visoflex-novice in macroland

[chris_tribble]

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Jaap - could you post a picture of your adaptation? I'd be interested to see...

[ldhrads]

Don't want to repost here, but in the nature photo forum is a series of M9+Visoflex photos, included are shots with Telyt 280, Noctilux 0.95, and Schneider 100 enlarging lens on Bellows.

 

Enjoy!

[jaapv]

Post 65 in this thread, Chris.

It was one I had lying about from Megaperls,I thought it was a Nikon one but I went to the Japan Exposures site just now and it must have been the Epson RD1 one. I am convinced the Brightscreen Leica R magnifier could be adapted as well.

Anyway, I sent my Visoflex to Will van Manen and he fitted the magniier within a week and for a very reasonable price

[chris_tribble]

Jaap - stupid of me. Looks like the megaperls would be an easy solution. This makes it easier to get hold of.

 

Many thanks! I'll discuss with Malcolm.

[ldhrads]

Question here,

This is the original shot I took with the Bellows and an old schneider enlarging lens 100 mm. Am I correct to assume that the incredible lack of contrast is due to the lens and decay of the coatings? On inspection there is no visible haze etc.. I was excited to use this lens, but a lot of PP needs to go into getting a nice photo. The histogram is tall and narrow!

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[jaapv]

It looks like a classic example of veiling flare. Schneider never envisaged an enlarger lens as an image taking instrument, so the lens configuration and coating will not be designed to withstand flare. Try the lens in another lighting situation.

[germanlaws]

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There is a Visoflex-Community here in this forum. Maybe you´ll find there more help and interesting Fotos (some of them are mine ).

 

Dieter

[ldhrads]

Point me in the direction of that community, I cannot find it!

[pop]

see here? http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/groups/visoflex.html

[germanlaws]

Thx pop, that' what I mean.

 

Lg

 

Dieter

[chris_tribble]

A small update. Just received a second chimney finder from the States and was delighted to find that it had a mint Viso 2 attached to it - so it ended up excellent value! I now feel less pissed off about having had to pay VAT on import to the UK..

 

I've now had time to have a play and thought I'd see how it worked hand held. All the shots below are with the 90 Apo-Summicron - most at f4, with one at f2. I'm hugely impressed, Given that this was without the bellows - just the 90 attached directly, it seems that this is much better value way of getting macro functionality without going to the expense of buying the current dedicated offering. As I've already got a fine 90mm lens, around £120 gives me a highly portable field usable macro set up - with the big tripod and bellows sitting at home in case I need to get up close and personal. Can't be bad!

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[Peter H]

Chris, do you literally just attach the 90 to the Viso, and the Viso to the camera, without any adapters or any other fiddling about?

 

I'm impressed with the photos, by the way. Which may well lead me to buy a Visoflex, but I'm reluctant to get caught up in a war of attrition while I wait for this part, then that part, to become available. But If this simple set-up works so well, I'm in!

[Doc Henry]

A small update. Just received a second chimney finder from the States and was delighted to find that it had a mint Viso 2 attached to it - so it ended up excellent value! I now feel less pissed off about having had to pay VAT on import to the UK..

 

I've now had time to have a play and thought I'd see how it worked hand held. All the shots below are with the 90 Apo-Summicron - most at f4, with one at f2. I'm hugely impressed, Given that this was without the bellows - just the 90 attached directly, it seems that this is much better value way of getting macro functionality without going to the expense of buying the current dedicated offering. As I've already got a fine 90mm lens, around £120 gives me a highly portable field usable macro set up - with the big tripod and bellows sitting at home in case I need to get up close and personal. Can't be bad!

 

Chris,

Very nice macro shots

I called Leica strore Vienna today

They sell Viso III

They told me that the last Apo Summicron 90 and the last ApoTelyt 135 do not work on viso III.Contrary to the "older" lens which only go with Viso III

 

And then I see that it works , I do not understand

did you put an adapter on it on male side and female side ?

How do you measure the exposure and focus as clear ?

Thanks

Henry

[chris_tribble]

Chris, do you literally just attach the 90 to the Viso, and the Viso to the camera, without any adapters or any other fiddling about?

