Frankenstein lens! LC-A Minitar in m39

[thafred]

Oh, damn this winter nights!

my bored brain got me into this...yesterday evening i finaly slaughtered my Lomo (which was wrecked beyond repair) for its viewfinder (this will become a very nice 35mm hotshoe finder) and discovered that the optical block can be taken out as a whole without too much trouble! since I have a 2nd Summar lens wich was murdered by acid on the front glass (don´t ask :bang🙂 I thought of frankensteining them together.

Protoype I
I "friction fitted" the lens with gaffer tape and plastic tubes into the mount of the "disassembled" (heavy tools! lol ) Leitz Summar. the lens sits deep enough to reach infinity but has another travel from inf. to 1m than a m-39 lens. I set the focus so that the lens is sharp and coupled with the rf at 2 meters.
It now focuses as close as 50cm and goes far beyond infinity at the other end but I figured that I´d rather shoot pics in the near range so a little help from the RF is nice. shooting is wide open only btw (well untill I make some apertures lensbaby style)
I confirmed the focus with a loupe and groundglass and wrote the distances on the taped barrel.

tomorrow I will shoot this cutie, Im really looking forward to see if I can get pictures out of this 😀

To infinity and beyond!!

 

[erikhaugsby]

Wow, that's something you don't see everyday...shame that you can't get it to focus closer than 5m...

 

[darkkavenger]

I hope it'll turn out good! 🙂

 

[thafred]

he erik,
it´s close focus is 1/2 a meter! if I would adjust infinity to match infinity on the lens mount it would work as a makro lens at the mount´s 1m setting 😀

 

[thafred]

thanks Max! I´ll go to bed now and tomorrow I´ll report back!
godnight everyone!

 

[Scarpia]

Thats not a minetar but a minotaur. Looks like fun, though. Good luck with it.
Kurt M.

 

[Ash]

That poor summar!!!

I was thinking along those lines, but on a different tangent - a cheap way to get a 1.8 lens on my Standard would be to mount a faster non-leica lens onto a previous m39 base (I only need scale focus on a Standard) ... so maybe butcher an enlarger lens. that way hopefully I get all aperture and distance scale focus.

Course, that is a project that has to fight with the LF enlarger (which could be chucked in light of the next idea) and the 4x5 back for the half-plate field cam - I'm going to make a 4x5 reduction back, and while I'm at it I may as well make a plain back and diffusion head too 😀

So that's at least 3 projects for me to do if the weather doesnt clear up! Can't wait to see your results with the lens!

 

[thafred]

Scarpia
Thats not a minetar but a minotaur. Looks like fun, though. Good luck with it.
Kurt M.

haha...thanks Kurt! lets just hope it´s a minotaur and not a monocle!

Ash
That poor summar!!!

Hi Ash, yes that summar had seen better days but I´m glad to finally have a use for it!
Winter Projects are fun! I´m looking forward to see your Projects Ash! The enlarger Lens project sounds interesting but I´m not sure about infinity focus with an enlarger lens. anyone have a word on this?

When it´s too cold or cloudy to get out photographing is were the fun doesan´t have to stop!
the problem is that in Austria we have beautyfull weather and light all day long and I´m sitting stupidly at my desk at work (at least until it´s dark :bang: :bang: :bang: )

The BessaLomo is loaded with Agfa Ultra Film and I´m soon (lunchbrake) going to photograph the heck out of it 🙂

 

[Ash]

I'd only use the mount, as enlarger lenses became standard in m39.. I'd know the lens would mount properly then, and place the lens so it was collimated. I ran into a hitch when I was thinking about it in bed though - my only LTM body left is a Screwmount Leica!!!! I can't see through the film plane so I can't experiment with focus!!

 

[vicmortelmans]

i finaly slaughtered my Lomo (which was wrecked beyond repair) for its viewfinder (this will become a very nice 35mm hotshoe finder)

Please report on this as well! I'm also looking into creating a 35mm viewfinder! My latest (drawing table) design is a waist level viewfinder and only needs one concave and one convex element and a mirror. But I didn't make any calculations on required focal lengths for the elements or dimensions yet. It would allow for having an (external) wireframe for accurate image composition... I've got some lens elements at my disposal from a disassembled Canonet, some tiny elements out of a Canon IXUS and old glasses.

Groeten,

Vic

 

[thafred]

Hi Vic,
I will post a picture when I´m finished with the VF!
Btw...do you know this Link: http://jay.fedka.com/index_files/Page358.htm
Very good idea from Jay!

 

[thafred]

It Works!

It Works!

the results are kinda questionable but I think it does the whole "lomography" justice...
It looks like the lens is tilted a little so the plane of focus is anywhere ;-)

 

[thafred]

some more pics I did when driving to work..

 

[trittium]

Very impressive

 

[thafred]

Thanks Trittium

Update:
Yesterday I recalibrated the Lens so infinity Focus is the same as the Focus mount´s inf. ....near focus is now 36cm or just over 14in.
Will be interesting to explore the world at 14inches 🙂

I also did my best to ensure the lens aint tilted in the mount.

overall it´s the most crappy lens I have and shows just how good the Leica or FSU m-39 stuff really is!

 

[erikhaugsby]

he erik,
it´s close focus is 1/2 a meter!

oops, I misread your 50cm as something not 50cm...those damn "Standard" measurements really mess with your head!

 

[thafred]

Haha...I know how U feel...
my Cron Coll. is in inches only (export version)..it gives me a hard time guess focusing 🙂

Why can´t we get along with one unit only :angel:

 

[thafred]

Thought I´d post a short update on the frankenstein lens.

Used it lightly now in street photography and it´s really amazing that the lens isn´t half as bad as I´d like it to be ;-)
I shot Sensia 200 with it (wide Open at 2.8..still have no apertures for it ;-) and the original slides look really amazing! (even if overexposed at 2000th shutter speed in bright daylight)
quite low contrast but sharp and nearly no vignetting before contrast adjustment...only very soft corners can be seen. but it looks nice and wideangleish, also it´s by far the smallest lens I have!! so I like it and will use it some more in the future.

a few pics for you to enjoy...would like to hear what you guys think of the quality....esp. the bokehshot with the old woman.....imho could be used to show what really bad bokeh looks like 😀 (all you Nokton bashers take a look at THAT!)

contrast bumped up pretty high, that´s how I like the vignetting!

 

[Ash]

cool, looks good!

you could make yourself a lens-hood, then make a slit in the side and use waterhouse stops as apertures. that's what people used to do with old barrel lenses. maybe even a wheel aperture disc? 🙂

 

[thafred]

hey ash! hehe, wheel aperture disc is a great idea! how cool would that look combined with a turret finder 😀
I like the lens hood with slit suggestion very much! I was thinking of just one aperture to tape to the front or something (kiss) but the lens hood thing would be much better!

thanks for your ideas mate!
Fred

P.s. how did your enlarger lens project turn out?