Experiment - 1960 90mm f/4 Elmar Lens on medium format

[pgk]

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I picked up a 90mm f/4 Elmar from 1960, the lens head only, for a mere £40 and in pretty reasonable condition. Using an appropriate bellows adapter this was soon mounted onto an Arca Swiss lens board and I've started experimenting with it. My first rough and ready image is below. This was made up from 6 shots and the image format equates to somewhere aroung 6x7/8cm which is covers easily enough (nearly 12,000 x 9000 pixels). Focus point was the white infinity symbol and taking aperture was f/11. I have yet to shoot images which will give an indication of just how good performance is at the edges but coverage is good and probably rather more than I've tried as yet. I'm sure that the 135mm lens heads will also work on larger formats so will keep a lookout for one.

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[jankap]

At f/11, and what does mean made up from 6 shots? Stitching 3 x 2?

Edited July 4 by jankap

[pgk]

I use the camera to take 6 x overlapping images from which I can buid up a single shot. The Arca camera has been assembled to move the fitted dgital camera (a Sony 7 series) in X and Y axes so that a larger format image can be captured. Although the 90mm Elmar is intended for 35mm use it actually projects an image which covers a far greater area. I need to expreiment more to see how good the image is when used on a medium format but it cerainly looks promising and could easily be used on many medium format digital cameras.

[TomB_tx]

In Marco Cavina's book on Elmar he notes that the 90 Elmar was originally designed to cover the 6x6 format for other makes of medium format cameras. Same optical design sold from 1931 into the 1960s for Leica cameras.

[luigi bertolotti]

4 hours ago, pgk said:

...I'm sure that the 135mm lens heads will also work on larger formats so will keep a lookout for one.

 

Probably not the modern Tele Elmar and Tele Elmarit... but I'd bet that Hektor does... and Lager displays also a Telyt 200 f4 onto a Hasselblad... you have assembled an interesting set : let us informed about your tests.

[pippy]

3 hours ago, pgk said:

...The Arca camera has been assembled to move the fitted dgital camera...in X and Y axes so that a larger format image can be captured...

As a nipper, Paul, did you by any chance have one of these?...

https://www.priory-antiques.co.uk/product/sliding-tile-puzzle-letters/

It's always fun seeing the images - not to mention the quality of stitching - that you obtain using the Arca in this manner. What would you consider to be the largest print which could be obtained from the resulting (if my sums are fine) the resulting 108 Mp file whilst mainaining as much fine detail as you would consider acceptable?

Philip.

[250swb]

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The 10.5 cm  ‘Mountain Elmar’ was re-purposed as a medium format lens to cover 6x9 in Vollenda folding cameras. Not a great lens for MF but not bad either.

[pgk]

46 minutes ago, pippy said:

As a nipper, Paul, did you by any chance have one of these?...

https://www.priory-antiques.co.uk/product/sliding-tile-puzzle-letters/

It's always fun seeing the images - not to mention the quality of stitching - that you obtain using the Arca in this manner. What would you consider to be the largest print which could be obtained from the resulting (if my sums are fine) the resulting 108 Mp file whilst mainaining as much fine detail as you would consider acceptable?

Philip.

No I didn't have such a puzzle, but before studying photography I did spend a year studying engineering (mining) which has proved useful at times.

The file size will depend on camera (I have an A7IIR) and lens. I have lenses from varying eras including the last analogue large format (58XL) and somehow the collection seems to keep expanding. So eventually I will be able to decide on file sizes and coverage, lens viability and more. Its all quite fascinating. Acceptability of detail seems to depend on subject matter as much as anything. I have near 30" x 20" prints from my M9 and current/previous generation M lenses which satisfy, but then again images from very old lenses with rich in detail subjects don't always enlarge much at all. The challenge of producing viable images from old lenses is enjoyable in itself. Matching subject to lens is part of the satisfaction.

[pgk]

18 hours ago, TomB_tx said:

In Marco Cavina's book on Elmar he notes that the 90 Elmar was originally designed to cover the 6x6 format for other makes of medium format cameras. Same optical design sold from 1931 into the 1960s for Leica cameras.

Do you know which cameras would have been fitted with the 9cm Elmar? I can find Nagels with 5cm and 10.5cm ('Mountain' or 'Berg'?) Elamars but nothing with 9cm so far. Having completed a further quick test I would say that the 9cm will certainly cover 6x6cm acceptably, perhaps 6x7/8cm stopped down and maybe 6x9 (1/4 plate) just about.

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