 

I'm impressed with the photos, by the way. Which may well lead me to buy a Visoflex, but I'm reluctant to get caught up in a war of attrition while I wait for this part, then that part, to become available. But If this simple set-up works so well, I'm in!

 

Direct attachment. One side of the Viso direct to the body, the other bayonet's directly to the lens. You can then focus using the lens focus ring (distance scales don't mean anything though.

 

With Viso 2, the shutter release arm does not engage correctly with the shutter release on the M9 body, so you simply flick it forward out of the way, drop the mirror with the little chrome lever, focus, lift the mirror with the arm, and then shoot. With moving objects it's not quite a "decisive moment" process, but for the work I want to do it's fine.

 

BTW - Malcolm Taylor advises that the arms specially made for the Viso 2 to go on the M5 do the job for the M8/M9... He think he can set me up with one. My "simple" rig looks like this:

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[pop]

You can attach any M lens to the Visoflex III, in principle. Its front is just an M type bayonet. The Visoflex then acts as an extension tube - as far as the image taken is concerned.

 

There are a few situations which may make that impractical:

 

- lens protrudes too deeply into the mirror box,

- correction of lens not suited to very short object distance (or long image distance); that includes all floating lens designs,

- depth of Visoflex (i.e. length of extension) too long or too short for desired scale.

[chris_tribble]

Chris,

Very nice macro shots

I called Leica strore Vienna today

They sell Viso III

They told me that the last Apo Summicron 90 and the last ApoTelyt 135 do not work on viso III.Contrary to the "older" lens which only go with Viso III

 

And then I see that it works , I do not understand

did you put an adapter on it on male side and female side ?

How do you measure the exposure and focus as clear ?

Thanks

Henry

Henry - they're talking nonsense. Both the modern Apo-summicron 90 and Apo Telyt work perfectly on Viso 2 and I see no reason why they shouldn't work on Viso 3. Obviously, they won't focus to infinity, but for macro, that's not an issue.

 

Do older and wiser heads have any comment?

 

re focus, all I did was to adjust the eyepiece to suit me (a reason why I like the chimney finder) and then focus on the ground glass screen. It's easy and very very accurate in my experience.

 

Best

[chris_tribble]

- correction of lens not suited to very short object distance (or long image distance); that includes all floating lens designs,

 

Is this maybe what the Leica shop people were thinking about? I don't see how it applies to the modern 90 Cron and 135 3.5 - they work perfectly so far as I can see. I used ISO 800 for the shots here - no problem on the M9 - if you want to stop down more, you might need to add light (I could imagine a small LED battery driven lightbox working ok)

[k-hawinkler]

Those folks must have had infinity focusing in mind with their statement.

Indeed with older lens heads and shorter focus mount one can focus to infinity.

Obviously, that's unimportant for Chris' application.

 

K-H.

[chris_tribble]

K-H - thanks. I think this clarifies things. Certainly, if what you want is MACRO then either Viso 2 + Vertical finder, or Viso III with 90 prism or Vertical will work well. I went for the Viso 2 + vertical as for most applications it felt easier being above the camera + I was advised that the mirror alignment on the Viso 2 is simpler and less prone to misalignment (though others report that this isn't a problem with Viso 3). If you're not worried about diopter adjustment on the 90 prism (or can put Jaap's adaptation idea into practice), the Viso 3 + the two finders would be a very fine option. As it is, I think Malcolm Taylor's going to fix me an adaptation to a Viso 3 prism which will do the job for me on the Viso 2.

 

Anyone fancying doing this - have fun

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Hallo,

Look here: Interesting Leica gear

[pop]

Is this maybe what the Leica shop people were thinking about? I don't see how it applies to the modern 90 Cron and 135 3.5 - they work perfectly so far as I can see. I used ISO 800 for the shots here - no problem on the M9 - if you want to stop down more, you might need to add light (I could imagine a small LED battery driven lightbox working ok)

 

Beats me. I've no idea what they mean by "working" or "not working" on a visoflex.

 

It's conceivable that those lenses are corrected for longer object distances; they would still work in close-up work but might exhibit some aberrations.

 

It's also conceivable that they mean to say that with those newer lenses the lens heads are no longer detachable, thus precluding the use of all those wonderful adapters shown on the Visoflex parts charts.