Nicht immer nur Kaviar ... (English Version)

[nitroplait]

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1 hour ago, Al Brown said:

Another STASI Robot, this one was hidden in a specially modified tin watering can and photos were made through the can’s barrel (seen behind).

Robots are not exactly quiet cameras. Did they sound proof the hiding containers?

[wlaidlaw]

Presumably the STASI were buying Robots on the commercial market, as they were made in Schwelm near Köln in West Germany. I can't imagine large order from the STASI being looked on with favour, by a West German company. 

Wilson

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[wlaidlaw]

37 minutes ago, nitroplait said:

Robots are not exactly quiet cameras. Did they sound proof the hiding containers?

Lucky they were not using a Combat Graflex. Mine sounds like a large cailbre machine gun when running at the full 6 frames/sec on 70mm film. 

Wilson

[jankap]

Carl Zeiss monocular, 4 x 20mm, M.Blink16

According to the internet these monoculars were used to receive orders from the artillery staff during WW1.

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An heirloom; it should be lubricated again. Unfortunately, I have not found a way to take the eyepiece off. The glasses are very good still.

[nitroplait]

Not sure if this camera qualifies as historica?
30 years seems like yesterday when you reach my age, for most people it is more than than their adult life.

903 SWC from the local Botanical Garden loaded with Fujichrome 100F.

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[Pyrogallol]

A caviar lens. Steinheil Cassaron 40mm f3.5 on Exakta to Leica screw adaptor.

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[thomas_schertel]

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Three times Exa and a rangefinder (Gift ftom Mr. Heymel)

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yours sincerely

Thomas

[romanus53]

two early post-WW-II (West-)Berlin bellows for Kine Exakta: Paul Piesker monorail and Proflex made by Hans Sperling

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[zeitz]

For some reason I have always been intrigued by mirror lenses.  Here are some Zoomar and Kilfitt/Zoomar mirror lenses.

The first image shows a Zoomar 20 in (500mm) f5.6 Reflectar made in 1958.  While Zoomar was a US company and most of their lenses from this period were made in the US, this lens is marked made in West Germany.  The lens focuses by moving the primary mirror using a wheel turned by the index finger.  The mirror rotates as it focuses.

The second picture shows the Sport Reflectars made in the 1970s at the former Kilfitt plant in Muenchen after Frank Back bought Kilfitt and Heinz Kilfitt retired.  They all use WE series mounts.  For Leica Visoflex II/III the mount is WEVI.  The lenses would not focus to infinity on Visoflex I.  The three lenses are the 500mm f5.6 Product Code 278, 500mm f5.6 Product Code 292, and 1000mm f8 Product Code 287.  It is a bit of a mystery why there are two 500mm versions.  Zoomar advertising shows all three lenses mounted on medium format cameras.  Perhaps the first 500mm lens vignetted a bit too much; the second version does not have a retractable lens hood, uses gelatin filters and has slightly larger rear optics.  The 500mm lenses have racks to move the primary mirror for focusing.  The 1000mm has a lever to move the primary mirror for focusing.  The mirrors no longer rotate.

The leftmost 500mm lens is shown mounted on a Visoflex III modified by Norm Goldberg at Camcraft in Madison WI.  It uses a slit prism instead of a mirror and is referred to by Norm as the Camcraft Z Housing.  The rightmost 500mm lens is shown mounted on a Visoflex III modified by Norm using a pellicle mirror.  It is sometimes referred to as a Camcraft Z2 Housing.  These reflex housings were a companion to Norm's motor drive to eliminate a mirror coupling to the camera or motor.

The third picture show the other side of the 1000mm lens.  The M2 has the Goldberg motor drive, now manufactured by E. Leitz NY.  The mirror movement is connected to the motor trigger by a micro switch.  I don't know who modified this Visoflex III.

Finally a fourth picture which shows the 500mm second version disassembled.  I bought it at a fairly cheap price knowing it had fungus.  When I got it, I found the lens also didn't focus to infinity.  Upon disassembly I found that the lens had been disassembled previously to clean the fungus, but had been disassembled / assembled incorrectly resulting in damage to the collector plate carrier and improper positioning of the carrier that prevented infinity focus.  The damaged was caused by set screws that are normally hidden by a black sealant.  The lens is back together and working properly now.  There is permanent fungus damage to the lens coating unfortunately.

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[thomas_schertel]

Plaubel Peco Universal III with Apo Germi ar 9/360 mm in a large Compound shutter

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yours sincerely
Thomas

[Pyrogallol]

Three Kodak Baby Hawkeye cameras, all different, one with a film still inside. The mint one has the original Kodak posting box, interestingly with King George 5th and 6th stamps both with Kodak Ltd perfins. Cannot read the postmarks but they would likely be 1937/38. I understand these cameras were cheap ones you would buy with vouchers through the newspapers. They were free from my dealers junk box when he was closing down.

