[Leica] Visoflex on MP (II or III, bellows or....)

[walt at waltjohnson.com (Walt Johnson)]

Mark

Certainly the Leica system makes close-ups possible. We all know and 
love the excellent Germain  (and Swedish) craftsmanship and I'd be the 
first to admit they excel. There is, however, a big difference between 
doing it for fun and doing it for money. I personally care little or 
nothing for the current crop of pro digital cameras. If I still had to 
shot for a living though I'd have whatever it took to compete. Tina and 
I had a similar discussion the other and she was right in her evaluation 
of professional needs.

In 1936 Leitz may have had the right approach to dominate the market. 
Today, Nikon and Canon are the standards used in judging results.

Walt

Marc James Small wrote:

> At 03:45 PM 10/17/2006, Walt Johnson wrote:
>
>> Ralph
>> Leicas are great for some things but close-ups aren't it  I guess it 
>> depends on what you really pursue but for getting serious about 
>> getting close Nikon wets all over the Leitz guys. Why not just throw 
>> an F3/ Micro Nikkor  in your bag for those times when $$$ talks and 
>> nostalgia is for afterward?
>>
>> Just curious
>
>
> Walt
>
> With respect, I must dissent.  The Visoflex system, from the first 
> PLOOT of 1936 to the final Visoflex III of 1984, represented an 
> elegant extension of the basic RF principle to allow it to conduct 
> close-up and really long-focus applications:  it was originally 
> intended as a scientific apparatus and as an item for 
> photo-journalists.  The Visoflex system first came out when there just 
> were not any SLR's on the market with such capabilities, and it only 
> faded when quality SLR's became available which offered similar 
> technical utility -- the Contarex was probably the best of these, but 
> even a Canon F1 had a slew of the sort of doodads necessary to make a 
> camera of use in a laboratory.
>
> The number of adapters and accessories available over the half-century 
> life of the system is simply stunning:  I have been slowly compiling a 
> master list of these for the past decade and am only part-way through 
> it -- I have to pick up a bunch of Leitz microscope catalogues as many 
> of the adapters were only sold through Leitz scientific outlets and 
> were not listed in the camera-store pricelists.  (The same is true of 
> Zeiss and Zeiss Ikon, incidentally, and some of the most useful items 
> for macrophotography, such as the Luminar lenses, were not sold 
> through Zeiss Ikon dealers but were only available from Carl Zeiss 
> scientific outlets.)
>
> The Visoflex is useful if you are not into SLR's.  I have some SLR's 
> but almost never use them, as the Leica RF is my basic camera.  Thus, 
> a Visoflex makes sense for me.  It would make far less sense for 
> someone who already has an extensive Nikon or Canon or the like SLR 
> system at hand.
>
> Macro lenses are really neat and eBay has brought a LOT of these onto 
> the market at really reasonable prices:  the days when the mystic name 
> "Luminar" demanded $500 or more of freight are days of the past -- I 
> paid $35 for one Luminar on eBay, and $75 for another.  I have a 
> complete set of Luminars, most of the Leitz Photars and Carl Zeiss 
> Jena Mikrotars, and some of the Leitz Micro-Summars and Milars, the 
> B&L Micro-Tessars, and the Staeble Katagons.  These guys are a LOT of 
> fun to use, as they are microscope objectives converted to 
> photographic uses and are optically superb, albeit they have no 
> appreciable depth of field.
>
> Thus, I can go from a 16mm Luminar which allows me a 10:1 or so 
> reproduction ratio with the Bellows II up to a 2600mm telephoto with 
> my Questar or even longer on my Celestar, albeit the latter is a bit 
> clumsy for field use!  (My personal choice is that wonderful 5/40cm 
> Telyt-V for most purposes, as this is a really grand lens.)  I 
> generally use my M6 as, yes, inbuilt metering makes macro and 
> long-focus photography a LOT easier!
>
> To be honest, I generally do macro work with a Hasselblad 2000 FCM on 
> chrome films.  There is nothing quite as dramatic as projecting a 
> medium-format slide of, say, the engraving on a lens ring or the like.
>
> For BASIC close-up work, I would recommend a Bellows II, a Viso IIa M 
> or Viso III, and a 4/9cm lenshead.  That allows decent close-ups but 
> is not a bank-buster.
>
> Marc
>
>
>
>
>
> msmall@aya.yale.edu
> Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!
>
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