Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Does anyone know when the infrared marks on Leitz/Leica lenses were not used anymore? I am checking my own lenses:

Hektor 13,5 cm (1956): yes; Elmar 135 mm (1962): no

Elmar 9 cm (1937): yes; Elmar 9 cm (1952): yes; Elmar 9 cm collapsible (1954): yes; Elmar 90mm (1962, new version or II): no

Summicron 50mm II (1960): no; Summicron 50mm III (1968): no

Summitar 50mm (1948): yes

Summar 5 cm (1937): yes

Elmar 5 cm (1939): yes

None of my 3,5cm/35mm lenses has the R-mark

Best, Lex

Link to post
Share on other sites

Lex, vor ein paar Jahren habe ich mich mit Varianten von 5cm Elmar beschäftigt und damals fand ich, dass ab cca 1934 Infrarot Markierung angebracht war und ist auch bei den Elmaren aus Ende 50-gen vorhanden. Ich gehe davon aus, dass auch andere Objektive ab 1934 die R Marke bekamen. 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Maybe around 1956  - # 1.4xx.xxx ? Some of my personal items in that area are :

- Elmar 90 collapsible 1188412 : yes

- Elmar 50 RS 1243011 : yes

- Elmar 90 E39 filter, BM 1335403 : yes

- Elmar 90 A36 filter, SM 1409234 : no

- Summaron 35 M3 1555464 : no

- Summicron 90 SM 1681650 : no

... and I'd bet (didn't check all... too many 😎) that there is no R mark on any newer lenses... even in the ones with "critical" focusing like the 200 f4 (while is there in my old  200 4,5 ) or the 280 4,8 (while is there on my old 400 f5)

Probably it's even harder to define when they started to add the R index in the '30s ... No mark on my unnumbered fat Elmar 90  and my 5-digits Elmar 50 - no mark also on my Hektor 7,3 129.006... but the unnumbered Elmar 135 4,5 has the R...  as well as my Hektor 50 178256 and Alpine Elmar 300282 (but no IR mark on the Hektor 28 274691...)

 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

sorry for my previous response in German language. 
When analyzing Elmars 5cm few years ago I found that R mark appeared early 1934, I assume that all lenses had it then.
Fast check of my newer lenses shows that R mark disappeared again around 1956/57, as Luigi wrote.

It is not u nusualk to find R mark on unnumbered lenses - many of them have been converted  (fixed Elmar/Hektor to interchangeable, adding rangfinder coupling, standartizing) so scale with R mark could have been added during conversion

Link to post
Share on other sites

Advertisement (gone after registration)

1 hour ago, jerzy said:

 

It is not u nusualk to find R mark on unnumbered lenses - many of them have been converted  (fixed Elmar/Hektor to interchangeable, adding rangfinder coupling, standartizing) so scale with R mark could have been added during conversion

And infact my unnumbered Elmar 135 (with R mark) looks to be a standard-uncoupled upgraded to coupled. 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks, this is interesting. I forgot to mention my Summarit 1.5/5 cm (1953) does have the R mark. So the R mark seems to appear in 1934 and disappears again around 1956/57. Now it would be interesting to know why the R mark was added in 1934, and why the apparent interest on the part of the users seems to have faded away around 1956/57.

Lex

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

29 minutes ago, sandro said:

...it would be interesting to know why the R mark was added in 1934, and why the apparent interest on the part of the users seems to have faded away around 1956/57...

No idea as to why it was dropped but the introduction is fairly simple to explain (I quote from Wiki);

"Infrared photography became popular with photography enthusiasts in the 1930s when suitable film was introduced commercially."

Having just checked some lenses the odd-one-out in terms of what has been discussed so far is that my first-series 35mm f3.5 Summaron (in M mount) from 1954 does not have an IR mark. Perhaps, though, this is down to the already quite overcrowded nature of the D-o-F markings on the lens not allowing sufficient space for such an IR marking to be engraved?

Philip.

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Without wishing to go too far off-topic...

IMX the positioning of the IR mark can change for each different focal-length of lens and often for each different optical design. I suppose this makes perfect sense?

From the brief but informative tests I carried-out last year (although with Deep Red 4X filters and not true IR at all) "f4" seemed to be a common 'happy place' for a number of lenses but there were some particularly notable exceptions such as the 21mm f4 Super-Angulon which required 50% less adjustment that anything else.

Philip.

EDIT : OK; I know it's been posted before but I suppose it might be of help here, too? Post #8 for some rough'n'ready examples shown at 150% magnification;

https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/313352-monochrom-type-i-and-color-filters/?tab=comments#comment-4047525

Edited by pippy
Link to post
Share on other sites

47 minutes ago, pippy said:

Without wishing to go too far off-topic...

IMX the positioning of the IR mark can change for each different focal-length of lens and often for each different optical design. I suppose this makes perfect sense?