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Edited November 20, 2022 by Pyrogallol

[zeitz]

Forum readers seemed to find my posting # 829 on this thread interesting. So I prepared this posting on the Zoomar 40 in (1000mm) f5.6 Reflectar. I hope the content is interesting enough to justify its length. There is very little published information on Zoomar Inc. The superb book “Kilfitt Zoomar Imageurs et Objectifs” by Patice-Herve Pont has limited information on Zoomar. The information in this post is from US sources.

 

The first attachment is the data sheet for this lens. The data sheet also includes the 60 inch f8.0 Reflectar and information on the use the Range Extender 2x with these lenses for cine and TV. Interesting things to note are: both lenses use the same cast aluminum housing, the housing is reinforced to ”avoid deformation due to sag”, a focus mechanism is optional, a filter wheel is optional, and the distance from the rear plate flange to the focal plane is 9.25 inches (235mm). An oddity is the address in Rochester, NY, instead of the normal Glen Cove, NY, address. (Another address Hollywood, CA, was also used by Zoomar.) There were eventually cast body Reflectars of 400mm f2.0 and 80 inch f11.0 that appear to use the same housing, and 80 inch f? and 100 inch f? which use a much longer cast housing. (These are in addition to the tubular body Reflectars that range from 25 inch f5.6 to at least 150 inch f25.0. The tubular 40 inch lens is f8.0.) The designer of the lenses and the owner of the company was Dr Frank Back who emigrated from Austria to the US.

These Reflectars were really meant for industrial use rather than for general photography. The lenses were hermetically sealed, filled with nitrogen and had an integral desiccant container. Typical users were television, flight test range instrumentation and military targeting systems. The lenses were designed to be exposed to weather for long periods of time. I don't remember seeing a price for the cast housing lenses, but the prices in 1959 were $600.00 for the internal focus mechanism and $250.00 for the filter wheel. An M3 body was $270 in 1959.

Note the 9.25 inch / 235mm distance between the rear of the lens and the focal plane. It was Dr Back's intention that this distance be long so that almost any camera or other device could be used. Even with the focusing device and the filter wheel there is plenty of room for a reflex housing for use on rangefinder cameras, which Zoomar referred to as “blind cameras”.

The second attachment is a photo of the lens I own, bought off E-Bay. The first thing that stands out is the NBC (National Broadcasting Company) television logo. This lens was originally owned by NBC. You may be able to read the serial number 64003. A “full” Zoomar serial number would be 40-64003. The serial number means the focal length is 40 inches, the lens was made in 1964 and the lens was the third lens of any type made by Zoomar in 1964. The focal length is not always included in Zoomar serial numbers. You can just see the round black ball on the top of the focus handle and the filter wheel. A Visoflex I is mounted with an M2. (A better approach would be to remove the focus section and mounting tube and use a bellows for focusing because the lens by itself only focuses to 450 feet.) You might also see some small holes, one filled with a set screw, that could be used to mount accessories. I also included in the picture a 1.5x Range Extender as mentioned in the data sheet. This Range Extender is C-mount for movie cameras. I don't know if Range Extenders were made with other movie or television camera mounts.

The lens came with a huge case, a mount for an RCA TK-41 TV camera and a stout bridge to help rigidly mount the lens to the TV camera. There are a few shipping stickers on the case. An old sticker of particular interest shows the lens was shipped to the Cow Palace on Geneva Avenue in Dale City, CA. This is a suburb of San Francisco. For those who don't know about the Cow Palace, it is a convention center with a larger auditorium. The facilities were originally meant to accommodate agricultural shows which resulted in the name Cow Palace. There were two notable events at the Cow Palace in 1964. In May Rev Martin Luther King addressed the Interfaith Human Dignity rally. In July the Cow Palace hosted the Republican Party national convention which included another address by Rev King. It is plausible that this lens was used for these events.

When I got the lens, I noticed it had a small amount of fungus. So it had to be opened and cleaned. (How can a hermetically sealed lens, filled with nitrogen, and having an integral desiccant container get fungus?) I found that the black ring on the rear of the lens slipped off. But underneath it was a waxy cellophane tape which is part of the weather sealing. I didn't want to go any further without assembly information. Some of the archives of Zoomar Inc are held by the Special Collections section of the University of Rochester. I made a trip to Rochester to visit the George Eastman House and to search the Zoomar archives.

The third attachment is the assembly drawing for the rear section lens that I found in the archives. Even though the tape is not in the drawing, it was clear that the sealing tape had to be removed, and I would then find screws for further disassembly.

The last photo is a picture of the lens separated into two sections. All traces of the fungus were removed using the normal hydrogen peroxide and ammonia mix.

