Re: [Leica] Re: Novoflex site now in English!

[Doug Herr <telyt560@cswebmail.com>]

On Tue, 11 July 2000, drodgers@nextlink.com wrote:

> 
> 
> Mark,
> 
> >>>ON the RUG someone has pointed out the Novoflex site is now in English
> which
> makes it much more usefull to some of us!.....
> 400 mm LEICA Telyt Rapid Focus Lens...
> VERY cool stuff I wonder if they can be used with a Viso?<<
> 
> I spent the last several evenings scanning and printing photographs taken
> with my older 400/5.6 Telyt, which was a predecessor to the current system
> offered by Novoflex. My Telyt is incredibly sharp. More importanly,
> contrast is extremely impressive. It's an acrhomat with only four air to
> glass surfaces.
> 
> Supposedly achromat lenes are a little soft in the corners, due to the
> simple two element design with a slightly curved plane of focus. (Perhaps
> someday they'll come out with an aspheric version to remidy this:-).
> 
> I've never noticed corner softness in my lens. It's probably due to the way
> long tele's  are normally used. The corners are rarely ever in the plane of
> focus, anyway.
> 
> The achromats are very interesting and somewhat unique lenses. At f6.8
> they're slow, but they perform well wide open. My  400/5.6 Telyt has a
> slightly different focusing mechanism than the f6.8s. Leitz only made the
> f5.6 design for 2 years. It uses the televit focusing system (at least I
> think that's the name). I read somewhere it was designed to be used with a
> Viso or an SLR. It was quite expensive to manufacture. And it's pretty
> heavy. They went to the f6.8 type mechanism because it was less expensive
> to make, and lighter. The optics are identical, but the televit allowed for
> a slightly larger aperture.
> 
> The televit is pretty interesting. You can focus the lens using only your
> thumb and the fine focusing knob. Or you can use a trigger and push/pull.
> The latter is fast, but the former is more accurate. There are also stops
> on the lens you can adjust. When I shoot baseball I set the far stop at
> second base and the near stop at home plate. Last week I photographed a
> stike out/throw out double play. I got 1) the third strike swing, 2) the
> catchers throw, and 3) the tag at second base. All three were in perfect
> focus, yet I was working with a narrow dof. Last year I tried shooting the
> same series of frames using a modern autofocus and it wasn't fast enough.
> 
> As I said in an earlier post, the Telyt 5.6 is a real conversation piece. I
> bought mine reluctantly. I had very low expectations. As it turned out it's
> a lot of fun to use, too. Best of all, it's a great performer. My only
> regret is that I don't have the shoulder stock for mine. I'd also like to
> get the 560 head to use on my televit.
> 
> Dave

Having used a Novoflex, the 400 f/5.6 w/ Televit and the f/6.8 Telyts, it is my (humble) opinion that for hand-held photos the f/6.8 Telyts are unbeatable.  One Novoflex option is a built-in bellows which can be handy when subject distances are extremely variable and may be very close (small critters come to mind).  The Novoflex can be used successfully hand-held but is much heavier than the f/6.8 Telyt so by the end of the day I needed faster shutter speeds to eliminate camera shake with the Novoflex than with the Telyt.  The 400 + Televit hand-held is (IMHO) an unwieldy package.  This may say more about me than about the Televit, but I had trouble coordinating the push-pull quick focus with the thumbwheel fine focus while supporting the lens & camera.

For tripod use, the Televit lens is easily my favorite.  The thumbwheel fine focus is very quick and easy to follow-focus with, and the push-pull quick focus with the limiters is great for snapping to known focus points.  The f/6.8 Telyts are very front-heavy on a tripod, and to hold focus at a point the Novoflex requires either forearm muscles of steel or locking the focus in place.  Locking the focus in place is a pain to unlock, requiring coordinating (there's that word again) both hands, taking one hand away from the shutter release, usually when I'm in a hurry.  Optically, Dave's said it all, except I thought the 400 f/5.6 has 2 air/glass interfaces, just like the f/6.8 Telyts.

Doug Herr
Sacramento
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/telyt
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