Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/09/24
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I was wondering if someone on the list who knows something about the construction of the long Novoflex lenses with the follow-focus grip might be able to help me with a question. About two months ago, I bought one of these used. It had a Canon FD mount on it, marked "CANA". The mounts are supposed to be interchangeable. I contacted Calumet, the Novoflex distributors in the United States. After some number of faxes back and forth between them and the factory in Germany, for which I had to privide them various numbers and so on that were on the lens, they settled on a part, the LEA-R adapter ring, and I ordered it. Now, what I am able to remove from the mount end of the follow-focus grip is a rather complicated little tube about 2.5" (6.35 cm) long. It includes at one end the part marked CANA, with the Canon FD mount, which is attached by some means I cannot quite determine (but see below) to the main body of the tube. This main body consists of two parts attached so that one can rotate 90 degrees about the axis of the lens, with detents at each extreme, so that the camera body can easily be rotated from portrait to landscape orientation on the follow-focus grip. The other end of the tube has a bayonet mount with ring for fitting the tube to the follow-focus grip. Two months after I ordered it, my LEA-R adapter ring has arrived. It is a smaller piece than the tube I described above; it looks like it might replace only the part marked CANA. At one end of the LEA-R adapter is a Leica R bayonet mount, and at the other end is another bayonet mount, this one with a cut out of one of the bayonet lugs, at the inside of the tube, parallel with the axis of the lens. Unfortunately, I can see no way to remove the CANA adapter from the rotating tube I described earlier, and the adapter came from Novoflex without any instructions. I can't tell whether in fact I have been shipped the wrong part, one which will not fit my lens, or whether it can be fitted by some means not known to me. I can only see one possibility for this to be the right part. The cut I mentioned earlier in one of the bayonet lugs seems to also be present in the CANA part: it can be seen on the inside of the tube. A small stainless-steel pin is visible in it. If this pin is spring-loaded, then possibly it can be withdrawn and the CANA can be rotated and released from the rest of the tube. Unfortunately, I see no evidence that the pin can be withdrawn unless some relief remains between it and the end of the cut on the bayonet lug, in which case I might be able to construct a tool with which to pull it down -- if it is spring-loaded. I don't see any evidence that the pin can be withdrawn in any other way. Anybody on the list have any idea what's going on here? I would be very grateful for suggestions. -Patrick Sobalvarro