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Mamiya Sekor CS and Sekor EF 2.8/35mm
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 20, 2023 9:43 pm    Post subject: Mamiya Sekor CS and Sekor EF 2.8/35mm Reply with quote
According to the data sheets published by Mamyia, these two lenses seem to have the same optical layout, and since we haven't yet a thread dedicated to these two not-so-common 2.8/35mm lenses, I have created one Wink

While 2.8/35mm lenses were pretty common in the 1960s, at least here in Switzerland they were rarely bought around 1980. Most users went for the 2.8/28mm or - if they really were sticking to the 35mm focal length - to a faster f2 or 1.8 lens. The only "modern" 2.8/35mm lens which is quite common here is the Minolta MD 2.8/35mm.

That said, and since Mamiya wasn't really well known for their 35mm SLRs, the Sekor CS 2.8/35mm (around 1978) and the Sekor E/EF 2.8/35mm (around 1982) are pretty difficult to find. While I had accumulated most Sekor E/EF lenses around 2020, the Sekor E 2.8/35, the E 1.4/50 and the E 4/300 were still missing (luckily I have them all now).

Siimilarly I had found of the CS lenses recently, with only 3.5/14mm Fisheye, the obscure 2/50mm and the 2.8/35mm missing. Today I got the CS 2.8/35mm, and it is as well machined and as tiny as most other Sekor CS lenses. Its optical construction is similar to other contemporary 2.8/35mm lenses, with six lenses in five groups (lens section here http://www.artaphot.ch/mamiya/mamiya-cs-objektive/424-mamiya-cs-35mm-f28). At least the performance of the Sekor EF 2.8/35mm is very good, and I expect the same from the CS variant as well.

Detailed information, comparisons and some fotos of the lens will follow tomorrow.

S


PostPosted: Thu Sep 21, 2023 6:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Indeed fairly rare lenses, and often pretty expensive. I haven’t had the luck yet to find an affordable one.


PostPosted: Thu Sep 21, 2023 11:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Stephan,

To whet the appetite of the readers here is the older test you did with the EF version:
http://forum.mflenses.com/test-nine-vintage-2-8-35mm-lenses-on-24-mp-ff-t82723.html


PostPosted: Thu Sep 21, 2023 2:25 pm    Post subject: Re: Mamiya Sekor CS and Sekor EF 2.8/35mm Reply with quote
stevemark wrote:
According to the data sheets published by Mamyia, these two lenses seem to have the same optical layout, and since we haven't yet a thread dedicated to these two not-so-common 2.8/35mm lenses, I have created one Wink

While 2.8/35mm lenses were pretty common in the 1960s, at least here in Switzerland they were rarely bought around 1980. Most users went for the 2.8/28mm or - if they really were sticking to the 35mm focal length - to a faster f2 or 1.8 lens. The only "modern" 2.8/35mm lens which is quite common here is the Minolta MD 2.8/35mm.

That said, and since Mamiya wasn't really well known for their 35mm SLRs, the Sekor CS 2.8/35mm (around 1978) and the Sekor E/EF 2.8/35mm (around 1982) are pretty difficult to find. While I had accumulated most Sekor E/EF lenses around 2020, the Sekor E 2.8/35, the E 1.4/50 and the E 4/300 were still missing (luckily I have them all now).

Siimilarly I had found of the CS lenses recently, with only 3.5/14mm Fisheye, the obscure 2/50mm and the 2.8/35mm missing. Today I got the CS 2.8/35mm, and it is as well machined and as tiny as most other Sekor CS lenses. Its optical construction is similar to other contemporary 2.8/35mm lenses, with six lenses in five groups (lens section here http://www.artaphot.ch/mamiya/mamiya-cs-objektive/424-mamiya-cs-35mm-f28). At least the performance of the Sekor EF 2.8/35mm is very good, and I expect the same from the CS variant as well.

Detailed information, comparisons and some fotos of the lens will follow tomorrow.

S


I have a few of CS lenses, namely 50mm f1.4, 35mm f2.8, 28mm f2.8, 135mm f2.8 and 200mm f3.5. I mostly bought them in the late 2010s when they were still not that expensive.
Unfortunately, the adapter that I have works perfectly with E-series lenses but doesn't allow full aperture control of CS-series.
Still, the CS-series lenses are my favorite Mamiya lenses in terms of materials and manufacture quality. Also, they are among the smallest ones, rivaled may be only by Olympus' Zuikos and Pentax M and A-series.


