Leitz 135mm f/2.8 Elmarit-M + Visoflex III - Photo Gear (7)

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In search of a weird-looking camera and lens combination?

Leica M2 + 135mm f/2.8 Elmarit-M with Optical Viewing Unit

Leica M2 + 135mm f/2.8 Elmarit-M lens head with Visoflex III

During several decades now, Leitz / Leica have introduced a wide selection of 135mm lenses for their rangefinder cameras, with various formulations and names: Hektor, Elmar, Elmarit, Tele Elmar and, at last, Apo - Telyt.
Some designs have four elements, as the Hektor and the Elmar versions, the later releases support a five elements construction.

The lens in question here was introduced in 1963, and it's design is identical with the early type of the similar lens for the Leicaflex (so I read, never owned a Leicaflex).
It was built by Leitz Canada and had a special view and rangefinder attachment that improves focusing and framing accuracy.
Image size is thereby increased by a factor of 1.4.
Besides, the use of these "goggles" or "spectacles", allows the use of this lens with the Leica M2 camera model: the finder magnifies the 90mm frame to correct field of view for the 135mm (the Leica M2 finder does not show the markings for this focal length).
The lens mount is non rotating and has a socket for tripod use.
Minimal focusing distance is 1,5m or 5".
Minimum aperture is f 32.
The diaphragm has full and half stops, and the lens hood is built in and collapses over the lens front.

When I decided to buy the 135mm lens for the Leica, it was hard for me to choose between this model and the 135mm f/4 Tele Elmar, which is smaller and lighter (meaning not so clumsy), making it much easier to backpack.
The Tele Elmar also has the convenient filter size of E 39, which is shared by some other Leitz lenses I own.

Rightly or wrongly, I opted for the 2.8 version, as I very much enjoyed photographing concerts at the time.
I also never really liked the "small view" you get when you look through the 135mm markings on the Leica finder (The M3 finder is better suited in this respect, but it also benefits from the use of this goggled lens, as the finder magnification also gets even bigger with this camera).

As I explained before, it was also an advantage for me to have the possibility to use the lens on the Leica M2, without needing to acquire an external brightline finder.

The Visoflex III reflex housing converts rangefinder M Leicas into SLR cameras.

The Visoflex reflex housing overcomes some of the limitations and shortcomings inherent to the rangefinder camera design. It extends the M Leica's versatility into the photomacrographic range, and allows the employment of long telephoto lenses. The groundglass screen permits parallax-free composition, and the choice of two different magnifiers increases freedom in telephotography and close-up work, including copy work. Furthermore, you can use the Focusing Bellows II or several extension rings with the Visoflex III.

The Visoflex III has a quick-mount bayonet similar to the cameras, and you can use it with any Leica M camera (on the Leica M5, simply unscrew the bottom part of the release button).

You will notice on the picture above, a round knob with three colored dots: red, yellow and black.
It is the setting knob for mirror movement, and you can choose the position that better suits your photographic task.
Yellow dot: the mirror moves rapidly and immediately before shutter release (although not exactly a quick-return mirror...).
Black dot: the mirror is swung out slowly with the lever movement, so avoiding camera shake with high-magnification equipment or long focus lenses.
Red dot: the mirror remains locked in the upper position.
(Please notice just near the release lever, the very convenient existence of a thread for cable release).

Although by far not so confortable as a modern SLR, it really widens the scope and practical application possibilities of the Leica M camera.
It is a pity that we don't find it no longer in the Leica Catalogue. If you want one, you have to look for it in the secondhand market.

On this image, you can observe the very different position of the Visoflex eyepiece vs. camera eyepiece.

The release lever acts directly on the release button of the Leica.

The 135mm Elmarit with extended lenshood ready for picturetaking.

The Visoflex III shown without the right-way-round 4x observation magnifier
(exchangeable with straight 5x magnifier: side-reversed image).

The lens head separated from the goggled mount, and the helical focusing mount 16462 for use with the Visoflex.

Lester Bowie (1941-1999) performing with the Art Ensemble of Chicago
(pictured with the 135mm Elmarit in Mannheim, Germany, 1980).

Escalhão, Portugal, December 31, 1983
(Leica M4-2+135mm f 2.8, Kodak Tri-X, dev. in D-76, dil. 1+1).