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[Ambro51]

You don’t hear too much about early home movie cameras, so here’s one of the very first.  The 1923 Kodak Cine Model A is a strongly built all metal 16mm hand crank camera.  It was the very last camera that George Eastman was personally involved with the concept and design.  I’ve shot this this camera, and it works very well.  On YouTube “first roll of film Kodak Cine A” shows this test roll.   Heavy...it was sold as part of a complete kit   , Camera, Tripod, Projector and movie screen.  This was $400 in 1923!    ••••• With This Cameras introduction, “Safety” 16mm film was now standard.  No one wanted “home” Nitrate film catastrophes!•••••  the two screws off to the side of the crank were to allow the addition of an electric motor to crank the camera.  Early dry cell batteries provided the power.  Soon after introduction, it was realized that often the person cranking would rather be in the picture.  Also, difficulties arose from people cranking too fast or too slow.  Many times those filming an action scene would “speed up” the cranking.....only to find out later that this slowed down the action!  Today, best bet with hand crank is to crank to the beat of the “Addams Family” theme song!  (They’re creepy and there’re spooky, they’re all together ooky , the Addams Family...)     These cameras are RARE today.  It’s said that most fell victim to WWII scrap metal drives.

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Edited November 27, 2022 by Ambro51

[wlaidlaw]

I have two Leicina Super 8 Special cine cameras, the flagships of Leica's cine camera range. One not working (something jammed in the Maltese cross shutter mechanism?) but cosmetically perfect and another somewhat tatty but working perfectly. Ideally I would like to make one perfect one out of the two. I have the quite advanced for the period Automatic aperture Vario-Optaron 6mm to 66mm lens. Being M mount, this lens will fit on an M camera but only has a tiny image circle. Taking Super 8 cine is now a very expensive business, with each processed 50 foot cassette costing close to £100 for 2½ minutes of movie, at a somewhat inferior quality to what my iPhone SE can take, so really only for enthusiast use. The Leicinas are technically/optically very sophisticated but their competitors (Bolex, Braun-Nizo, Beaulieu, Canon, etc had mostly added sound recording, so that the Leicina Special, without sound facility, was not a big seller and was often relegated to technical/laboratory use, for which it is eminently suited, with a sophisticated interval control system available.

If I could get some 1600 ISO film, I would like to try the Leicina with both my 500mm/f8 MR-Telyt on an R to M adapter, at 6.2 crop factor equivalent to a 3100mm lens or with my Zeiss Tele-Tessar 1200mm/f16 system lens on a CX/Y to M adapter, equivalent to a 7440 mm lens, for astronomical single frame photos. 

Wilson

[Ambro51]

£100?

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Edited November 28, 2022 by Ambro51

[dkCambridgeshire]

8 hours ago, wlaidlaw said:

I have two Leicina Super 8 Special cine cameras, the flagships of Leica's cine camera range. One not working (something jammed in the Maltese cross shutter mechanism?) but cosmetically perfect and another somewhat tatty but working perfectly. Ideally I would like to make one perfect one out of the two. I have the quite advanced for the period Automatic aperture Vario-Optaron 6mm to 66mm lens. Being M mount, this lens will fit on an M camera but only has a tiny image circle. Taking Super 8 cine is now a very expensive business, with each processed 50 foot cassette costing close to £100 for 2½ minutes of movie, at a somewhat inferior quality to what my iPhone SE can take, so really only for enthusiast use. The Leicinas are technically/optically very sophisticated but their competitors (Bolex, Braun-Nizo, Beaulieu, Canon, etc had mostly added sound recording, so that the Leicina Special, without sound facility, was not a big seller and was often relegated to technical/laboratory use, for which it is eminently suited, with a sophisticated interval control system available.

If I could get some 1600 ISO film, I would like to try the Leicina with both my 500mm/f8 MR-Telyt on an R to M adapter, at 6.2 crop factor equivalent to a 3100mm lens or with my Zeiss Tele-Tessar 1200mm/f16 system lens on a CX/Y to M adapter, equivalent to a 7440 mm lens, for astronomical single frame photos. 

Wilson

Wilson, The Vario-Optaron 6-66mm would likely adapt fairly easily to any Nikon 1 camera all of which have. 2.7x crop factor (1" sensor). The Nikon 1 J5 has the best sensor but it does not have an EVF. On my J5 I use a Zacuto optical finder on the J5 monitor.   I have tried an 800mm mirror lens on my J5 – 2160mm FF equivalent. Very difficult to focus accurately and I would not attempt again. BW, dunk 

[Al Brown]

An article I wrote recently on Kilfitt, the father of Robot and the first macro lens.

