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Elmar 50/3.5 RS and Cheap Close-up


spydrxx

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I’ve love using my Elmar 50/3.5 RS for a lot of things, and have recently been using it on my micro 4/3 body. I do a lot of outdoor nature and small items found shots in my walks, and the Elmar didn’t focus close enough for what I wanted, which I often shared with my granddaughter to spark enthusiasm of what we might find in future outings together. I'm too cheap to buy a lens specifically for this use, and knew about close-up devices for various Leica & Canon ltm lenses, but they looked clumsy, cost too much, so began thinking about alternatives (initially for use on my MFT body). As I rummaged thru my “garage sale findings” box, I noticed a Photar +1 diopter in a series VI size. I didn’t have any series VI adapters which could slip onto the Elmar. I did, however have the base of a Fison, which had 39mm screw-in capabilities on the forward edge of the clamping part, so I looked for a cheap adapter ring on the big auction and found a cheap 39mm→Series VI one. Fit everything together and tested it out with some small items found years ago near archeological sites. After viewing the results, now I’ll make a small framing device to use it on my Leica bodies as well as the MFT.

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Well... Elmar had its own set of close focus lenses : ELPRO ELPIK ELPET, rather easy to find and not costly (but often dirty for age).

Personally, I have Always disliked someway the additional close focus lenses... in case you have an adapter for M lenses on your m43 camera, you could also use the fine OUFRO ring as a distancer (BM adapter on Elmar, of course) : on my M240 I consider it my "carry Always" close distance accessory....

Anyway, tahnks for the pic : an old Elmar on a modern digital is Always nice to see :)

Edited by luigi bertolotti
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Luigi - thanks for the comments...I wasn't sure I put the post in the right forum, as it is an LTM lens, but not exactly a collector issue either. In the old days, I occasionally used "auxiliary" close up lenses & devices...but I never was thrilled with the setup nor the results. I have extension rings for most of my non-Leica lenses, but whenever I encountered Leica ones at sales I always took a pass. My experiment, above, was mostly triggered by my going thru stuff which had accumulated from garage sales and I was planning to sell what I couldn't use, when the idea came to me to see if I could put something together for less that $5 which would slip in my bag and require no extension factors. I was just pleased that the little old Elmar could do such a good job in a pinch. I used to rely on the 65 Elmar and Visoflex, but for my purposes, the size and weight didn't work as well as this approach.

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