Novoflex 400/5.6 user report

[pgs@thillana.lcs.mit.edu (Patrick Sobalvarro)]

Last summer I bought a nice Novoflex 400/5.6.  It came with a Canon FD
mount, but I called up Calumet (the Novoflex distributors in the U.S.)
and ordered what they claimed was the right part.  It actually took
some time, because they had to send a fax to the factory to determine
the right part, and then order it for me.  When it finally arrived, I
couldn't figure out how to change the mount.  I could take the lens
apart at several points, but not where the mount should go.  I
appealed to people on the leica-users list, one of whom was nice
enough to offer me advice, except it turned out his lens was a
different version than mine and came apart in a different place.  I
finally took pictures of the lens and mount and sent them to Novoflex
in Germany, using an address that Marc Small kindly provided me, and
asked that they mark the pictures to show where the lens disassembles.

Novoflex in Germany responded fairly promptly, sending me a marked-up
picture that showed that what I had thought was a limit stop was in
fact not, and so I was able to put the Leica mount on the lens.  A
week or two ago I went up to a nature reservation near here and used
the lens.  I've just gotten my transparencies back, with generally
positive results.

The lens is slightly less contrasty than my Leica lenses.  At f/5.6, I
think I detect a bit more softness at the edges of the field, but it's
hard to tell, because I was taking pictures of birds and distant
landscape elements.  The center is clear and sharp.  The reduction in
contrast by comparison with Leica lenses isn't major, and it's also
not objectionable with color transparency film used outdoors.

A couple of notes on use.  When I took photographs of birds, it was
getting on for evening, and I was shooting Kodachrome 64, which does
not combine so very well with a slow 400mm lens.  The bottom of the
follow-focus grip is threaded for a tripod screw.  I mounted it on a
tripod, and it balanced nicely with my R6, but this strikes me as a
non-optimal way to mount an arrangment like this -- too long an arm
from the tripod to the lens.  Then I used mirror prefire and cable
releases, and speeds of about 1/15 and 1/30 sec to get some
photographs of male red-winged blackbirds displaying their wings
(mating displays?  I'm not a birder; I just thought the tan-colored
reeds made a nice contrast with the black, red, and yellow of the
birds' wings) in the reeds next to a pond.  Surprisingly, the results
are reasonably sharp, except where the birds were moving.  So I would
use the tripod screw in the bottom of the handle again, although I
really would be more comfortable if there were a way to clamp the lens
to a tripod.

I would not use ISO 64 film with this lens again, however.  The
follow-focus grip is easy to use, and the arrangement feels good in
the hand.  It would really be much more comfortable to be using faster
film and shooting hand-held with this lens, I think.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with this lens.  It's quite well-made,
all metal, in near-mint shape, and was quite inexpensive.  I can
certainly recommend it to people looking for a long lens for a Leica
at a reasonable price.

- -Patrick