Agfa Karat 1V

[JDMvW]

<blockquote>

<p>we call them "Traction Engines", down here</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Well, we calls 'em "steam tractors" up here, although the occasional person might in an odd moment call them traction engines...</p>

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[peter_naylor1]

<p>Nice write-up on your Karats, Tony - I'm quite a fan of them too. Got to agree with you that the earlier models' 50/50 split rangefinder imaging takes a bit of getting used to compared to the more usual central window, but I got to like it - especially for photos in poor light.<br>

Have you ever tried reloading one of the early models using Karat Kasseten? It's quite a fiddly exercise, which I tried once 'blind' with my hands doing the feeding, under bedclothes, using modern AGFA colour negative film. I got there in the end and ran the now-loaded cassette in my 1938-ish Karat 3.5, with F3.5 Solinar, which was my very first Karat acquired and gave me the Karat Bug. It even came with its original orange/blue box. still in lovely condition. Strangely, everything worked fine on that 1938 Karat, with not a sniff of anything stiff or stuck. <br>

So I wondered just what AGFA-owning folks were on about, with all that talk of Dreaded Gunky Green Grease and such. However, when I acquired Karat #2, 3 etc - I soon found out ..... ! PN</p>

[tony_lockerbie]

<p>Thanks Pete, I do have an early Ansco Memo somewhere, but the lens is full of haze unfortunately. I did have a crack at the loading though, and it worked fine.<br>

The gummy grease is quite a common ailment, as is the degrading of the alloy on the front, but the Karat 1V that I used here has a much better quality chrome finish.<br>

Incidentally, Agfa resurrected the Karat name in the seventies for their quality recording tape...remember those!</p>

[Brian1664876441]

<img src="http://www.leicaplace.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=501&d=1368496570"><p>

 

A few years ago I found a loose lens at a Photorama show- a 50/2.8 "Karat Xenar". Asked the price and got, "Oh- that one is expensive, $30". Aperture ring as shown, goes to F11. Took it apart to clean the haze, and found it was a 5 element in 4 group lens, which explains why it is so much better than my Zeiss 5cm F2.8 Tessar for the Contax.

 

Now in RF-coupled Leica mount, using a focus mount from a Canon 50/1.8.

 

Anyone know what model Karat this came off of? The small aperture ring and F11 - WW-II vintage?

[peter_naylor1]

<p>Hi, Brian that's an interesting lens you've got there! It may possibly be one of a batch of F2.8 Schneider Xenars fitted to the 'Interim' CRF F2.8 Karats around 1939/40, which always confuse Karat collectors because they have lens s/nos indicating c.1936 manufacture. I've actually got two of these cameras. So, first question - can you please give your lens's s/no?<br>

Secondly, I never knew that Schneider produced 5-element F2.8 Xenars in 5cm/50mm guise. I did know that during the mid-to-late 1930s, they produced faster versions of their longer FL F2.8 Xenars (ie 75mm for example) because I've got such a one in Reflex Korelle mount. It's also identified in a Schneider lens catalog scan I scored somewhere off the Net. However, amongst all the other 1930s Schneider documentary stuff I have, there's nothing about shorter FL Xenars with 5 elements for 35mm cameras.<br>

Not to say it's impossible, of course! I also collect Mirandas, and one of their 1950s lenses (from Soligor) was a preset-aperture 5-element F2.8. It doesn't look very spectacular so most Miranda SLR buyers went for the faster F1.9 option. However, I bought a Miranda 'D' some 10 years ago with that F2.8 5cm Miranda-Soligor quite cheaply, because its shutter needed some work. The F2.8 lens was a bit cloudy too. So I left it with our Perth camera Repair Guru Max Dellaway to fix the shutter and clean the lens.<br>

Max did a great job on both, and mentioned that according to the Zeiss Collimator he'd recently acquired, that F2.8 Miranda-Soligor lens was the sharpest F2.8 5cm/50mm lens he'd ever tested! Even down at F2.8, where Tessar-design 4-element lenses usually start to get a bit soft, that Miranda-Soligor was still really sharp. So, is your 5-element Xenar of similar ilk, maybe? (Pete In Perth) </p>

<p> </p>

[Brian1664876441]

Thankyou for the interesting information-

 

The serial number is 796325, and it looks like the front element of a standard Tessar lens was split into two elements of lesser strength. The performance is better than the Zeiss, and better than the 4-element Xenars that I've used. I'll have to test it against and Industar 61L/D, which I will be doing a CLA.

 

Some more on the M9 here:

 

http://www.leicaplace.com/album.php?albumid=30

 

The rendering of this lens is beautiful. I found a series V yellow filter for it, will try it in black and white.

[Brian1664876441]

I found this link-

 

http://www.schneideroptics.com/info/age_of_lenses/

 

All of the optical surfaces of this lens are coated- hard coated, as good as the Zeiss lenses of the day. I'm going to speculate that the blocks of serial numbers were allocated by an order, but the actual completion date may be later. The earliest factory-coated lens that I have is 1936, a Zeiss 5cm F1.5 Sonnar. By 1938, coated optics were more common.