Me with Leicas in Escalhão, Portugal, December 31, 1983
(Leica M2, Kodak Tri-X, dev. in Kodak D-76, dil. 1+1).

The Leica that you see hanging on my left shoulder is the same M4-2 and Elmarit 135mm that I used to photograph the young "musician" above, on the very same day and on the very same village in North Portugal, not far away from river Douro, the region famous for it's wine, most notably Port Wine, one of the trademarks of our country.

I can't remember who shot my portrait (maybe my ex-wife?), but that person used the very same Leica M2 depicted on this post, probably equiped with a Summicron 50mm.

The other camera hanging around my neck looks like the Leica M3 with the 90mm f/2.8 Tele-Elmarit with rubber lenshood (I don't have the original negative with me here, and the poor resolution of the image is not enough to clearly see, it could also be a Leica M4...).
It is not hard to conjecture that the big Lowepro also transported some other interesting pieces of Photo Gear...

I still own, and try to regularly put into service, all the above equipment.

Only the Minolta Autometer didn't survive the passing of time... I lost it.
(The Lowepro - most likely the original Magnum model, I got rid of the labels - nowadays serves to carry a relatively small flash unit, like the Hensel Monoflash 800, or the lighter, newer version with 500 Ws, the Contra 500).

We spent some pleasant days in Escalhão, in the company of good old friends.
It was rather cold outside, and it was a joy to sit in the evening by the fireplace in the kitchen, tasting some food and wine, just jiving unconcernedly.

A quarter of a century has faded away...

The Leicas remain...

(P.S.: without wish of offending, the first photograph on this post makes me think of a portrait of Jean-Paul Sartre...).

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Kiev 4a - Photo Gear (6)

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Kiev 4a + Jupiter 8M

There are lots of interesting articles on the Internet about the soviets taking over the Contax production line as war reparations, after World War II. The facilities in Dresden, already almost destroyed by Allied bombing, were expropriated and dismantled, beeing transfered to the USSR, namely to Kiev, Ukraine, at the Arsenal factory.
That is how the soviets started producing a copy of the Contax II, launched in March 1936, together with several copies of interchangeable Zeiss lenses and other accessories.
Because of the Russian occupation of East Germany at the end of the war, Contax rangefinder production ceased, until the new West German Zeiss Ikon in Stuttgart launched its redesigned Contax IIA in 1950.

Beeing a deep lover of rangefinder cameras, and through my modest participation in Rangefinderforum, I became aware of the existence and possible quality this Former Soviet Union (FSU for short) cameras are able to deliver. My curiosity just kept on growing, until I finally was able to get a Kiev 4a and a Zorki 3-C.
Both cameras are equiped with a soviet copy of the standard Zeiss Sonnar lens: the Jupiter 8 1:2 f 5cm from 1956 in the case of the Zorki, and the Jupiter 8M 1:2 f 53mm from 1980 in the case of the Kiev. Both having a six elements in three groups design. Both focusing down to 0,9m. The Zorki Leica Thread Mount model has no click stops and has a non-rotating mount.
The version in Contax/Kiev bayonet mount has click stops and rotates.
Both lenses are coated.

I now utterly suffer from one more serious disease: FSU camera addiction!

I am doomed to deserve no salvation!

All photographs taken in Guimarães, North of Portugal, on the 21st of June 2009.
Kodak Tri-X film developed in Kodak D-76, diluted 1+1.

The day after we saw Judy Collins in concert, we made a short visit to Guimarães (World Heritage Site, emergence of the portuguese national identity in the 12th century).

In the North the wind typically blows a little cooler breeze...
Not so this time: the sun was hot and burning like if we were back home in Alentejo.

I started dreaming of a cool glass of bier...

Instead I kept shooting with my poor man's Contax!

My Kiev 4a is a type 2 (c. 1974-1980): the top shutter speed is 1/1000 sec.
Former versions were marked with a top speed of 1/1250!

Note the shutter release concentric with the film winding knob.
The rewinding knob shows a number: it serves only as a reminder. It has no connection with a light meter, as the 4a has no light meter!
You also have to manually reset the frame counter.

