Telyt-V 280mm Version III - green dot on aperture scale

[UliWer]

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It was just know that I discovered a green dot on the aperture scale of my Telyt-V 1:4.8/280mm (last version). 

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This spot indicates approximately 1.6x of your chosen aperture (yellow dot).

What is or was the purpose of this green index? I don't find it on the Telyt-V 200 or 400mm - though both are older. I could imagine that it showed the effective aperture when you used a 1.6* extender, but I don't know any extender for the Visoflex tele-lenses.  

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[Robert_M]

I also have the last version of the 280/4.8 v3 and mine does NOT have that extra green dot.  Interesting.

Since this lens has 2 aperture scales on the lens head (at 180 degrees around the lens) does the second scale also have the extra green dot on your lens?

[dg4mgr]

Interesting. No green dot on my 280/4.8 v3 here.

I assume the aperture (white dot) can be closed up to the yellow dot? The white dot will not reach the green one?

[UliWer]

Yes, you can preselect the aperture with the yellow dot and focus wide open, then close the aperture with the white dot. The green one always has the same distance to the yellow one. That‘s what made me think of an index for the effective opening when you use an extender. 

My lens is 2933582, probably from 1978, so a rather late one. Perhaps earlier batches didn‘t have the green index.

[sandro]

Mine is from 1961 and has just a white dot on the lower aperture ring with which you close the aperture before taking the photo, and a red dot on the other aperture scale with whcih you first choose the desired aperture.

Lex

[UliWer]

6 hours ago, Robert_M said:

Since this lens has 2 aperture scales on the lens head (at 180 degrees around the lens) does the second scale also have the extra green dot on your lens?

Yes, indeed! I never looked at the second scale, and the green do is there as well. 

[luigi bertolotti]

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On 7/6/2025 at 8:14 PM, UliWer said:

 

My lens is 2933582, probably from 1978, so a rather late one. Perhaps earlier batches didn‘t have the green index.

My one is later (3059688) but no green dot ...  My other hipotesis is that it could be related to some (special ?) filter with  1,5 - 1,6x exposure ratio... ; anyway, your dot looks clearly "factory made" .. too identical to the 2 std. 

Me too have never heard or read something about tele extender for Viso, but 280 has alway been an "all and only Canada" item, and Ontario factory made lot of experimental items.. who knows ?  And it was Leitz Canada that made the experimental 1,5x M extender (RF coupled), in a timeframe not far from your Telyt 280 (the never officially listed 1,5 extender was made in a batch with standard lenses' numbering, around 3.051.xxx : see https://www.leitz-auction.com/en/Leitz-Extender-M-1.5x-11238/AI-28-32568). This ill-fated 1,5x extender was designed mainly having in mind the Tele Elmarit M 90,, but could be that they made some tests with other focals.. and, notice, the depicted item has a GREEN writing with exposure factor... 😉

Edited July 8 by luigi bertolotti

[dg4mgr]

Note the green dot compensates for 1,5 f-stops. Teleconverters usually come as 1,4 or 1,5x, which will need 1 f-stop or 2,0x and need 2 f-stops.

A compensation of 1,5 f-stops would match a 1,7 x televonverter - a very unusual factor. 

[UliWer]

The engraving in green on the M-Extender "prototype" shown in luigi's link indicates a factor of 1.5 f-stops. So it might be that somebody (perhaps at the factory?) made experiments with the extender and the 280mm Telyt and had the green dot engraved.

Anyway it is certainly no index used in serial production and doesn't mean anything for the normal handling of the lens.  

[frame-it]

can you use bellows or visoflex with this lens?

[luigi bertolotti]

1 hour ago, frame-it said:

can you use bellows or visoflex with this lens?

Telyt 280 is a lens that MUST be used with Visoflex : V1 and V2 were made for Visoflex I (and for Visoflex II/III with OUBIO ring), the 280 V3 quoted in this thread was made for Visoflex II/III, so with a M bayonet to attach lens to the Viso.

The lens head of 280 can also be mounted on bellows (with Visoflex, of course), though with little practical interest (focus throw is limited).

Edited July 9 by luigi bertolotti

[luigi bertolotti]

10 hours ago, dg4mgr said:

Note the green dot compensates for 1,5 f-stops. Teleconverters usually come as 1,4 or 1,5x, which will need 1 f-stop or 2,0x and need 2 f-stops.

A compensation of 1,5 f-stops would match a 1,7 x televonverter - a very unusual factor. 

Indeed that writing on the experimental teleconverter is ambiguous... the symbol of diaphragm makes obviosly to think at exposure factor, but afaik 1,5x was the focal factor : it is reported that it was designed to make 135 from the Tele Elmarit M 90 - a compact black lens of Canadian origin - to provide an economical compact complement, and (I read somewhere) also because Wetzlar had plans to discontinue the Tele Elmar 135.

