Very old Leitz Elmar 50mm

[AdrianW2]

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A test roll has been shot and the results are in…

The first focusing test I did involved setting up a series of cards at 6-inch intervals and placing the camera so the film plane was measured to be exactly 6-feet away from the middle card. I then focused the rangefinder on that card and looked to see what the reading was on the Elmar’s lens scale… it was right on the 6-feet mark, not even a fraction over or under – I was pleasantly surprised.

I then set the aperture to f/3.5 and did a series of exposures. Sure enough the negatives show the writing on the “6 ft.” card to be sharper than on any of the others. Next I went out and played quite the man about town as I finished up my first Leica roll. All of the images look quite sharp.

I followed your advice Michael for one of the last shots and photographed the moon with aperture wide open. It too is sharp. In fact I think I can even see what appears to be a dusty Hasselblad on the lunar surface. But I’ll need to get a higher powered loupe to determine if the name etched on the side actually says “Armstrong”.

So, Luigi, I believe you are correct in calling this an “ex-unstandardized coupled” lens. No serial number, no infinity lock, smaller flange size, and no markings such as a “0” on the focusing arm, and yet it seems to be a perfect match for my standardized Leica II.

And Pete, don’t believe what you see. The “jagged” aperture in the photo is an optical illusion. When I stop it down the aperture remains almost perfectly circular.