Please, also take note on the little wheel to the right, just before the rangefinder window: you can focus standard lenses by turning it with your middle finger, while your index finger rests on the shutter release. Beware not to cover the rangefinder window with your ring finger!
That's why you have to practice the "Contax hold" until you feel confortable with it: that is the price you have to pay for the uncommonly long, and theoretically more accurate, Rangefinder Base of 90mm...

Viewfinder Magnification: 0,9x.

Time to glimpse at the focal plane, vertical moving shutter with metal curtains.

Time to glimpse at the Contax/Kiev bayonet.

My Kiev shows some problems with light leaks, apparently a common problem with this type of cameras. Well, we should not forget that these cameras are now some decades old, and that they presumably had in their vast majority a rather poor maintenance.

Light leaks should be relatively simple to repair...

So, now the big question: is it worth to photograph with a Kiev?

Look at the face of the man in the photograph below, and find the answer for yourself!

I would like to kindly dedicate this post to all the nice and supportive people who have come to regularly enjoy my blog.

Your admiration is my energy to keep on moving.

Thank you very much for your kindness!

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Horseman SW612 Pro - Photo Gear (5)

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"I told you about strawberry fields
You know the place where nothing is real
Well here's another place you can go
Where everything flows.

Looking through the bent backed tulips
To see how the other half lives
Looking through a glass onion."

Glass Onion, The Beatles
(The White Album, 1968)

Horseman SW612 Pro + Rodenstock Apo-Grandagon 35mm f 4.5

Yes, I told you about my "Cory" and some places we can go.

Now I will tell you about my "Horsy"...

The Apo-Grandagon 35mm without Center Filter, maximal fall

The last two posts where entirely photographed with another relatively scarce camera, the Horseman SW612 Pro.

SW must stand for super-wide, 612 stands obviously for the biggest format this camera is able to deliver, and the Pro part of the name makes the distinction between this model with shift capabilities, and the simpler model without.

I must say that it is a kind of denomination that somehow I dislike... To call something Pro doesn't make it Pro...

Nevertheless, I can assure you that this camera genuinely deserves the qualification of professional!

I also must add, that I can't understand why Horseman keeps both versions of practically the same camera on their catalogue. After the introduction of this refined, better version, the model without shift capability became rather uninteresting. That is, at least, my opinion.

The Apo-Grandagon 35mm you see above is really a super, super-wide lens! Too wide for most situations, I could say...

It consists of 8 elements in 4 groups, and is incredibly distortionless for such a lens.

The image circle is 125mm, what means that you can use the entire 6x12 format with it, if you don't use movements.

Nearest focusing distance is 0,3m.

I absolutely recommend the use of a Center Filter with this lens!

The Apo-Grandagon 35mm with Center Filter, maximal rise

The Apo-Grandagon 35mm with Center Filter, maximal fall

Maximal rise and fall with the Apo-Grandagon 35mm is only possible if you use the 6x9 or 6x7 magazines, that are also available for this camera. I wouldn't find the 6x7 magazine (10 frames each roll) very attractive, but I own and use a 6x9 magazine (8 frames each roll).

Obviously, for the greatest part I use the 6x12 magazine (6 frames each roll of 120 film). This format really makes the best out of this camera!

Notice, please, that I have painted the extremity of the dark slide red. It comes in black plastic and is sometimes very hard to see, mainly when you are photographing in dark places or interiors.
In former times, the Horseman magazines had such pieces made of red enameled metal.

They seem to want to save on production costs...

These are the small annoyances that make our lives a little harder in the field: if you forget to pull the dark slide before you make your exposures, you will not have any exposures at all!
Just as simple as that...

Please Horseman, make it a shining fluorescent color that we can't overlook!

(I tend to think that equipment manufacturers must often be shy to try their gear in real-life situations. They usually seem to overlook small but important details).

That little red ribbon I've added to the dark slide serves the same purpose of remembering me to pull it.

I also use it to hang the dark slide from my Gitzo tripod. Doing so, I don't need to search for it around the whole place...

(Getting older doesn't help my distraction...)

I like to concentrate on my photographs, not on the action of making them.

Horseman SW612 + Rodenstock Grandagon-N 75mm f/6.8

Although on these photographs I prefer to show the Grandagon-N 75mm without a Center Filter, I also generally use one with it.