PostPosted: Fri Sep 22, 2023 10:59 am    Post subject: Re: Mamiya Sekor CS and Sekor EF 2.8/35mm Reply with quote
stevemark wrote:

Detailed information, comparisons and some fotos of the lens will follow tomorrow.

S


I decided to do some work in Italy over the weekend, and therefore I can't update the information on the CS 2.8/35mm yet. Sorry!

caspert79 wrote:
Indeed fairly rare lenses, and often pretty expensive. I haven’t had the luck yet to find an affordable one.


Yeah, I was lucky. The Sekor CS 2.8/35mm I got had been mislabelled as "Minolta" - no further information (because it had a "Minolta" lens cap on it). Therefore nobody else was bidding, and I got for CHF 10.--.


Manichaean wrote:
I have a few of CS lenses, namely 50mm f1.4, 35mm f2.8, 28mm f2.8, 135mm f2.8 and 200mm f3.5. I mostly bought them in the late 2010s when they were still not that expensive.
Unfortunately, the adapter that I have works perfectly with E-series lenses but doesn't allow full aperture control of CS-series.


I had the same problem using the Fotodiox Pro "Memiya Sekor E => Sony E" adapter (which is very well made and works perfectly with Sekor E/EF lenses). The solution was putting a rubber O-ring of suitable diameter and thickness into the corresponding space inside the Fotodiox adapter. Now I can mount the CS series (make sure that the aperture is set fo f16 to allow the pin going in!), and the rubber O-ring is pushing the small aperture pin on the lens - in other words: the aperture ring works as usual. Some lenses however don't close their aperture to f16, but all are perfectly useable in the f1.4 ... f8 range. That's sufficient


Manichaean wrote:
Still, the CS-series lenses are my favorite Mamiya lenses in terms of materials and manufacture quality. Also, they are among the smallest ones, rivaled may be only by Olympus' Zuikos and Pentax M and A-series.


Yeah, I like them too. Very small and lightweight, quite good especially considering their size / weight, and beautifully machined. Now I still have the 3.5/14mm Fisheye on my wish list;)

S


PostPosted: Sun Oct 01, 2023 6:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Last week i promised some images taken with my "new" Sekor CS 2.8/35mm. While usually the 35mm focal length are "not my cup of tea", I went out with nothung but the CS 2,8/35mm and my A7II. Here are a few imressions. And yeah, that day I was not in the right mood to shoot "street photography", sadly ...

First thing that struck me was this plate jsut outside the flat. "Don't stay here - for reasons of saftey", sprayed over with "Kolima" (check "Колыма Juri Dud" if you wanna know more). It's obvious that the Sekor CS 2.8/35mm has pretty visible distortion when used at MFD:


One street later there was a beautiful bike sitting on the sidewalk. Too nice to just pass by withoutt taking an image (at f5.6):


Next was an equally noice door knocker (f2.8 at MFD, with some vignetting added):


There's a lot of art & culture in Tuscany, and there are lots of young people in Pisa (about 50% students in town), so you never know what's next. Surprising combinations aren't that rare.




I litteraly have seen Jewish-American art dealers scraping Italian street art (such as this) one from the walls. I'm sure they have made good money, but I consider it "nasty behaviour" nevertheless:


Building of the Scuola Normale Superiore, a well regareded university in Pisa and Firenze (f5.6) - the entire facade is decorated with nude girls and young warriors as well as horses and unicorns:


100% crop from the image above:


And now the real girls ... (no nudes, sorry). f5.6, as far as I remember:


f2.8, at night:


More images to follow.


PostPosted: Sun Oct 01, 2023 7:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Here are a few more samples regarding architecture ans cityscapes. While at close distances the Sekro CS 2.8/35mm as quite some distortion, at infinity no such problems occur. And at medium distances they are well controlled. Entrance portal realized by Giambologna, after the devastating fire which destroyed the original doors in 1595:



Detail resolution at f5.6 is excellent, as shown in this 100% crop from the above image:



Upper part of the facaade, built around 1200. Image shown here taken at f2.8 which causes some vignetting, but details are impeccable. Contrast is somehow reduced, though.



100% crop from the above image - pretty good indeed (f2.Cool:


At f11 there's better contrast, but resolution was the same at f2.8 (again 100% crop from an image taken at f11):


35mm wideangle may not sound impressive, but it's sufficient for images like the following two. I think they give an rather accurate impression about the Duomo di Pisa and the Leaning Tower:



S


PostPosted: Sun Oct 01, 2023 7:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Nice images 👍
I’ll keep my eyes open for this lens.


