Mamiya MSX/DSX 35mm Cameras and SX 85mm Lenses
Originally posted on Instagram. Notes from the repair bench, kept here as a searchable archive. View the original on Instagram
While I no longer service the Mamiya 35mm line of cameras, I seem to have accumulated a large collection of every model over the years. I am doing some summer cleaning and found these so I thought I would do a post on them as not a lot has been written on this series, the MXS/DXS/1000MXB.
Pentax came out with the Spotmatic F in 1973 which offered full aperture metering on an M42 screw mount body ( I think the Olympus FTL might have been the first for full aperture metering on M42 mount although with limited lens choices).
Mamiya introduced the DSX500 in December of 1973 followed by the MSX series a month later, both with full aperture metering on M42 screw mount lenses. In late 1975, Mamiya also produced the 1000MX and MXB for Sears, based on the same body.
While the MSX/DSX series was not that exciting, being basically a 500/1000 TL camera with reworking for the full aperture metering, Mamiya introduced the SX series of lenses with this camera and produced their first and only 85mm lens in screw mount.
The photo shows a MSX1000 from 1975 of which Mamiya produced around a total of about 50,000. The body on the right was made on this same platform for Sears and was named the 1000MXB and was produced in a quantity of around 10,000. The lens is a Auto Sears/Sekor 55mm f/1.4, same as the SX Mamiya lens.
What is interesting are the two M42 SX 85mm lenses in the foreground. The lens on the right, the 85mm f/2.8 from 1974, may have multicoating judjing from the reflections that I see. And it looks like Mamiya doubled down on 85mm lenses that year and produced the lens on the left, an 85mm f/1.7. Both lenses are a bit uncommon to find these days as I don’t imagine they sold a lot of them. Or even produced many. At least in the U.S. neither of these lenses was shown in the Mamiya dealer catalog of 1974 when the SX series of lenses was introduced.
