Plaubel Makina-mount - use a different body?

[Tveljus]

Howdy!

I have recently procured a working Plaubel Makina I (technically not a rangefinding camera, although the Makina II was and used the same lens-mount if I've understood it correctly) and although it is working just fine, I'd like to research any optional camera bodies for using the lens I got with it.

I'm not quite sure if this is the correct forum for this question, but I hope so. Otherwise I hope some admin will be kind enough to move this thread to where it belongs. 🙂

Anyways - the alternate body preferably should have a ground glass covering 6x9 medium format or 4x5 large format, although I could manage with a rangefinder as well - but then it has to have the option to add a viewfinder for 28mm FOV (the lens is a 6cm).

Does anyone have any tips?

 

[sevo]

The original Makina had a fixed lens. Even before the Makina II, that gradually changed. First they went over to lenses sold as two-cell kits to be user screwed into the front and back of the shutter - the difference in these over older lenses are the beaded cell rims, so that the cells unscrew without tools. At least my late I has straight rim cells with the same shutter thread, so it (or a shutter culled from a I of that series) could take II lense cells. With the IIS, Plaubel went over to regular bayonet mounted lenses in front of the shutter.

The thread dimensions of the shutter aren't entirely common, but not Plaubel proprietary either - if you can't find a matching shutter to screw your Rapid Weitwinkel Orthar into, you might need to have an adapter ring cut.

That said, none of the Makina lenses are so good that it is really worth while adapting them...

 

[Tveljus]

I see, that is a clarification of what I've read previously, thanks!

The thing is I got a very rare lens with my Makina I, it's a Carl Zeiss Jena Goerz-Dagor 1:9 f=6cm. There's only 25 of them manufactured ever, and as 6cm is a pretty fun focal length on 6x9 I'd like to be able to use it a lot.

I just unscrewed the lens, without tools, and there was no cell behind the shutter. There are however screw threads behind the shutter on my camera. So I guess that means my Makina I is a late one as well, right?

Do you know of something matching that straight rim thread?

Oh, and I gotta squeeze in a second question as well: There is a piece of card or cardboard or something, covered in the black cloth of the side of the viewfinder shade, and this piece of card seems stuck onto the right side of the viewfinder. Like it has been jammed in between the shade and the ground glass. It covers at least 1/5 of the viewfinder, which is very annoying, but it doesn't seem to be removable without force. Do you know what it could be?

 

[sevo]

The thing is I got a very rare lens with my Makina I, it's a Carl Zeiss Jena Goerz-Dagor 1:9 f=6cm. There's only 25 of them manufactured ever, and as 6cm is a pretty fun focal length on 6x9 I'd like to be able to use it a lot.

Cool. But that there is no rear cell behind the shutter sounds as if you might have something different: Dagors are "convertible", that is, using only the front cell you have a (half speed) lens with 1.75 the focal length. Someone seems to have used that to repair a lens-less Makina by mounting a stray (in this state 10.5cm) Dagor front cell to the front thread!

You said that the camera works, does it do so by extending half way to a (presumably customized) 6cm scale and strut lock, or does it work (and focus) at the full 10cm extension? If the latter, you positively have a 105mm converted Dagor front cell...

I just unscrewed the lens, without tools, and there was no cell behind the shutter. There are however screw threads behind the shutter on my camera. So I guess that means my Makina I is a late one as well, right?

No, it means someone has either adapted all cells of a Dagor to the front thread (quite unlikely - a complete lens mounted in front of the shutter, with auxiliary barrel and thread adapter, would be glaringly obvious), or omitted the rear cell (as explained above). All non-bayonet Makinas I had do unscrew - but the supposedly fixed lens ones need a lens key for the first time, as the cells have no gripping surface and their threads seem to be secured with thread locker rather than greased.

Oh, and I gotta squeeze in a second question as well: There is a piece of card or cardboard or something, covered in the black cloth of the side of the viewfinder shade, and this piece of card seems stuck onto the right side of the viewfinder. Like it has been jammed in between the shade and the ground glass. It covers at least 1/5 of the viewfinder, which is very annoying, but it doesn't seem to be removable without force. Do you know what it could be?

Might be parts of the shade wall that have disintegrated and become lodged under the glass frame. Or someone has built himself a proprietary mask and screwed or glued it on (for whatever purpose).

 

[Tveljus]

Cool. But that there is no rear cell behind the shutter sounds as if you might have something different: Dagors are "convertible", that is, using only the front cell you have a (half speed) lens with 1.75 the focal length.

Ah, I had no idea!!!

This could of course be the case, although there are some things that speak against it:

1. The auction house WestLicht listed the lens as being one of only 25 produced, not as the "front cell of a lens made in only 25 copies".
2. The camera works by extending half way to a, just as you say, customized point (locked by a removable screw). I suppose this talks more towards it actually being a full Dagor-lens, right?
3. When I shot my testshots with the camera, I exposed after the aperture settings displayed on the lens, not the half speed. If I'm not missing something essential here, this would mean that if my shots came out well exposed (which they did, although on the rather forgiving tmax 100) the lens would be complete and not just the front cell.

Also, the lens seems to display a wide angle field of view, but I can't swear on it since I haven't used a 6x9 before and therefore have a hard time comparing it to other shots.

You can check my test shots at my Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tveljus/sets/72157627438762779/

Might be parts of the shade wall that have disintegrated and become lodged under the glass frame. Or someone has built himself a proprietary mask and screwed or glued it on (for whatever purpose).

It isn't under the glass, it's in front of the glass but behind the frame around the glass! Very peculiar.
A friend as well as the seller also suggested it could be some kind of mask. It doesn't appear to be glued, at least not to the glass. Maybe I'll try to remove it, although I'd hate to ruin the viewfinder back in any way. 🙁

 

[sevo]

1. The camera works by extending half way to a, just as you say, customized point (locked by a removable screw). I suppose this talks more towards it actually being a full Dagor-lens, right?

Right - if there is a custom extension lock to 6cm, it cannot be a converted Dagor.

 

[Tveljus]

Thanks a lot for the help, it really cleared up a few things!