PostPosted: Sun Oct 01, 2023 8:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
caspert79 wrote:
Nice images 👍
I’ll keep my eyes open for this lens.


Yeah, the Sekor CS as well as the Sekor E 2.8/35mm certainly are very good lenses. They have slightly more "character" than e. g. the Minolta MD 2.8/35mm or the Sony Zeiss FE 2.8/35mm, but the resolution is impeccable. I have been using the CS 2.8/35mm also in dim light and wide open, and the resulting images did look pretty good indeed. This one was taken at f2.8 and 1/15s, handheld:


The image center is impeccable (borders are not sharp due to shallow depth-of-field, of course). 100% crop from the above image:



And that's another one, taken at f2.8 as well. Arno river after sunset. 1/30s handheld:


100% crop from the borders - not too much coma indeed, although there's some "glow" (not a bad thing under these circumstances):


Stopped down to f5.6 (1/8s handheld) the same crop looks like this:



Another snapshot, at night (I usually avoid shooting at night 'cause the light is too "hard", but wide open the lens manages the high contrast pretty well):


Stopped down to f4 even subjects with lots of detail look really good. I could use this image even for a large scale (40 x 60 cm) calender! (f4, 1/10s, 400 ISO, handheld):


100% crop from the above image, partially sharpened (JPG out of A7RII, thus some compression artefacts):


I someone can grap one of these lenses at a reasonable I certainly would recommend it. The CS vesrion is very well made, and focusing is smooth - many of the Sekro E / EF lenses (including this one) are prone to "dry lube" and therefore may need to be re-greased.

S


EDIT all images shown in this thread are re-sized JPGs out of the A7RII. RAWs would result in better detail resolution, but usually also in worse colors.


PostPosted: Mon Oct 02, 2023 12:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
"Stopped down to f4 even subjects with lots of detail look really good. I could use this image even for a large scale (40 x 60 cm) calender!"

Stephan, with the A7RII and that lens you could use it up to 60x90cm if not larger. Here I have them hanging like that. Usually at 5.6 though, just a bit more corner quality then. Developed with C1 and printed from Qimage Ultimate on a HP Z3200 44".

Phone shots probably do it no justice.





PostPosted: Mon Oct 02, 2023 4:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Ernst Dinkla wrote:

Stephan, with the A7RII and that lens you could use it up to 60x90cm if not larger. Here I have them hanging like that. Usually at 5.6 though, just a bit more corner quality then. Developed with C1 and printed from Qimage Ultimate on a HP Z3200 44".


Good to know - especiall from a long term user of the Sekor 2.8/35mm! Thanks to your inputs I kept my eyes open, looking for that little wonderlens, and finally found both versions - thanks agani!

S


PostPosted: Mon Oct 02, 2023 4:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Nice going with the night images.

I usually quit beyond 1/30th. I've successfully done 1/15th~ with braced elbows, but it takes a bit of doing.

-D.S.


PostPosted: Mon Oct 02, 2023 5:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Ernst Dinkla wrote:
"Stopped down to f4 even subjects with lots of detail look really good. I could use this image even for a large scale (40 x 60 cm) calender!"

Stephan, with the A7RII and that lens you could use it up to 60x90cm if not larger. Here I have them hanging like that. Usually at 5.6 though, just a bit more corner quality then. Developed with C1 and printed from Qimage Ultimate on a HP Z3200 44".

Phone shots probably do it no justice.





Awesome 👍


PostPosted: Mon Oct 02, 2023 5:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Doc Sharptail wrote:
Nice going with the night images.

I usually quit beyond 1/30th. I've successfully done 1/15th~ with braced elbows, but it takes a bit of doing.

-D.S.


All Sony/Minolta DSLRs (starting with Dynax / Alpha 7D in 2004) as well as nearly all Sony FF mirrorless have in-body image stabilisation.
No way I could get sharp images at 1/8s without IS!

In fact I have published calendar images (40x60 cm) which were taken handhald at 1/3s. Why? Photography and publication of photos taken inside Vatican churches & museums is allowed, as long as you don't need a tripod. Only exception is the Sistine Chapel with Michelangelos frescoes. In 1980, The Japanese Nippon TV Network had paid a lot of money for the restoration, and they still have something to say something about imaging rights ...

S
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