I know that there are photographers who don't bother to do so, excusing themselves with light-loss, but I get really disturbed by looking at a color photograph of a white wall, and seeing it turning dirty white or gray in the corners of the image.

I guess that I am too much of a perfectionist...

I don't really understand why, but Horseman stopped offering this lens for the SW612. My guess is that it must be because you can't use the full shift movements with it. There is some vignetting caused by the lens mount. Maybe it is also because of the maximal aperture of 6.8.

In my opinion, it is a very fine lens giving a very pleasing field of view (identical to 24mm on 35mm film): wide enough for most subjects without excess.

The maximal aperture of 6.8 doesn't bother me: I mostly use it at f 22 anyway...

Notice that you can see a different mask in the optical finder, to adapt to the field of view of the lens.

The finder is very clear, but doesn't follow the field of view of the lens when you apply movements.

If you remember my former post about a similar camera I use (Photo Gear 3), the finder of the Corfield WA67 does...

I usually compose using the ground glass, but sometimes it is handy to have the finder though. Photographing in a crowded place for instance, it allows me to control if people are inside the image, and what position they may have within the composition.

Dark places is another situation that usually sees me mounting this "eye" on top of the camera.

Planning my trip across the USA and Canada, to photograph the works of Mies van der Rohe, I quickly realized that it would be very hard to carry a lot of equipment over there.

I started thinking that I should better leave my Sinar, and all the lenses I use with it, at home. The multitude of different buildings I had to photograph, dictated that bringing only my Corfield WA67 would be an impossibility.
Non-shift medium format equipment, like the Hasselblad, wouldn't be an option either.

So I started thinking about alternatives.

To substitute the Sinar, I decided to get a Gandolfi Variant in 4x5 inches (my Gandolfi Precision 8x10" was out of question for obvious reasons...). I got the model with more features, the so called Level III, in MDF.

Not the lightest camera, but with lots of movements and very sturdy.
Enough bellows draw, to allow me to use my Rodenstock Apo-Ronar 480mm.
Enough wide-angle capability to use my Schneider Super-Angulon 58mm.
Capable of accepting my Horseman 6x12 roll film back and my Linhof Rapid Rollex 6x7.

What could I wish more?

Yes, you guess it right: the Horseman SW612 Pro!

Nice format for double-pages spreads in square books, interchangeable high-quality lenses, shift capability, very good engineering and build quality.

Add a couple of lenses for each camera, plus a Gossen Variosix F and a Minolta Spotmeter, plus focusing clothes and lupes, loads of film and some other paraphernalia and you get the picture of what we had to carry around... Oh, don't forget the Gitzo tripod and the Manfrotto 410 geared head!

Happilly, in those times I was stronger than today, and I had the good helping-hand of my older sun Jorge, who assisted me on the trip.
He shared duties with me on carrying, driving, eating fast food, sleeping in cheap motels, looking for the places to photograph and, most of all, having lots of patience for solving shooting permissions and assorted problems. I can imagine that without his help, I would certainly be in serious trouble.

While staying at the Illinois Institut of Technology, when it was raining and we could not work, we used to jump in the car and drive for endless hours across the Southside of Chicago.
Killing time, we found out that we were the only white people we could see around.
White people in America don't seem to cross the afro-american territory, they drive around, speeding down the highway without looking.
White people don't seem to know how blacks live in America.
Black people seem to know how whites live: they clean their homes, they drive their cabs, they fight their wars.

At night we used to sit around Seven-Eleven, inside the campus in Commons building, again killing time and watching. It seemed to be the only place in all Chicago where you could see a certain coexistance between various types of people. The cops and the ambulance drivers, the southsiders and the students, the beggars and the rich, they all came for a cup of coffee, for something to eat.

Then, we would go back to our room in the student's residence, having to go through a kind of check point where we had to show our ID to a student. Most of them didn't even say hello or wish good night, the only exception beeing a very nice and young black lady.
We were always happy to meet her.
One night she didn't notice that we were coming and she just kept dancing. We just waited awhile before knocking, delighted with the beauty and elegance of her dance. Needless to say that she got a little ashamed when she understood that we had been watching her for a while.
Since then I called her "Night Dancer" and she always gave back a beautiful smile.
That lady was a nice human beeing...

