thomas_vaehrmann

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>most sellers referred to Kardon/Leica to get a bonus. I've owned one for Exakta and just sold it for a few bucks. Nice made but still a triplet, my impression was that a Zeiss Triotar performs better.</p>

<p>Hi Avi,<br>

some Kilfitt-lenses have LTM and were used on Visoflex or Kilarflex-houses with Leicas. If your lens (at least the Tele-Kilar should) have this mount you can use a Leica E39 (aka LTM) to Nikon-adapter and some extension rings. With most Visoflex-lenses adapted to Nikon you can retain infinity as close-up as well.</p>

<p>kind regards<br>

Thomas</p>

<p>Hi Mallik,<br>

if you are not buying high-end Nikon then forget your old maunal focus lenses. Consumer Nikon DSLR just mount them but didn't support any metering. You should have autofocus-lenses and need a body with the af-motor inside. I think there are adapters to mount old Nikon-lenses to Canon DSLR and you get perheps stop-down-metering. I was in a same situation but choosed Nikon as my wife has some af-lenses that work great. I wouldn't mout Leica-M-lenses on anything else than M8 or RD1 if you can find one. I stick to Leica for slides and shoot everything else digital. <br>

kind regards</p>

<p>Hi Mallik,<br>

if you are not buying high-end Nikon then forget your old maunal focus lenses. Consumer Nikon DSLR just mount them but didn't support any metering. You should have autofocus-lenses and need a body with the af-motor inside. I think there are adapters to mount old Nikon-lenses to Canon DSLR and you get perheps stop-down-metering. I was in a same situation but choosed Nikon as my wife has some af-lenses that work great. I wouldn't mout Leica-M-lenses on anything else than M8 or RD1 if you can find one. I stick to Leica for slides and shoot everything else digital. <br>

kind regards</p>

<ul>

<li>Hi,</li>

</ul>

<p>on an occasion in a shop I tried to mount it on my Bessa T and it did't mount at all. As fas as I remember the rear part of the lens-mounting is too large for the Bessa.<br>

kind regards<br>

Thomas</p>

Hi Dennis,

over 300 $$$ is way too much! I've used a Componon for near and far with good results but on the pic I can't see a shutter. Get a Ysarex which is sharp enough and much cheaper.

Hi Pietro,

sorry I can show an image as I don't have a scanner but: Ysarex is a very good and compact lens if you want to shoot hand-held. Maybe the Xenotar is a little bit sharper in the center. The Xenotar gives you even more speed that might be important for you. But consider that Xenotars are radioactive (gamma-ray), more than the Ysarex (mostly alpha-ray); the Apo-Lanthar mentioned in your earlier thread falls in this class, too. If you tend towards that lens you might consider the original Heliar, a lens I would prefer for people. And the Heliar isn't a really soft lens at all, it just lacks the very fine details compared to my Sironar. So if you already have a modern Symmar or Sironar, why don't try Heliar and Ysarex before hunting for the Xenotar?

kind regards

Thomas

Hi John-Paul,

don't worry about tollerances. I've a handful of cameras and light-meters and hardly any two of them get the same result. Mercury-batteries show constant voltage till the end, others fall softly. But you can see that effect only if the voltage is critical for the circuit-layout. Mostly it doesn't matter. Perhaps a Minolta-specialist can tell you wether this is the case on the SR-T101. (My quick-googling indicates that such a Wheatstone-bridge is used.)

kind regards

Thomas

Hi Mitch!

Gratulations on your buy but sorry to say that there might only 9x12cm film be useable. First it's a pre-WW-II camera: very compact not to say tight in construction, needs special holders as all the other manufacturers made different ones (be glad you got some, check wether they are light-tight), and the holders are for glass-plates so you have to insert a thick paper- or plastic-card to get the film in focus. 9x12cm is/was a common German/European size and chances to get film in that size is good in these countries. Otherwise get 4x5inch film and cut yourself. The loading with the mentioned cards in the back of the holders will take some time in the darkroom, too.

If you like LF and find the camera too complicated concerning the loading-procedure switch to a common Graphic or Technika. You can swap the lens if you like it, too.

kind regards

Thomas

Hi Martin,

the Celor is 4 lenses / 4 elements-design and was made in faster versions, too. It hasn't much coverage so 120mm might be a little short for 9x12cm. Main problem with these optical designs is flare as long as they are uncoated. I don't know anything about the Sonnar which might be of the same design and passed it's name later to the famous Zeiss-lenses.

Resolution and sharpness neither was nor is the problem to deal with, it's flare. As a rule of thumb: 4 glass-air-surfaces are best, 6 are accepable, 8 to avoid - if uncoated. Dagor, Collinear, Orthostigmat, Protar, Angulon, (old) Symmar are in the first group, Tessar, Heliar, Triplets go in the second, Synor, Celor, Eurynar, Plasmat in the last, just to name a few.

