modern wide angle on sl66

I'm thinking about getting a 35/45mm Grandagon or the Schneider equivalent for

my sl66. Does anyone know how well that would work with the blank lens

board? Any other lens suggestions? The 50mm I have is pretty poor around the

perimeter, and the "big bottle" 40mm HFT is pretty rare, expensive, and takes

bay VIII filters.

 

Happy New Year!

Aaron

The issues are lens to film distance and will the rear part of the lens fit in the lensboard and bellows? The inside of the lensboard is about 57mm in diameter. The distance from the lensboard to the film with the focus rack set at infinity would probably necessitate a retrofocus lens. I could attempt to measure this distance for you if no one else offers the info. It looks like more than 110mm.

I've adapted lenses to the SL66 but they've all been 250 mm & up. It's very hard to retrofit wide angle lenses to the SL66 as the lens register distance is so great; 100+ mm. It might be possible if the lens & shutter could fit in the throat but it would probably foul the mirror.

 

Late in the lifetime of the SL66 (something like the mid-80's) a newer version of the 50 mm with floating elements was supposedly released. It was similar to the Hasselblad of the same vintage. I haven't seen one or even heard of any for sale so if it exists it's a rare one.

 

Best wishes in the coming year,

 

Cheers,

 

Duane

Right, the flange focal distance... I guess that puts a damper on things. Any modern 110mm retrofocus lenses out there?

Thanks Duane. I should have checked again before posting.

I've never seen a Distagon 50/4 FLE but I have seen the 40/4 FLE<div></div>

Interesting. Mike, do you know what the filter size is on that lens?

I think that it only takes special filters, which I have never seen. It doesn't take normal threaded filters. You can't fit filters behind the lens either, as far as I can tell - the rear element surround is scalloped to just, and only just, clear the mirror.

 

There was one on eBay a few months ago. It went for about $3300.

 

Best,

Helen

I don't own that lens (I recall Helen has one) but I have some specs on it and MTF charts for all of the SL66 lenses on the 3 CD-ROM set I've been selling.

 

<p>My specs for the 40/4 FLE say:

 

<p>Distagon 40mm f 4 HFT FLE with floating elements<br>

Wide angle lens<br>

Diagonal angle: 88<br>

Lenses/elements: 11/10<br>

Filter: Adapter<br>

Weight: 732 g<br>

In production from 1985-1995<br>

Order #: 969 525<br>

Price (1995) DM 7998.00 ($ 4,000)

How difficult would it be to have a Hasselblad lens altered to fit an SL66? I wonder if Zeiss would consider making a modern 50 available in SL66 mount?

Quite difficult, at least for wide anlges, from what I've recently read. The problem is in the flange-to-film ditance. I don't know of any other wide angle lenses that have such a long retrofocus.

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00DzNX

Mamiya RB/RZ lenses have approximately the right F-F distance (111mm/104mm), but I have no idea how I might mount them. I don't have one to reference.

Don't think to adapt a third-party lens, like Hasselblad or Mamiya on a SL66.<br>

First, the flange focal distance is different, and the focusing system is also not the same (focusing ring on Blads). As the flange focal distance of the SL66 is longer than other cameras, it would imply to use a recessed lensboard !<br>

I have both 40 and 50 mm Distagons. Both are great lenses, I don't understand the "poor quality of the 50mm around the perimeter"..<br>

My 40mm is the large 104mm. But a 40mm FLE is much more expensive, and quite impossible to find used.<br>

About the 35/45 Grandagons or 47mm Schneider, don't forget their flange focal distance. You cannot focus on infinity a lens which is shorter than the lens-to-film distance of the camera.<br>

On large format cameras, you can use both a recessed lensboard and a bag bellows to shorten this distance, not on a medium format camera. In practice, nothing shorter than a 150mm can be adapted on these lensboards.<br>

A Grandagon 35mm has a FFD (Flange-focal distance) of 43.2mm, a Grandagon 45mm has a FFD of 55.5mm, and a 47mm Super-Angulon has a FFD of 59.1 mm. They can be used, of course, but for close photography, not focused on infinity.<br>

Don't forget that you also need a shutter for apertures.<br>

Jean-Louis, thanks for the the summary. The RB/RZ's actually have a slightly greater flange-to-film distance, so one would only need to rack the sl66 bellows out slightly to focus at infinity. It could just be my sample (it's an older 50mm), but it is remarkably less sharp in the corners and frame edges than my 80mm.