On our flight back home, via London, we had the chance of meeting some very nice people again: the crew of British Airways proved to be of exceptional kindness.
We got along with each other so well, that when we were getting ready to leave the plane, some members of the crew came to us and presented us with two bottles of Champagne!
Amazed, I just could say that it had been a pleasure to fly with them. They replied that if they always had such nice passengers, their job would be wonderfull...
Of course, we were flying economic, make no mistake.

These are the little stories that touch our souls, these are the true reasons why I love life.

Photographs are just photographs!

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Carl Zeiss Jena f 2.8 / 50mm Tessar "Sunken-Mount" - Photo Gear (4)

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This version of the Tessar, is probably a relatively seldom-encountered lens. It was designed exclusively for use on a bellows. It is a deeply recessed unit, so you don't need a lens hood.
The Macro Tessar is also extremely light and compact. The aperture blades form a very nice round shape, what, according to some, should help deliver a nicer bokeh.

Although you can achieve infinity focus with this lens, it is better suited for close-up photography. It is not that practical to walk around with a belows in your hand looking for nice cityscapes or interesting street scenes...

I would recommend the use of a tripod...

I will admit that to find some fun by using such awkward equipment borders a certain state of madness. In these days of modern stuff, you gotta be some kind of crazy guy to even contemplate loading a film in such a beast...

Well, I am that kind of guy!

The same lens some twenty years younger, fitting a Varex IIa. Everything was still shining bright. Now the IIa could need some serious restoration.

New shutter curtains, new mirror, new knob for opening the camera back, etc.

It was stupid that I didn't take care for so long... Shame on me!

I made these photographs with the "Sunken-Mount" Tessar last month, just shooting some of the plants we have in the balcony of our living room.

I think that it is never too much to stress the amazingly good optical quality of some of this old timers.

I know why I keep on the flame!

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Corfield WA 67 - Photo Gear (3)

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Tonight I wish to talk about, and show you, my beloved "Cory".

My last post was entirely shot with this "little lady", and a little research on the Internet will quickly show you that they are not so much common.

Beeing a relatively unknown brand nowadays, at least outside of United Kingdom, I think that it justifies that I try to make a short introduction about Corfield. The experts and collectors will certainly excuse any possible incorrection on my part.

As far as I can say, it was a camera created by Sir Kenneth Corfield. Sir Corfield started his photographic business with his wife Betty and his brother John. They first began by producing an enlarger exposure meter, called the Lumimeter, wich sold 5.000 units during the year 1949. With the success of the Lumimeters, thoughts naturally turned to further products. So they brought out a precision rangefinder, the Telemeter, for focusing still and cine cameras.
Some more products soon followed, like a new version of the Lumimeter, the Optical Exposure Meter, the Corfield Masking Frame, the Corfield 5x4 inches Contact Printer, and, in 1952, the Corfield 2x2 slide projector.

No, I am not so old that I can remember all this stuff. I just looked it up on this site, and found it appealing to put some additional information here. I suggest that you read the whole story on the link I provide. Very good reading if you care about camera development history.

The part that I find most relevant for this post, is that Sir Kenneth Corfield also started developing his own line of cameras, the Periflex, first introduced to the public in the January 28th,1953 edition of Amateur Photographer.
Other models followed, and 1960 saw the appearance of the Corfield 66, making twelve exposures in 120 film.

Then one day Sir Corfield designed a camera called the Architect, that subsequently must have led to the model I am talking about here: the Corfield Wide-Angle 67 Perspective-Control.

I ordered this apparatus in 1995, together with a Gandolfi Precision 8x10 inches. By that time Sir Corfield was also associated with Gandolfi Cameras. The two brothers Gandolfi had decided to retire, and sold the company to Mr. Brian Gould.

Sadly, Mr. Gould is deceased some years ago. He was a very kind and helpful person having the patience of sending me countless faxes elucidating all my inquiries and trying to fulfill all my wishes.
A really nice and competent gentleman. I was lucky to meet him one day at Photokina. May he rest in peace.

Corfield WA 67 + 47mm f5.6 Schneider Super Angulon

As you can see on this side view, this camera is kind of a multinational tool: a german lens, a british shift-body, and a 6x7 japanese revolving back from Mamiya, with the Mamiya 67 Pro S roll-film holder giving ten exposures per 120 roll. Actually the same back and magazine you find in the Mamiya RB cameras.