NEWS FROM VADUZ

Remember Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 classic Rear Window, the mother of all suspense films? The super long lens James Stewart is using in the iconic movie scene on his Exakta VX is a Kilfitt Fern-Kilar 400/5.6. 

KILL-WHAT?
Heinz Kilfitt was born in Germany in 1898. He spent his early youth repairing watches and became famous designing the spring motor "Robot" cameras with a design that shocked the competition - even the folks at Leica.

The Kilfitt Company started in Munich, Germany in 1941 but in 1947 he founded the company Kamerabau-Anstalt-Vaduz in Liechtenstein, where they developed THE WORLD’S FIRST 1:1 MACRO LENS, the Kilfitt Makro-Kilar 3.5/40mm in 1955. There was no need for the bellows anymore - you could go from infinity to true macro just by rotating the lens barrel, almost 360 degrees.

His firm Kilfitt München (which employed more than 100 people) was also known for the innovative series of telephoto, and macro zoom (!) lenses from the 1950s and 1960s. Kilfitt was in 1959 even contracted to manufacture the groundbreaking 1960 Zoomar 36-82mm lens for Voigtländer - the world's FIRST PRODUCTION ZOOM for 35mm still cameras. It was  originally made in Voigtlander Bessamatic mount, produced in the Munich Kilfitt factory -- as were most Zoomars up until 1971.  These lenses later got INTERCHANGEABLE LENS MOUNTS as a novel idea for the many cameras available. According to some sources Zoomar ended commercial production in favor of US military in 1986.

Not only did Heinz Kilfitt make and TEST every lens before it left the factory, he also designed cameras as mentioned earlier.  Robot (1934, sold patent to Hans-Heinrich Berning), Mecaflex (in cooperation with METZ) and the Kowa Six are all his designs. He was known (but not known enough) around the world, even in Hollywood’s dream factories - there was even an Arriflex mount for his lenses and Stanley Kubrick was a fan of his 90/2.8 Makro-Kilar.

When Kilfitt retired in late sixties, he sold his factory to Dr. Frank Gerhard Back with the new Zoomar headquarters in Glen Cove, Long Island (NY). He died in 1980.

[wlaidlaw]

7 hours ago, Ambro51 said:

£100?

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In the UK a cassette of Ektachrome 100D is around £70. You will pay around £25 to 30 for processing and a reel. 

Wilson

[wlaidlaw]

5 hours ago, dkCambridgeshire said:

Wilson, The Vario-Optaron 6-66mm would likely adapt fairly easily to any Nikon 1 camera all of which have. 2.7x crop factor (1" sensor). The Nikon 1 J5 has the best sensor but it does not have an EVF. On my J5 I use a Zacuto optical finder on the J5 monitor.   I have tried an 800mm mirror lens on my J5 – 2160mm FF equivalent. Very difficult to focus accurately and I would not attempt again. BW, dunk 

Dunk, 

I think if I want to take Video, I would dust off my M240 or SL but it has never been a format that really appealed to me. I really just got the Leicina Special to complete my collection of some 35 Leica cameras and 50 lenses. I also have a 1960's Leica SL binocular microscope, a Televid 77 telescope, a Disto laser measuring device and two sets of 10x 25 binoculars (a Trinvoid in France and Ultravid in the UK). I have this obsession about my collection, that all the items must be working as near as possible to  how they did, when they came out of the factory.

I got conned on the first Leicina Special I bought from a German Trade seller, who said it just needed batteries and made some footling excuse about not having any. It cost £600 and the shutter was jammed. In the end eBay negotiated a £300 refund. I then bought a known working one with the thought of transferring the innards into the broken one but have never got round to it. 

That reminds me I must phone Malcolm Taylor today as he has now had my 250FF for 4 years. I am going to have to get quite firm with him and get an agreed, no extensions, no excuses, deadline for completion. When I spoke to him last year, he said it was nearly finished, just the shutter and finally reassembly to do. Well the shutter was working but was too fast, so that should not be a huge job, taking a year. 

Wilson

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Hallo,

Look here: Interesting Leica gear

[williamj]

Maybe not caviar but certainly my first and much loved camera, a battered Minolta SRT100b. It suffered the insults shown below before I bought it and despite looking like it had been trashed it worked fine until I moved on. I would have stayed with Minolta but they changed the lens mount in going to autofocus and there's no point in getting to know autofocus if you're eventually, some time in the distant future, going to get a Leica ;).

I've looked through all, at this point, 42 pages of this thread and although there are many fascinating and unusual cameras displayed, the number of Minolta cameras is vanishingly small. I know I'm a newbee to this forum, not as a reader (I've read the content via google for at least a decade) but as a member and contributor, but if you'll allow me to say, as a comment and not a criticism, this is interesting and perhaps even ironic given the importance of Minolta to the Leica story starting in the 1970s .

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