From the brief but informative tests I carried-out last year (although with Deep Red 4X filters and not true IR at all) "f4" seemed to be a common 'happy place' for a number of lenses but there were some particularly notable exceptions such as the 21mm f4 Super-Angulon which required 50% less adjustment that anything else.

Philip.

EDIT : OK; I know it's been posted before but I suppose it might be of help here, too? Post #8 for some rough'n'ready examples shown at 150% magnification;

https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/313352-monochrom-type-i-and-color-filters/?tab=comments#comment-4047525

f/4 in IR on 35 mm film or sensor plane corresponds to about f/5.6 in IR light. The longer wavelength of infrared provides one additional stop in depth of field. That's why shooting with f/4 on a 35 mm camera in IR light nails the focus very often even without IR mark focus adjustment. This said, the location of the IR mark depends on the focal length - it is further to the right of the regular focus mark when looking top down on the lens with wider lenses and closer to the visible light focus mark with 50 mm or tele lenses. 

To my knowledge newer Leica M lenses are built that there is a negligible difference between visible and infrared focus marks. I tested this recently with my 50/2 Summicron pre-ASPH which has no IR focus mark. The IR film photos nailed the focus wide open by not even changing it from the visible focus mark. As mentioned above, this is different with older M and LTM lenses which have the IR mark. I don't own a wide Leica M lens to run the same test that the focus doesn't need to be adjusted for IR light - it would be interesting since there the IR focus mark is in theory located further right on the scale if the lens is not designed to remediate this. 

Edited by Martin B
Link to post
Share on other sites

30 minutes ago, pippy said:

there were some particularly notable exceptions such as the 21mm f4 Super-Angulon which required 50% less adjustment that anything else

It might be worth pondering that with the fact that the marks on the f4 Super-Angulon are more optimistic than on other lens.

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

The CV 25/4 Snapshot Skopar LTM lens works excellent in IR. Taken with Leica M6, Rollei IR 400 film, and Hoya R72 filter (which stands for 720 nm cutoff). I estimated a slight focus shift and turned the focus a tiny bit clockwise to adjust for some IR focus shift (the lens also has no IR mark). The photos were taken at f/5.6 which corresponds approx. f/8 in IR light. 

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

 

 

 

The photo below was taken with the Leica 50/2 Summitar LTM lens with adapted Hoya R72 (58mm) filter. I used the IR mark on the lens to adjust for focus difference at f/2.8 or f/4

  • Like 5
Link to post
Share on other sites

Just to add some numbers:

Elmar 3.5/50 no 203935 from 1934 is the oldest in my list with IR-mark, Summicron 2/50 DR no 1465825 from 1957 is one of the last. Curiosly a 6.3/105 Elmar no 162370 from 1933 has that mark but looks also coated so it may have been modiefied at some later time; same for 4/90 Elmar no 165920 from 1933 which shos some numbers inside the barrel but not the serial number.

Link to post
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, pippy said:

 

Having just checked some lenses the odd-one-out in terms of what has been discussed so far is that my first-series 35mm f3.5 Summaron (in M mount) from 1954 does not have an IR mark. Perhaps, though, this is down to the already quite overcrowded nature of the D-o-F markings on the lens not allowing sufficient space for such an IR marking to be engraved?

Philip.

 

Also the older Summarons 3,5 (the A36 LTM) have not the mark, and neither the Hektor 2,8 cm : I think that for such focals Leitz evaluated that DOF was sufficient to ignore the IR issue.

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

In the famous Leica Handbuch by Fritz Vith I don't see mention of IR. In Morgan & Lester's Leica Manual and data book (13th edition, 1956) it is noted that all but the 28 and 35mm focal length lenses have an IR index mark. And Hans Windisch in his "Achtung-Aufnahme!". Kleinbild Jagd auf Dinge und Menschen (1st ed. 1937) mentioned that Leica recently ("neuerdings") has indicated the IR index point on lenses.

Lex

Link to post
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, luigi bertolotti said:

 

... and I'd bet (didn't check all... too many 😎) that there is no R mark on any newer lenses... even in the ones with "critical" focusing like the 200 f4 (while is there in my old  200 4,5 ) or the 280 4,8 (while is there on my old 400 f5)

my 1955 Telyt 200 f4.5 (SN 1256658) has no R mark (well I can't find one?)

but my 1951 Summitar 50 f2 (SN 846113) has one

Link to post
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, romualdo said:

my 1955 Telyt 200 f4.5 (SN 1256658) has no R mark (well I can't find one?)

but my 1951 Summitar 50 f2 (SN 846113) has one

That confirms what we discussed, that the IR marks were used between 1934 and 1956/57. My Telyt 4/200 (1963) and Telyt 4.8/280mm (1961) don't have the marks, since they date from after the moment the IR marks were not used anymore.

Lex

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, romualdo said:

my 1955 Telyt 200 f4.5 (SN 1256658) has no R mark (well I can't find one?)

 

That's curios... by chance Lager in his books displays a Telyt very close to yours (1256534) which has the R mark... in its usual location...

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...