Please notice that the optical system is not interchangeable! In these photographs, the lens is fitted with a center-filter, for the correction of physical light fall-off in the corners of the image.

That somewhat strange device on top of the camera, is an optical finder, to help you compose the image. This finder sits in a shoe which is coupled to the lens movement by an internal cam mechanism. It follows the lens movement by tilting to show the field of view covered by the lens.

In this position (image above) the camera is "looking straight", no perspective control movement of the lens is applied.

(By the way: the camera is not yet ready to shoot, as I didn't remove the dark slide...)

Now imagine that I am in Paris, and I want to photograph the entire Eiffel Tower from not very far away.

What I must do? Right: keep the camera leveled, with the film plane absolut parallel to the vertical axis of the construction. And I shift the lens upwards, so that I can include the top of the tower in my photograph, of course.

Just as simple as that!

The lockable knob you see protruding from the camera front, just below the lens, controls the raising and lowering of the lens by 19mm (0,75in) each way. While keeping the film plane parallel with the subject, one avoids converging verticals. Eiffel Tower won't be looking like the Leaning Tower of Pisa!

(That is, if I don't forget that dark slide...)




In the meantime, I got to the top of Eiffel Tower and want to make a panoramic view of Paris.

Do I point the camera down and shoot away? No!

No, if I brought along my trustful Corfield, and if I want to keep the surrounding buildings and constructions straight.

I just shift the lens down, so that I can include more foreground in my field of view and put the horizon line somewhere in the third upper part of my image. Half of Paris is at my feet now...

Observe that I have rotated the back to landscape format.

(And this time I didn't forget to pull the dark slide...)

Normaly I don't use the finder and use the ground-glass focusing screen instead. Using a focusing loup, it better allows me to control composition, depth-of-field at a given aperture and possible vignetting caused by the decentring of the lens.

The 6x7 format is covered even at full aperture, but if you employ movements, depending on how much you rise or lower the lens, you have to use smaller apertures, increasing the coverage progressively until a circle of 123mm is covered at f22. The rising and falling scales on the camera show clearly the recommended maximum aperture when a given displacement is used.

This is the scale that you see on the first image of this post. In that situation, the scale shows that you would have to close the aperture to f11, if you wanted to use that lens displacement. Otherweise you would have dark corners on the upper top of the image.
I find the scale to be very accurate and useful.

If you rise or lower the lens to the maximum, you need to close the aperture to f22. I think that in this case lens diffration is still very tolerable and doesn't affect yet lens sharpness very much.
I feel that somewhere between f11 and f16, you attain optimal optical perfomance. That's the apertures I prefer to use if I don't need a lot of displacement.

The 47mm Schneider Super Angulon consists of eight elements in four groups. It is multicoated and is almost symmetrical in construction and is free from distortion, even in close ups.
The lens is mounted in a smooth and engraved focusing mount with depth-of-field scale. Shortest focusing distance is 0,5m (1,6ft).

When focused on 3m (10ft) the depth of field extends from 1,5m (5ft) to infinity at f11.

(Pretty that Tesa Film...)

The beauty also looks good from the inside... Here you can better observe the british design: simple and very efficient.

No frills but lots of thrills!!!

The Corfield WA 67 was commonly fitted with a Prontor-Press shutter. I prefered to ask Mr. Brian Gould to equip my model with a Copal shutter.
I am very used to work with Copal shutters, as the majority of my large format lenses have such a shutter, and I find them to be very reliable.
In this way, I also have a better workflow when I use simultaneously the Corfield and a large format camera. That situation can happen very often, for example doing architectural work: I will use the large format camera for the exterior shots and the WA 67 for interiors.

I also asked Mr. Brian Gould to mount the Super Angulon with both scales on both sides of the camera, and not on top and below as it is common. In this way I don't have to climb over my Rimowa case, or crawl under the camera, to be able to see the scale. In a camera where you have to set everything manually, I find that it helps a lot on your comfort to do things the easy way.

For the very same reason, I would never mount that bubble level on top of the camera, but on the base. At least I would put a second one there, where I can see it easily.

