21mm lens hunt

G

goodmorning

Newbie
Local time
11:24 PM
Joined
May 11, 2006
Messages
10
any kobalux 21mm's available for sale, preferably black. need to get wider....
new firmware sounds good- soon I'll have time to load it.
thanks,
jeff
 
I stared at one in an eBay store for about 30 days not long ago. It was in the $500-600 range -- pricey for me. They seem to appear there 2-3 times a year, sometimes under other names (they had the brand Avenon and Adorama as well some other brand names I can't remember). I'd die to have one ad an affordable price. Any one else know if they can be found anywhere ?
 
Last edited:
I got mine about a month ago on the rangefinder forum. I'de been looking for about 6 months. I just put a WTB add in the classified and it worked! It is a like new chrome copy and I paid less than $500.00 for it!
It's a great lens but it does have some front focus issue. Non of my other lens do this so it is not the camera body. However at 21mm depth of field isnt a great concern. It takes some doing to even see it in a test but it does front focus about 3" at one meter. I'm still running tests to see if it has any practical significience but meanwhile I use the lens and am happy.
I could grind down the adapter ring about .010 and that would fix the problem. Of course the adapter ring would have to be dedicated to the lens after that. Its not that hard to do, I just dont know yet if vit is even necessary or I'm just nit-picking.

Rex
 
From memory, the 2nd generation had 6 aperture blades and the 3rd gen. 8 blades. Could be wrong though...

 
peter_n said:
From memory, the 2nd generation had 6 aperture blades and the 3rd gen. 8 blades. Could be wrong though...

Click to expand...

Hi Peter... you are right. Only other significant difference is that the generation three lens focuses down to 0.7m.
 
Well I don't know about the black one but my silver one has 6 blades and focuses down to one meter only. Damn! and I thought I was satisfied!

Rex
 
rvaubel said:
It's a great lens but it does have some front focus issue...
I could grind down the adapter ring about .010 Rex
Click to expand...
I had the same issue with a new-in-box Kobalux I got last year. It was the latest version. I tried grinding the adapter down a bit, but it made no noticeable difference, so I gave up on it. Later I sold it and got a s/h non-asph Elmarit. I have to admit that I'm much happier with the Leica lens, and I'd recommend going that route, if you have the budget.

The main advantage over the 21/4 CV lens is the lack of vignetting with the Kobalux (or the Elmarit). The sharpness wide open isn't that great, though it's certainly useable. On the other hand, the 2.8 lenses are a lot bigger and heavier than the CV.
 
pfogle said:
I had the same issue with a new-in-box Kobalux I got last year. It was the latest version. I tried grinding the adapter down a bit, but it made no noticeable difference, so I gave up on it...
Click to expand...
The thinner adaptor moves the lens closer to the film, yes, but it also moves the lens's RF cam surface inward as well, changing the RF indication of focus distance to match. Futile, right? If the focus is good at infinity, then I'd say the adaptor is ok, and the adjustment that's needed is to the lens's RF cam surface (in the region for closer focus) instead.
 
Dougg
I had this conversation about front focusing before. The end result was that if indeed it front focuses enough to notice it, a MAJOR amount of material would have to be removed from the adapter. My particular lens front focuses by around 4 or 5" at 1 meter which would require removal of about .010". That's a lot!
Your right (I think) about only doing this surgery if the lens has the same problem at infinity. That is harder to check as you can't focus "past" infinity to bracket the results. However, I think it is near focusing at infinity. Just an educated hunch.
I think that the Kobalux 21mm is a much better lens than it is given credit for because of this problem that I think is inherent in at least the version 2 example I have. I'm still working on it but got distracted by a Canon 50mmf1.2

Rex
 
Didn't someone post recently here or on Photo.net about being in japan and seeing a number of those lenses for sale used?

Or was I just making that memory up from some sort of RF dream?
 
Josh
No, you were not hallucenating. Somebody found a few black ones in one of those huge Tokyo camera zoos. If I remember they were running about $600-750 if my conversion and memory are right. That's pretty cheap. Apparently, they are not as rare over there as they are in the rest of the world.

Rex
 
rvaubel said:
Josh
No, you were not hallucenating. Somebody found a few black ones in one of those huge Tokyo camera zoos. If I remember they were running about $600-750 if my conversion and memory are right. That's pretty cheap. Apparently, they are not as rare over there as they are in the rest of the world.

Rex
Click to expand...

Forum member & then RD-1 owner Mike Tokue (who does not seem to have been around of late, where are you these days Mike?) found and negotiated a great price for the whole batch of 21mm Avenons and sold them to forum members (mainly R-D1 owners) at cost. They were all new, black, latest (4th) type. See: http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5408

Mine like Phil's had the same front focus issue you describe with yours, but we knew what we were getting as there was some discussion (with examples) on this in the above or a related thread at the time. Personally I have found 3" at about a meter not to be much of an issue with this 21mm even though its 32mm on the R-D1. If wide open & close in and if I have the time to be critical I focus on say an ear rather than an eye. I have got use to using this solution as I have the same front focus problem on my 35mm Cron (3rd type) with the R-D1, where it is slightly more of a problem. DOF covers it at smaller apertures and greater distances.

My R-D1 rangefinder is perfect and it is only these two of my lenses that have the front focus problem, they focus perfectly on my M4. It does seem to to down to how the cam follower wheel engages the cam.

Jim
 
Jim
The fact that your Kobalux front focuses on your R-D1 but not your M4 is interesting. My RD has a nearly perfect rangefinder too, as evidenced by its performance on a half dozen other lenses including a Canon 50mm f1.2
I know logic says that the DOF should take care of any front focusing problems, but at 100% something just plain looks slightly wrong. This manifests itself more at infinity wide open which isnt needed very often (unless your in love with your neutral density filters). I'm determined to look into this in more depth someday over the rainbow, because I think this lens is a real sleeper that will be perfect for the new M8.

Rex
 
rvaubel said:
Jim
I'm determined to look into this in more depth someday over the rainbow, because I think this lens is a real sleeper that will be perfect for the new M8.

Rex
Click to expand...
Rex,
As the lens focuses fine on a film Leica it will be interesting to see what happens when the M8 appears. This lens will be a 28mm on the M8 and I'm hoping that the built in finder will cover it. It may be academic for me though if I can't afford the camera.
Jim
 
Jim
I know what you mean about the M8 being academic because of price. But somehow...somehow..

Dreamin in Bezerkeley
Rex
 
It's more money but I strongly recommend the Zeiss 21/2.8 that I reviewed recently. It's an outstanding lens.

Cheers,

Sean
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom