Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/02/02

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Subject: [Leica] visoflex help
From: marcsmall at comcast.net (Marc James Small)
Date: Fri Feb 2 14:50:56 2007
References: <005d01c746a0$372dd250$6501a8c0@asus930>

At 03:00 AM 2/2/2007, G Hopkinson wrote:
 >Dear fellow Lug folk. I must again request the expert help of my
 >fellow Leica people. I will shortly have a Visoflex II body with a
 >Visoflex III eye level finder. Purportedly this will fit on my M7.
 >
 >Would you folks please tell me exactly what I need to acquire to take
 >some close up type shots? I had in mind flowers etc, perhaps
 >to 1:2 magnification?

Gosh, Hoppy.  This is an immensely complicated 
field but it can be made very simple.  Leitz 
published two brochures, one for the Visoflex II 
and IIa and another for the Visoflex III:  the 
first uses ordering codes such as OUBIO and the 
second the second order-number figures such as 14662 or whatever it was.

These brochures are readily available.  They were 
reprinted in Dennis Laney's estimable LEICA 
COLLECTOR'S GUIDE and are also available on Erwin 
Puts' Leica literature CD-ROM.  I do not have 
distribution rights in the Commonwealth of The 
Downunder but Erwin ought to be able to provide 
you with a local source.  If he agrees, I will 
cheerfully burn one for you for a minor price.

Others have suggested a Bellows II rig and I 
concur.  I own a lot of Visoflex gear (from a 
Prewar PLOOT to a complete set of IIa's and a III 
which I regularly use) and a LOT of macro lenses.  Here is my take.

The 3.5/65 Elmar comes with a Bayonet mount which 
will fit directly onto a Visoflex II, IIa, or 
III.  It has a focusing mount and does not 
require an additional adapter.  This lens is a 
grand portrait lens and works well as a low-power 
macro lens.  (Scientists get a bit touchy over 
these terms, and I am abusing them:  by "macro", 
I mean close-up in general, a rather sloppy 
usage.  See the 15th and final edition of the 
LEICA MANUAL or Wildi's books on Hasselblad for a 
discussion on the differences between macro and micro work.)

There are two versions of the 3.5/65 Elmar   The 
first is better as a normal lens, the second for 
close-up work.  Both are VERY good.

Beyond that, you can do almost anything, as Leitz 
made adapter to fit almost anything onto 
anything, though finding some of these at this 
remove is rather like my search for the proper 
camera adapter for my 1960 Swift 731 76mm 
refractor:  as Walt Disney said, "someday, my 
adapter will come", er, oh, well, he OUGHT to have said that.

The 4/9cm or 90mm Elmar had a removeable lens 
head or, that should be, all but the magnificent 
collapsible version of that lens.  This is 
probably the most satisfactory of the long-focus 
Leitz lenses for close-up work.  The 4/135 Elmar can also be so used.

A focusing adapter was also made to fit the 
lenshead from the 2.8/135 lens directly to the 
Viso. This was not a very satisfactory lens and 
my experience in using this for close-focus work 
has been spotty:  some shots are fine and others 
are weak and never the twain shall be predictable.

I do a bit of macro photography but my own 
interest is in micro work, so I tend to use those 
microscope objectives adapted to photo work, such 
as the Bausch & Lomb Micro-Tessars, the Leitz 
Micro-Summars and Milars and Photars, and the 
Zeiss Mikrotars and Luminars.  All of these 
puppies allow medium format and limited 
large-format coverage, and you've not lived until 
you've seen a medium format slide projected taken 
with one of these with, for instance, a 
Hasselblad 2000.  Talk about detail!  (I am to 
give a talk this May and my talk will be 
punctuated with such slides projected from my 
Kiev 66 slide projector, a true farm-tractor of a 
slide projector albeit one of great optical quality.)

Leitz axed the Visoflex system in 1984 and did so 
with rather brutal effect.  Effectively, anything 
made up to 1984 was just stopped and existing 
stock was sold off at remainder prices.  I know 
of one camera store which recently was hanging 
onto a second-generation 3.5/65 Elmar and which 
would not budge on the price, but they are the 
exception.  Most Viso gear was sold off at 
fire-sale prices in the middle 1980's as Zeiss 
Ikon gear had been sold the decade before. I 
missed these sales but still score Viso adapters at a lot of places.

Hoppy, consult your copy of Laney's LEITZ 
COLLECTOR'S GUIDE or of Erwin's CD.  You will 
find your answers as to what gear you need.  Now, 
as to what gear you want!  Ah, that is an entirely different tale.

If I were you, I'd be walking about on my head as 
you are an Australian.  Er, well ...

If I were you, I'd go for a 4/9cm Elmar lenshead 
and a Bellows II rig.  That should meet your 
needs quite well.  The 3.5'65 Elmar would serve 
you as well, as would the 2.8 or 4/135 lenses, 
but the 9cm Elmar is probably the way to go.  It 
is of middln' age in design but it is a very capable optic for your purposes.

Marc


msmall@aya.yale.edu
Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!



Replies: Reply from hoppyman at bigpond.net.au (G Hopkinson) ([Leica] visoflex help)
In reply to: Message from hoppyman at bigpond.net.au (G Hopkinson) ([Leica] visoflex help)