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Thambar


jbl

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I agree that using these lenses is fun but the problem is it tends to look like a cheap photoshop trick.

 

Well... Not to insist on the exclusive pleasure to use a Thambar...but when you mount the spot filter, keep the diaphragm wide open or next to, and have a proper background (lighted, and with many details) you get some out-of-focus effects that imho are not reproducible in photoshop... Something like the OOF of catadioptric teles (i even posted an example here, time ago...):o

(http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/leica-collectors-historica/183711-old-thambar-f-9-cm-1-a.html - post #15)

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Thanks! Any tips on using this lens? I've just started, but I really like it, I'm just not very good with it yet. I have the center spot filter (which I haven't used other than in a quick test). I also made my own with a black dot on a regular filter so I could get a lens caps on it. I've been forcing yourself to use it this weekend but haven't gotten a lot of shooting done.

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Oh and does anyone know why it's not click stopped and why the aperture dial turns the opposite direction? Was it just the way things worked back then? Do you know anything about why the aperture scale is different? I read it was the Continental system but I haven't been able to find much on that.

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I do not know why the Thambar's controls are so contrary but I am willing to begin a conspiracy theory. You see, motion picture people are so more far demanding than single- frame idiots like me, and maybe you (brother). Motion picture lenses have no click-stops, and they try to standardize the direction which lenses turn from close to infinity.

 

Maybe (just maybe) the Thambar was Leica's early excursion to enter motion-pictures.

 

Total speculation, of course I HAVE NEVER SEEN A THAMBAR IMAGE THAT EVINCED PROPER SOFT FOCUS.

 

Oh, did I shout? I am deaf. It happens.

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Oh and does anyone know why it's not click stopped and why the aperture dial turns the opposite direction? Was it just the way things worked back then? Do you know anything about why the aperture scale is different? I read it was the Continental system but I haven't been able to find much on that.

 

Well... The diaphragm with click stops was introduced on Leitz lenses well after WWII : don't know exactly when and which lens(es) was the first... In the '50s, anyway. The so called "european" scale (... 4,5 6,3 9 12,5 18 ...) also was abandoned about in the same years...a bit earlier, I'd say... Almost all postwar lenses have the "international" scale... Elmar 35mm is a significant exception . But... what is that sounds wrong on the aperture dial ? Is as usual.... Wide open at left... Of course, if the rotating component is the ring with f/stops OR the ring with the reference point, motion is vice-versa.... Leitz used both the ways, and even changed from one to the other on the same lens (i remember this on the Summicron 90... maybe in some other, too...)

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