In the 90's I was very intensively doing Architectural Photography. Mostly in 9x12 / 4x5". We did all the E-6 development in our studio, so It had to come to the point were I thought that I needed to simplify matters. E-6 development (color transparency) is not funny thing. It requires lots of care and accuracy. Minimal temperature deviations can cause catastrophic results. We used the relatively simple CPP2 Jobo processor, which involves lots of manual labour and attention. The amount of work didn't justify to acquire a more expensive, more automated machine. On the other hand, I didn't like to bring the transparencies to a professional lab, as we could better adapt the development times to my shooting style and necessities. We could just give some more or some less seconds on the first developer to compensate, we could just fine-tune it to our tastes...

Interior photography requires lots of bracketing, what drove the costs of sheet film very high sometimes. Very often I would do the same series of exposures with different filters to pick up the most pleasant results. Shots in dark places can become a nightmare with large format stuff. It also takes much longer to accomplish.

All that and some other reasons made me think that I should start to shift part of our production from large format to high quality medium format equipment.

I must confess that I first thought about buying a Hasselblad SWC/M equiped with the superb Carl Zeiss Biogon 38mm. As I had already other Hasselblad equipment, I could use the same magazines, and accessories. But it really bothered me that I could not use any lens movements with that camera, no matter how fine the lens, no matter how good the build quality.

For Architectural Photography, I find it of primordial importance to have the possibility of using lens movements!

So I kept looking for another solution. I don't even recall how I first knew about the WA 67, but I know that I quickly realized that it could very well solve my problems and meet my highest expectations.

After thousands of images I shot with the Corfield WA 67, I never regretted the choice I made.
Frequently it is the only camera I take along with me.

That's how much I trust my beautiful "Cory"!...

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Photo Gear (2) - 35mm for 35mm

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While I was preparing my first post on Photo Gear, photographing the Flektogon, I came to realize that over the years I had assembled and used a variety of 35mm lenses. I am talking about 35mm lenses for the 35mm film format, that is.
I still use, at least, one more 35mm lens, a Rodenstock Apo-Grandagon 35mm f. 4.5, wich is designed to be used on a 6x9 camera with shift movements, or even on a 6x12 without movements. But that is another story, that I will leave for another occasion. That 35mm in a 6x9 camera becomes a super-wide, and that is not the subject here.

Has a matter of fact, I consider 35mm, as my "normal" focal length, instead of the traditional 50mm. I think that it better suits my normal vision, the 50mm is already "croping" too much the way I look into a scene, the way I perceive reality around.

So let's think of it as a kind of normal-wide, or wide-normal, as you wish. It really doesn't matter!

To each optic, I tried to match the right body, meaning from the same or a similar age. At least more or less... I didn't exactly go check the serial numbers in some tables...

Let me just have my fun!

(All equipment photographs were shot using a Canon EF f5.6/400mm L+Canon 30D. Light was, as usual, supplied by Hensel Studiotechnik).

f 2.8/35mm Schneider Curtagon+Exakta Varex IIb

Coming from the early-sixties, a camera already shown in the previous post about Photo Gear. The rather strange Exakta, this time equiped with a Schneider Curtagon.
This is decidedly a camera not for everyone! It needs to grow on you. It took me some years, but I like it now. As you could see in the post before, I even got a "new" optic for it. Yes, you can find nice lenses for the Exakta. You just need to also find the time, because you better not use it in a rush. For myself I prefer to use it on a tripod. That's also the best way of getting true advantage of the fine optics.

f 2.8/35mm Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon+f 2.8/35mm Schneider Curtagon

Same focal distance and same aperture, both fine german optical quality (east and west), but a big difference in size! Probably due to the fact that the Flektogon can almost focus to half the distance of the Curtagon...
As far as I can say, both lenses have six elements. The Schneider must be from the (late?) sixties, and the Zeiss, in this version, comes from the seventies.
If you wish to see some other versions, please take a look on Captain Jack's Exakta Pages. Lots of interesting stuff there.

I use a variety of Zeiss and Schneider lenses on other cameras and other formats. Together with Rodenstock, they are my lenses of choice for many applications. You can find them in my Rollei's, Hasselblad's, Corfield, Horseman, etc., etc.
I also use Schneider and Rodenstock lenses in Large Format Photography, and they also equip my enlargers, together with a Leitz Focotar. More about that on a later time...