The shutters can perhaps been fixed by CLA. The Compur is common, the Compound al little bit rare. Keep them if you want to play with vintage lenses in the future.

kind regards

Thomas

Hi Danny,

Steinheil made some lenses for Leica: 4,5/35mm Orthostigmat, 2,8/85mm Culminar and 4/135mm Culminar. They made lenses as the mentioned Quinon for the Braun Paxette, too. These lenses do have the 39mm Leica-screw-mount but the Paxette has a longer lens-to-film distance. Steinheil made enlarging-lenses with E39 which were called Culminon. The Quinon is a good lense due to the radioactive glass in at least one element.

kind regards

Thomas

Hi Kevin,

an old photo-book translated this greek letter as "Duroptan". The dropped it as coating became common.

kind regard

Thomas

Hi Dave,

I'm still satisfied with my 35mm Ultron, it's sharp, resolution and color-saturation are good, flares not more than others. I had the 50mm Skopar that wasn't the right lens for me, sharpness wasn't overwhelming and flare was a real problem. The 15mm is a great one, too. Mechanically they are fine, especially the Skopar, and the silver finish seems to be better then the black one.

kind regards, Thomas

Hi David,

the camera is a "custom made" mixture: tripod is from an old portait-studio-camera, main body perhaps, too, the metal parts bearing the lens and shutter is a folding (guess 9x12cm) plate type. Obviously that camera was used for portraits, perhaps on the streets.

The shutter is common and mostly reliable or can be replaced. The Dogmar-lens is a four-element Dialyt-type with quite good reputation but uncoated and will tend to flare. F6.3 wasn't the fastest version of it. I had a big Dogmar once and wasn't overwhelmed so I sold it. Nice to have and use old LF-gear but I wouldn't buy such a camera except collecting "custom made" specialities.

kind regards

Thomas

Kerry,

in case of the "vs." dilemma the answer is: "both". The M3 is a great camera especially for the longer lenses. As is the M2 with the 35mm frame lines. When I was on the way to add a M2 to my M3 I noticed a RF-disadjustment o that M2. It turned out that parts had to be replaced that were no longer availible. So I switched to a M6 which featured 35mm frame plus lightmeter and which can be serviced.

kind regards

Thomas

Hi David,

after consulting one of the books of Thomas Tomosoy (no relation with him) I could luckly fix this problem on my Autoreflex. Just a rubber-damper had to be changed and everything was (and still is) fine. I'didn't remember exactly how to do it and you have to take the camera a little bit apart but it wasn't that complicated and the Konicas are worth fixing this.

good luck!

Thomas

Hi Tony,

from my distant point (Germany) it's too expensive. Longest lens are the small 300mm Apo-Ronar or the like or 360mm Tele-Xenar. Otherwise it's a fine camera.

kind regard

Thomas

Hi Kevin,

if you need the rangefinder, look for a Vito BR or Vitomatic with build-in rf. Lens should be at least a Color-Skopar. Best lens IMHO is the Ultron in the barn-door Vitessa (central-leaf-shutter between the lens-elements) but this might be beyond your budget. All Voigtländers a a litte bit "sohisticated" concerning their construction. So the have their weak points (as the Kodak Retina's) and are not that easy to service. If they work they are great!

kind regards

Thomas

Hi Jack,

you have an old Technika which hasn't the back for international cassetts but for special Linhof-metal ones. You can chage the whole back if you rotate it about 45 deg. and pull the metal stripes which hold the back out. Problem is to find the right international back. Otherwise it's a fine camera and worth fixing it. Have a look at http://cameraquest.com/tech3pic.htm

kind regards

Thomas

Hi Reid,

quality was pretty good, but as I had no shutter I couldn't really use its speed. So I sold it. If you can mount a shutter behind the lens that features some short times it would be nice for portaits. But if you can't realize exposure-times of 1/60 or so you have to stop down which isn't possible beyond f11.

kind regards

Thomas

PS you should have post an new thread

Hi again John,

if you still have the barrel-mount why don't use a ruler or caliper and transfer the f-stop to the shutter and make your own scale?

kind regards

Thomas

Hi John,

Componon-lenses are optimized for 1:4 for the larger formats to 1:10 for the smaler ones. I use a 240mm Componon on my Linhof without any shim-rings or bothering about best ratio from close up to infinity with good results. So giv'm a try. The image circle is not as big as the Symmar one's and that seemed to be the biggest difference to me apart from the lens-arrangement which is indeed different. Concerning the f-stop scale I guess it would be one stop off if you use the 240mm scale for the 180mm lens.

kind regards+happy shooting

Thomas

Thank you all for your info and sharing your (bad) experiences!

Batteries are ok and I can not see any broken contact. I'm afraid it's not worth getting it repaired as another second-hand meter would cost the same.

kind regards

Thomas

Hi,

as my VC-Meter dropped to the floor and remaind dead I need your help: what

could be damaged so that it doesn't seem to work? It shows scratches on one

edge but everything looks ok even inside, no wire cut or little platine broken.

I confess I'm a little bit disappointed that such an electronic thing without

any moving parts refused to work any longer.

kind regards

Thomas