Acall 135mm screwmount

[Skinny McGee]

I have not been shooting anything lately.. so today I decided to break the dulldrum.. Before I took my hiatus I bought an Acall 135 for dirt cheap.. So today I strapped it to my Lovely 111a with Leica VIOOH and set out to see the color capability and Depth of this lens.

Well, one thing I did learn is trying to figure out all the parallex with the VIOOH can be quite interesting in such a small frame.. The other thing about the lens is it is along way to turn from 5 to 6 feet..

The film is Walgreens 200 (Agfa). The first two are @5.6 (1)Stop sign in focus (2)flag in focus ( sorry for the dirty scanner). What I found is that all the shots that I shot @ F22 have the same spot as shot(3)....The lens has its hood but no filters.
not a bad lens at all... i need a little practice with the parallex

 

[Skinny McGee]

Are the 135mm brightline finders self parallexed or do they have to be adjusted?

 

[payasam]

Bright line finders for lenses longer than normal almost always need to be adjusted manually, because the effect of distance on parallax is so great. Canon made some models, such at the VT Deluxe I had, with an ingenious method of tilting accessory finders up and down: a small rod moved by the focussing cam of the lens. The 28mm finder of this type that I had was not a bright line one. At least one other maker (sorry, name forgotten) resorted to a rather ungainly external coupling. It worked, though.

 

[dberger]

The Acall brightline has a parallax dial around the eyepiece -- it's pretty good, but not as good or well-built as Leitz's or Canon's. Any brightline 135mm finde will do, though. The best I've used is one from Minolta, made for the Super A; it has a projected frame (rather than reflected, like the others) that is very comfortable and never disappears.

Cheers,

David

 

[egpj]

Skinny,

You said you are using the Leica VIOOH. AS I recall, at the base that attaches to the camera there is a little tab that you move according to how far the object you are framing. Now mind you, I am not sure if we are talking about the same finder. Could you not focus on the object using the lens then read the distance off the lens barrel to the object and then transfer that distance to the finder for framing? Anyway, like I said, I am not sure what finder it is you have. Peace.

 

[Skinny McGee]

yeah , i am really not having that much trouble with the finder except for remembering to adjust in between shots.. The main thing is this spot @ f22 as in shot #3.. That was in all the shots that I took @f22.

 

[OldNick]

The f/5.6 shots seem to be very clear. At f/16, all of the image would be passing through the very center of the lens. Using a small flashlight, can you see anything unusual about the center part of the lens elements? Since it is receiving more illumination than the other parts of the image, it seems some sort of internal reflection might be occurring. Are there any black flakes visible between elements that could indicate that the antireflective paint on the inside of the lens barrel is peeling?

Jim N.

 

[payasam]

Any finder of the correct focal length will do, David, but the parallax markings on a finder made for one body may not be good for another body. Need to test.

Skinny, is it that you have a VIOOH and are wondering if you should get a bright line finder in addition to it or in its place? The masks in the VIOOH do get smaller as focal length increases, but with a screw Leica it is about as accurate as a finder can get. Bright line finders have commonly been made only for single focal lengths, which is a limitation.

Glenn, the method you describe is precisely the one used with any finder with manual parallax adjustment. A common time saver, one which I use, is to keep the distance on my VIOOH at 10 feet or so and simply aim the camera higher or lower for nearer or farther subjects. Obviously this cannot be good enough for lenses longer than normal, unless framing is loose and wasted film area is acceptable. If I'd had a 135, I wouldn't dream of trying this trick with it. I do it with my longest, an 85, only if there's a terrific hurry; and of course I often forget to compensate in this way, as Skinny sometimes forgets to set the distance on his VIOOH.

A problem with all accessory finders is that while tilting them can take care of their distance from the lens axis (parallax), one must be careful to consider their absolute position if one is not to get the classic pole growing up from someone's head.