Lens adaptation chronicles

I haven't been communicative on this subject because until now I hadn't seen a post fit to respond to and I've been hesitant to start my own thread. I've never seen an "odd" optic, but I use some unconventional lenses - Alpa, Kilfitt,, Novoflex, Meyer, Schacht, to name a few.

If I know Kilfitt, Meyer, Schacht etc. were lens manufacturers. Alpa, Novoflex with others rebranded their products but did not make any lenses by themselves.

I'm one of them, if I'm making a comparison for myself.

I agree, you are right, if making scientific comparison.

I wasn't aware that this thread had anything to do with who made what. They are lenses, and to me they are unconventional.

Indeed, very interesting ones - and I doubt @TimoK meant anyone would object to sharing stories about those! I'm personally happy reading that there are actually a couple more people left here with an interest in unconventional and lesser known lenses and I'm looking forward to everyone's contributions, be it stories, experiences or images. Please feel invited to share some of your images in the "Through Your Adapted Lens" thread as well! 👍

As to the question above on my intentions with this thread: (the wider intentions of the site editors with an alt-lens headline ,is theirs to defend) I related the process of how I came to be using a library of optics. Starting with just a fascination for picturing my surroundings then pursuing smaller and lighter equipment,giving up the chemical route to pictures and discovering that high quality lenses could be had cheaply to fit "short mounts" while keeping my enjoyment of enlargements. All in all an attempt to tempt others to follow suit. Along the postal route here I have enjoyed discussions on how to asess lenses by publishing results. When looking at some of my recordings of local subjects I doubt whether they can help anyone select a particular optic not blessed by the camera maker. But for those who like full size snaps, here is one from the marketplace nearest to where i live.

p,

For some time most of my photos with these lenses are going to be of a scale or tape measure, as there are no adapters available for Leica R or Nikon F without a corrective lens for infinity focus and I plan to make tables of focus distances and magnification ratios.. I think I may get close to infinity with my 90 f/2.8 Schacht Alpa-Atelar and L-39 Visoflex.

Is that a lens head in the early small abyonet mount and supposed to be used on the alpa-extensan helix? My Alpa stuff is securely stowed away so too time consuming to check.

Also, the Visoiflex II and III both have a female M bayonet , so you would need an adapter with male M to female extensan. Otherwise, both the chimney viewer and the prism provide the brightest manual focussing i have ever experienced

p.

That seems like a very interesting lens! Do you know if it's related to the Schacht 90 mm f/2.8 Travenar R? That's a fine lens if so and I'm sure the Alpa version is even more refined/has improved quality control. I feel like Schacht doesn't have the name recognition, but they were actually a fine manufacturer. I also find it interesting that both Alpa and Novoflex seem to have had deals with the same german lens manufacturers, sometimes even for the same lenses. And with each other as well apparently as some of the Alpa bellows stuff is Novoflex made.

If there's an Alpa version of the M-Travegon 50 mm f/2.8, I'm sure that must be a terrific lens as well...

Yes, it is the lens head for the small bayonet Extensan focusing helix.
I have a Kilfitt Visoflex Reflex Finder (L-39) and a Leitz Visoflex II or III (not sure which) LM mount, and LM to L-39 adapters (1mm thick). My Alpa adapter is female small bayonet to male L-39. I have L-39 adapters for Exakta, Leica R and M, and Nikon F (BR-15 ring).
Old Leica reflex viewfinders are indeed incredible even by today's standards. The Leica Compendium mentions them, and says the Leicaflex SL2 mirror has 17 coats of pure silver. I believe the Visoflex magnifies 5x, and that really aids focusing.

Sorry, I know nothing of the 90 f/2.8 Travenar R. A. Schacht made several different model lenses, and I don't know the differences between them. I have a couple of Travegar lens heads, L-39 thread: 100 f/3.3 and 105 f/3.5. I also have two 135 f/4.5 Travegons, one a lens head, L-39 thread and one in an Exakta focusing mount. These are among the several dozen lenses I plan to start testing. I'm especially interested in side-by-side comparisons of the 135 f/4.5 Travegon and Exakta mount 135 f/2.8 Steinheil Munchen Quinar VL, as well as the 90 f/2.8 Alpa-Atelar with my 90 f/2.8 Elmarit-R. Fun times ahead!

Sounds like fun, indeed! Hope you'll share some of your results here!

That will be a first for me - I'd rather be out with my cameras, but trying to recover from some serious mobility issues so this is about the best I can do at present.

Sorry to hear that - all the best wishes for a good recovery! I feel like comparing lenses can be quite a bit of fun, even though I personally prefer not to get too technical about it and try to shoot something close to what I'd usually do... just using two or more lenses instead of one.

Hope you recover soon.
Thanks,
barondla

Appreciate the well-wishes. Soon as I get a back transplant, I'll be fine!

So, you use the famous Kilfitt reflex viewer. Out of curiosity I bought the original black Novoflex box called Reproflex which is much dimmer than the Leitz creations, but it and the visoflex kit only gathers dust now since I gave away my M6 to a grandchilld. The R8/9s are more convenient when using film. My Zoom-R-optics are reasonably good and more convenient than changing fixed focal lenghts. Also the fisheye, macros and very long lenses are either only available or easier to use on those. And for sharpness hypochondriacs both the 100 elmarit and the ordinary 60 provides more than the second version of the 65.

p.

I’ve only used the Kilfitt viewer for some macro work with my (Cosina) Voightländer Bessa L - my interest here is just to see what magnification ratio and focus distance I achieve with the 90mm Alps Atelar. (I seldom shoot anything at infinity.)
Interesting you should mention sharpness hypochondriacs. My 50 f/2.0 Summicron and 58 f/2.0 Zeiss Biotar were always plenty sharp, as were my 75 f/1.5 Zeiss Biotar, 90 f/2.8 Elmarit-R and 90 f/2.0 Summicron-R. Nevertheless, I got a wild hair a few years ago and bought a couple of Zeiss Otus lenses, 55 f/1.4 and 85 f/1.4. They are certainly a joy to use, though.