Aaron,<br>

what about the bayonet ? The lens and bayonet diameter is probably different (I have no more Sekor lenses to make a comparison).<br>

How will you replace a Mamiya "breech ring" bayonet with a SL66 "twist only" bayonet ?<br>

All this seems very complicated for a probably poor result. If somebody had already made such a modification, it would have been written on MF forums.<br>

All valid questions, and ones I will have to think about when I go to my local camera shop to take a look at a Sekor lens. Should that not work, there are always Zenzanon lenses with thead mounts. I'd really like a wide angle that I can fit my filter system to.

 

Cheers,

Aaron

I have always obtained excellent results with my Distagon 50mm f4 (non HFT). Enlargments are sharp and detailed. Perfectly comparable to the results my father gets with his Zenzanon lenses for 6x7 on the GS-1. True, sometimes I have observed soft corners both by me and him, but only in particular situations and have not studied the matter more.

<br>

I have then a Nikkor 40mm for Bronica adapted to SL66 mount. Diaphgram is not automatic, but works fine. I use it only for architecture or landspace work anyway. The original 40mm lens is taunted good (I spoke with a professional photographer who used it) but the original price was overkill and I have never seen one used.

<BR>

The SL66 had originally a series of compur shutter lenses and adapters to use view camera lenses. If you find one you could use the Schneider Super Angulon for 6x9 which has a wide illumination field and would probnably help you, I have it used with slight degradation even on 9x12! Granted, you need to stop it down and the full aperture is still dim.

Hi Riccardo,

 

how did you adapt the Nikkor? How does it compare to the Distagon in terms of flare and sharpness?

Riccardo,

<i>"The SL66 had originally a series of Compur shutter lenses and adapters to use view camera lenses. If you find one you could use the Schneider Super Angulon for 6x9 which has a wide illumination field"</i><br>

Please, once again, that is totally wrong. <u>Super Angulon lenses cannot be mounted on these adapters and focused on infinity</u>.<br>

The flange focal distance (lens-to-film distance) of all wide angle lenses is too short to be used on a SL66 and focused on infinity.<br>

Jean-Louis, don't worry, I have already discounted using any LF lenses because of FF distance. I was at my camera store and a 50mm ULD RZ lens fits quite comfortably on the sl66. It also cost quite a bit less than a Rollei 50mm HFT. I'm still thinking about how I could attach it.

Hi Aaron,

 

I did not do the work of adapting the nikkor 40mm to the SL66. As far as I know, the work was done by using the bayonet mount of a macro ring and mounting it on the collar of the nikkor. The work is clean, infinite focuses accurately. If you think, there is not much else to do, since the automatic diaphgram is not coupled and luckily the nikkor translates to a "manual" lens. The quality is nice, I never used the rare 40mm distagon, but the quality compared to my 50mm is good. Shots done side-by-side on the same film... I cannot tell them apart in landscapes where I don't have "references" to check if it was a 40 or a 50mm.<br>

You should get the lens for a pretty low price anyway. I don't have a shade or filters for it, but if yo uneed I can check the type or send you a picture of it. I have done landscape photography at high altitude without filter and I have experienced good contrast even when using color. Check:

<a href="http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/24772661/">landscape</a>

I wasn't on the negative able to tell if I did the shot with the 40 or 50... I used them both and didn't take a note.