I use the digital Leica CL or Leica M240 camera to focus on a subject then read the distance off the Leica lens and dial it into the Mamiya 210mm lens. Personally I am rubbish at gauging any distances so I cheat. Hyperfocal distance means you estimate the distance to your subject visually then dial in the same distance onto the lens itself. This is also the only way to operate my super wide Hasselblad SWC/M camera. The only way to focus the Mamiya 210mm lens is like some people do with Leica cameras – by using hyperfocal distance. (This means if you turn the lens it wont affect the rangefinder patch)(meaning you wont see any change in the viewfinder).
The 210mm Mamiya lens also can’t be focuses via the viewfinder as it is not rangefinder coupled lens.
The 150mm, 80mm and 65mm lenses do have frame lines. There is no 210mm frame lines in the Mamiya 7 viewfinder hence me later buying the 150mm. Without using the optional external Mamiya 7 150-210mm viewfinder there is no way to compose the photo. The Mamiya 7 210mm lens is different to almost all lenses I own. Mamiya 210mm lens – it’s not a normal lens! (It doesn’t suit every model and many locations). Maybe I will get into wide environmental portraits with the Mamiya 7 but I need the right model and location to do this. (Why don’t I just take a step closer I hear you say, like with every other prime lens camera I use!? A longer lens just gives a different look to a portrait).(I In hindsight I wish I’d got a Mamiya 7 80mm lens bundle but that is just my current mood. On the 6×7 format of the Mamiya 7 camera the 65mm is a bit too wide/ far away from my subject much of the time, especially for model photography.
Both these cameras are 6×6 format and 60-65mm works well for me. I’ve enjoyed using the Zeiss 60mm on my Hasselblad 501C and also the Mir 65mm on my Kiev 88 clone “ARAX-CM”. At the time of buying the camera I thought it would give me a nice slightly wide angle view verses the usual 80mm kit lens that comes on so many medium format cameras. When I purchased the Mamiya 7 camera it arrived with the Mamiya 65mm f/4 lens attached. As I didn’t fall in love with wide angle photos using Mamiya 7 camera I looked to get something longer instead to see if that made me love the camera more. That being without the external finder to carry around. For the 50mm you can guestimate the composition and I just preferred the idea of a small camera setup. The Mamiya 43mm lens is wider so needs the additional external wide angle viewfinder. The Mamiya 50mm f/4.5 lens was the second Mamiya 7 lens I bought with the concept that if I bought the 50mm rather than the 43mm I could approximate the composition in the camera viewfinder. This prompted me to buy the Mamiya 7 210mm lens and soon after the Mamiya 150mm lens. I noticed I always wanted to be closer to my subject (or you could say the subject was always too far away for it to give any impact in the image)(and usually I couldn’t get close enough to change that fact). A year or so later I tried some Mamiya 7 35mm photos (loading 35mm film into the Mamiya 7 using a 35mm to 120 film adapter). I didn’t fall in love with the Mamiya 7 and I soon reverted back to my Hasselblad and Leica cameras. When I bought my Mamiya 7 camera I planned to use it for wide angle photos so I bought the 50mm lens and the 65mm lens.
Here is a summary of the key data for each lens. There are six Mamiya 7 lenses available for the camera system – 43mm, 50mm, 65mm, 80mm, 150mm and 210mm.
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