

    Votes: 116 59.8%

  • 50mm

    Votes: 78 40.2%
  • Total voters
    194
I shot for many years with the 50/80/150 trio.
Many times I wished my 50 were a bit wider, never wished it were 7mm longer.
In terms of quality, I had zero complaints about the 50, though. Excellent lens.
 
I only have the 80, but the 50 is the only other lens I would consider.

At first glance they seem pretty close in focal length, but the 43mm is a ~22mm equivalent vs the 50mm at ~26mm. To me, the 43 screams "wide angle" whereas the 50 just takes in a wide view.
 
Since I am the happy owner of a 7II, I too want to add an extra lens to the "default" kit (that I got with the 80mm lens).

I know better than to choose the lens based on technical differences, since they are so close performance-wise that if I take a decision solely based on that most probably I won't be satisfied.

It makes far more sense to choose which lens to buy based on what I am actually using, or rather what I am missing in what I already have.

But, that's my dilemma, I am not sure which way to go:

- The 43mm may be useful: you can always crop, it's the shorter FL, and not actually common (I can get e.g. a 50mm Flek for my P6, but not a 43mm). I can have a 50mm in the P6 and a 43mm in the M7II, and they may coexist happily. However, I don't think the external viewfinder will have much appeal to me.

- The 50mm is closest to what I use nowadays for wide angle, which is a 24mm lens on a 35mm camera. It appears to be useable without the external viewfinder. However, I don't really have a definitive figure as to the equivalent FL of each M7II lens compared to 35mm, it seems to depend on to whom you ask... In addition, I have not yet managed to get my hands on a 20mm lens for 35mm film, so I am not really sure if such a wide fov will suit me.

My options, or the ones that have already occurred to me, are:

- Buy the 50mm Flek for the P6, and buy the 43mm for the M7II

- Buy the 50mm for the M7II and forget about the P6 (but somehow I like the WLF...), adding a 20mm lens for the 35mm system.

- Try to borrow a 20mm lens off someone (I have no renting facilities available) and test it, try to decide based on that.

- Sell everything and retire to grow lettuce :bang:

What would you do?
 
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50mm IMO. Everyone is different, but I find the 50mm much more widely applicable than the 43mm for my purposes. I probably use the 50mm 10x more than the 43. I use the 65mm more than any of them.
 
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jnoir said:
I don't think the external viewfinder will have much appeal to me.
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I'll admit, the external viewfinder wouldn't be my first choice. Then again, a dark cloth with a 4x5 is a bit of an inconvenience as well.....but the final images benefit from both of those nuisances 😉
 
On 35mm format, the 43mm is equivalent to 21mm, and the 50mm is equivalent to 24mm.

The 21mm-equivalent field of view has been popular in recent years, but you tend to get a lot of foreground. This leads to the "mountains in the back and the rock in front" sort of composition, which is OK but a little old now. The 24mm reduces this somewhat. I personally am trending more towards 35-50mm for landscapes, to eliminate some of these foreground issues.

The other use for a very wide lens is in a confined space, such as indoors. However, you soon get crazy distortion if you vary from horizontal, so this is really the realm of dedicated architectural photography, with view-camera movements.
 
Sorry about the repost of images from another thread, but all of the following photos where shot with my Mamiya 7II and 43mm lens (using either Velvia or E100VS).















 
I got an M7 with a 65mm as "standard" (as I like using a 35mm lens as standard with my Leica M6TTL). I also got a 150mm lens. I had a choice between a 50mm or 43mm for wide and went for the 43mm as I really like the slightly exaggerated wide perspective that the equivalent of a 21mm lens gives. I'm considering getting the panoramic adapter. Anyone use it or recommend it?
 
I don't get why they didn't make the 50 a faster lens (i.e 2.8). Perhaps because the shutter in in the lens?
 
Paul Jenkin said:
I got an M7 with a 65mm as "standard" (as I like using a 35mm lens as standard with my Leica M6TTL). I also got a 150mm lens. I had a choice between a 50mm or 43mm for wide and went for the 43mm as I really like the slightly exaggerated wide perspective that the equivalent of a 21mm lens gives. I'm considering getting the panoramic adapter. Anyone use it or recommend it?
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I have it and have used it a good bit; it is a fiddly thing, a Rube Goldberg deal. But I still like it, you get more shots than shooting 120 and cropping for pano. But the big thing for me is being able to shoot a variety of 35mm film that may not be available in 120.
 
2WK said:
I don't get why they didn't make the 50 a faster lens (i.e 2.8). Perhaps because the shutter in in the lens?
Click to expand...

You lose DOF with medium format relative to 35mm assuming equivalent angle of view. And then there's the weight of a lens that needs to cover a larger image circle. That's why 35mm is still the best format for low light.
 
I get it, but then how does the Plaubel Makina have a f2.8 lens. Is it because the bellows pulls the lens farther away from the film?
 
2WK said:
I get it, but then how does the Plaubel Makina have a f2.8 lens. Is it because the bellows pulls the lens farther away from the film?
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Longer bellows extension will simply make it possible to focus at a closer distance. So, no, that's not why Plaubel Makina offers an f/2.8 80mm lens. It can be useful to have faster lenses, but the trade-off is greater weight and bulk and limited usefulness at closer focus.

I use 35mm when I need faster lenses because of the greater DOF for equivalent angles of view. That often makes it possible to use slower films, partially off-seting the disadvantage of the smaller format.

http://dofmaster.com/doftable.html
 
The shutter is the limiting issue with faster lenses for the Mamiya 7 system. They would likely need a larger shutter to make faster lenses = bigger lenses.
 
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