Now in closest focusing distance... Notice the long way of the Flektogon.

f 2.8/35mm Nikkor-S+Nikon F+ Photomic FTn

The camera that revolutionized the market in the sixties, robing the german's industry leading post. The real pro camera system! The working-horse par excellence...

I must confess, that I have mixed feelings about Nikon: I treasure some optics that I find outstanding, this 35mm belongs to that group, but there were some lenses that never knew how to please me... I also could never understand why Nikon made their optical-glass without half-clickstops...
I never tried the new auto-focus lenses from Nikon. When I decided to go auto-focus, I changed to Canon.

This outfit is from around 1968, and the original owner must have bought it while on duty as a pilot in Vietnam. So at least I was told by the american person who sold it to me in Germany. Each camera has it's own story. If cameras could talk...

f 2.5/35mm W-Nikkor+Calypso/Nikkor II

Another very good 35mm lens, this one connected to an amphibian armoured-tank, also from around 1968! Another strange beast, developed for diving purposes, but that I rarely used on the ocean.
Yes, sometimes I used it on the beach or in the pool, but I mainly acquired it for stormy-weather and rainy-days photography, so I won't have to sing stormy-monday by looking at my Leicas beeing soaked in the rain...

I find sharpness on this lens to be very good. I like to use it, although it is also that kind of camera that needs to get used to. I miss a light-meter on this one, as the situations when I choose to use it, are not the best to be fumbling around pointing your incident light-dome at something...

I actualy don't use it that much...

f 2.0/35mm Summicron-M+Leica M4-2+Leicameter MR

Here is my "queen of the 35's"!!! Ready to go!

I just love (almost) everything about this jewel: the compact size, the optical character, the feeling it delivers in my hands, the photographs it produces...

I show it here, paired with my first Leica-M. My first and my "youngest" Leica-M, I must add. The camera is from 1978, and I never felt need to buy a newer Leica. In fact, all other models that I later bought, are "still a little bit less young"...

I got this 35mm Summicron in 1980, and I also never was attracted to trade it for a newer aspherical design. I guess this one is really good enough for me.

I would bring it to that proverbial island...

(Along with that beautiful Joni Mitchell record, "Blue"...)

Allow me one more photograph: "naked" to be better seen..

f 2.8/35mm Distagon HFT+Rolleiflex SL 2000 F

The SL 2000 F was a revolutionary design for a 35mm camera: interchangeable film magazines, dual viewfinder system, integral motor drive, left and right hand release buttons, interchangeable screens...

It was introduced on the european market in 1981, and lenses from the SL35 series could be used on this camera. That means, that besides the cheaper (Mamiya made?) Rolleinars, you had access to the fine Carl Zeiss line of lenses offered for the Rollei 35mm cameras. The fine Planars, Distagons and Sonnars, were at your disposal by acquiring this model, that looked and fellt more like a smaller 6x6 camera than a 35mm...

Certainly developed thinking about the professional or advanced amateur market, it eventually was too much a departure from the typical design of a 35mm camera, too unusual to share wide recognition and success. It just could not win against the fierce japanese competition.

In my opinion, it is not a very reliable camera (mine is again"kaputt"!), but it surely is a pity that Rollei soon had to abandon the idea of having a 35mm camera in the market. It was their and our loss!

While I try to decide if I should, once again, repair this one, I keep on using the fine optics with the much simpler, but effective, SL35 body. You can see some images photographed by that combo on a former post about the castle of Montemor-o-Novo, made in black and white, some months ago.

The Distagon 35mm in a more frontal view, showing the Rollei - HFT logo, a similar coating-technic used by Zeiss in the T* optics. Notice the matching design of this version, using a similar pattern to the body covering. Just very nice!

Please, notice the waist-level finder in opened position.
Look at the diopter adjustment capability in the eye-level finder in the back of the camera.
Did you notice the left-hand shutter release?
The 72 frame-counter in the film magazine?
The flash synchronization socket?

Can you imagine this beauty with the possibility of an interchangeable digital back?

"Oh Lord, won't you give us nice cameras again? All my friends are driving DSLR's..."

And the winner is...

(After all said and done)

Enjoy!

P.S.: I dedicate this post to a photographer, Rui Lebreiro, who is looking for a prime 35mm. I wish him luck and a good time!

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