Mamiya C

Name: Mamiya C
Brand: Mamiya

The Mamiya C was the first production medium-format TLR with interchangeable lenses. It was introduced in c. 1956 and aimed at professionals and serious amateurs. Each lens came mounted on its own panel that slid into the body, which made it far more flexible than the fixed-lens Rolleiflex and Rolleicord TLRs it competed against. The standard lens was an 80mm f/2.8 Mamiya-Sekor in a Seikosha-MX leaf shutter (1-1/500 sec plus B, with self-timer). Other focal lengths - 65mm, 105mm, 135mm, and 180mm - were available as separate panels. The same panels fit every later C-series body, from the C2 through the C330. That's why the panels remain plentiful today while good bodies and bellows have grown scarce.

The camera is fully manual and mechanical. Focusing is by twin knobs, one on each side for left- or right-handed use, with bellows extension rather than a rotating lens mount. Film advance is a manual knob with a red window frame counter, and there is no automatic stop. The waist-level finder has a pop-up magnifier. Owners describe it as a rugged, superb professional tool, and the 80mm lens is praised for sharpness. It is heavy, though - "a brick compared to a Rolleiflex," as one photographer put it - and counting frames through the red window is tedious by modern standards.

Little else is formally documented. No original price, body dimensions or weight appear in any of the sources reviewed, and no production end date is recorded. The C was joined by the C2 in 1958 (which added a film crank) and followed by a long line of successors through the C330. Today a working body with the 80mm lens typically sells for $100-$250. Common issues are sticking Seikosha shutters from old lubricant and deteriorated bellows that cause light leaks. Both are remediable with a CLA. Replacement bellows are reported by some as unobtainable, though a 2024 forum post claims they are available from a single seller in Japan for ~$60.