Whenever Mamiya was introducing a  new generation of 35mm SLRs, they did change the lens/camera attachment. Apart from their cameras with M42 thread mount they had at least five (!) different bayonet mounts. Therefore it was no surprise that the Mamiya ZE - introduced in 1981 - didn't keep the NC1000 / Sekor CS bayonet, but got a new one: the Sekor E baynet (later modified to the Sekor EF standard). While Sekor CS lenses could be mounted on the later Z series SLRs (albeit at an angle of 90°), most functions such as meter coupling were disabled.

The Mamiya ZE was the first and simplest of the Z series SLRs. It's only exposure mode was the classical Aperture Priority (A-mode), supplemented by a +/- 2 EV override and a rather useful "AE Lock" mode: Pushing the release button halfway down would lock the Automatic Exposure. Of course there was no multi metering, and no TTL flash metering either. There was not even a manual mode; shutter speeds could not be selected manually (that would come only with the later ZE-2 model). Nevertheless light metering was reliable and precise once you understood the system. I have been exposing countless rolls of slide films (including the rather demanding Kodachrome 25 and 64) without major problems.

The ZE was a unusally cheap SLR. In Switzerland it was sold mainly by the "Interdiscount" distributors, and a set of ZE plus Sekor E 3.5/28mm, 1.7/50mm and 3.5/135mm lenses did cost less than a Minolta X-300 body at the local photo store. This original set was sold in quite considerable quanitities, and quite soon additional Sekor E lenses were complementing the lineup. The excellent Sekor CS 3.8/80-200mm re-appeared as the Sekor E 3.8/80-200mm, and so did the corresponding CS 2.8/28mm, 2.8/35mm, 2.8/135mm and 4/300mm lenses. A new E 4/200mm would replace the earlier CS 3.5/200mm, but sadly the CS 2.8/21mm never made it as an E version. Not to mention a 24mm, a 85mm or a 100mm lens ... However, around 1984 there was a new and relatively modern series of zooms, starting with the 3.5/28-50mm and ending with the 4/80-200mm. In between there were the classical 3.5-4.5/35-70mm, a more sophisticated 3.5-4.5/35-105mm and a slim and lightweight 3.8/70-150mm.

The ZE not only was cheap, it was also quite lightweight and not that robust (to say it  mildly). I have seen several ZE and ZE-2 bodies with broken flash hotshoes, and many ZE cameras these days have major flaws - if their shutter is firing at all!