Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/02/02
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]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!