[dg4mgr]

I wonder if this converter would work at all with the 280/4,8. When you put it between camera and Visoflex, the visoflex finder is not usable, when you put it between visoflex and lens it is too far away from the sensor and might not work optically.

[luigi bertolotti]

1 hour ago, dg4mgr said:

I wonder if this converter would work at all with the 280/4,8. When you put it between camera and Visoflex, the visoflex finder is not usable, when you put it between visoflex and lens it is too far away from the sensor and might not work optically.

Yes... me too thought of the problem with mirror... but I thought also that some (experimental) solution could had been envisioned with a different mount for the converter... or even around the "Televit 280 solution" (?  - an odd distance lensehead to converter..but V3 head with Televit is an elegant combo that could have sense with a 420 mm...); anyway, clearly an abandoned project 🙄 

Edited July 9 by luigi bertolotti

[UliWer]

2 hours ago, dg4mgr said:

when you put it between visoflex and lens it is too far away from the sensor and might not work optically.

Doesn‘t an extender only magnify the image it „gets“ from the lens? As the lens needs the Visoflex wouldn’t the „extended“ lens need it as well?

2 hours ago, luigi bertolotti said:

The lens head of 280 can also be mounted on bellows (with Visoflex, of course), though with little practical interest (focus throw is limited).

Here we start again….: 

I have learned from the „eternal thread“ that luigi‘s lens head fitted directly on the bellows front without an adapter - nobody else succeeded to do so, I also tried and it didn‘t work. With this combination the focus of the lens is very limited as it is too close to the film/sensor plane. Though if you use the 16598 adapter for the bellows you get a „proper“ and well extended range of focus from 1:6 magnification to infinity. I didn‘t try this yet, as you have to remove a famous „sleeve“ on the lens head‘s rear thread to attach it to the 16598 and I read two warnings by Michael Geschlecht in #44 and j.c_braconi‘s in #57. A description with photos by f3p5 in #140 shows the removed sleeve.  

[UliWer]

Here I have a very odd "construction":

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Elmar-V 1:3.5/65mm with 14127 adapter for Visoflex-lenses to R, then Apo-Extender 2x, then R-Adapter-M. This would go as a 1:7/130mm. Though now I also attached the Visoflex body to see if the Apo-Extender still "worked". One quick result:

Of course this "construction" doesn't make any sense as you might get better and easier results with a proper lens head of 135mm and the usual Visoflex adapters. Though I think it shows that the Extender also "works" if one adds an extension. I also tried the same "construction" with the 1:4.8/280 Telyt-V. Here you get a very limited zone where you can achieve a sharp result as you need larger distances for 560mm but only have a small range where it focusses because of the undue extension.

I think a supposed "Extender-M" would not have an "undue" extension if it was attached between the 280mm lens and a Visoflex body.  

 

[dg4mgr]

@UliWer, thank you for testing that, I didn't expect this would work!

Did you try taking the visoflex in and out? Will you get the same FoV (130 mm) in both cases?

 

Edited July 9 by dg4mgr

[luigi bertolotti]

7 hours ago, UliWer said:

 

I have learned from the „eternal thread“ that luigi‘s lens head fitted directly on the bellows front without an adapter - nobody else succeeded to do so... 

Not exactly... 😉 , the idea of attaching the V3 lens head directly to Bellows 2 originated from JC Braconi (see the famed "eternal thread" 🙂) , and I simply verified that also my 280 V3 head does fit directly the Bellows 2, though is clearly an illogical set.

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[UliWer]

Yes, of course. There must be some mediterranean tweak of either the front mount‘s thread of the bellows or the lenses thread - or perhaps both - to make them fit there but not elsewhere. 

Btw.: Does anybody know whether there was a leaflet in the package of the lens or the lenshead with a description how to connect it to the bellows? I think it is odd that the lenshead was always in the Leitz catalogue saying it could be used with the bellows on the 16598 adapter but then attaching a „sleeve“ which has to be removed to screw it in the 16598. 

 

[UliWer]

2 hours ago, dg4mgr said:

Did you try taking the visoflex in and out? Will you get the same FoV (130 mm) in both cases?

No, I didnt try to look at the differences with and without Visoflex. In my understanding the FoV becomes smaller when you add an extension between the optical system and the camera.

The combination Visoflex-to-R and R-to-M substitutes the Visoflex body, so you can work without it (of course only with LiveView). Adding the Viso will create an extension which I only tried to look whether the Apo-Extender worked. 

Edited July 9 by UliWer