An SLR lens like the Tri-Elmar?

[Hamster]

I was wondering if anyone ever made a SLR lens like the Tri-Elmar. I know there was a Soligor Dualfocal.

The reason I am interested is because I would like to keep my near/far perspective consistent in a series of photographs.

Also would like to know if the Tri-Elmar was a Tessar-type design?

 

[Tim Gray]

I can't answer your first question. Though if you were happy with the focal lengths, you could just use all the way 'zoomed out' and 'zoomed in' as two 'fixed' focal lengths on an SLR zoom lens.

I don't think the Tri-Elmars are Tessar type designs. In fact, I'm pretty sure they aren't. Tessars are 4 elements in 3 groups. The Tri-Elmars have a lot more than that going on.

 

[Beemermark]

I can't answer your first question. Though if you were happy with the focal lengths, you could just use all the way 'zoomed out' and 'zoomed in' as two 'fixed' focal lengths on an SLR zoom lens.

I don't think the Tri-Elmars are Tessar type designs. In fact, I'm pretty sure they aren't. Tessars are 4 elements in 3 groups. The Tri-Elmars have a lot more than that going on.

I can't remember the particulars but a couple of companies produced lens like the Tri-elmar. The advantage was they were smaller, sharper and faster than a corresponding zoom, or at least that was the claim. I think they were all non-OEM (like Vivitar). I don't think they ever over came the advantages of zoom and didn't sell well.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

The Tri-Elmar IS a zoom, just like any other zoom except that its zoom ring is made to lock in at the 3 focal lengths that people use it at. This is cause rangefinder cameras only have framelines for a few focal lengths, while an SLRs finder shows the correct framing no matter what you zoom the lens to.

 

[Sonnar Brian]

Is the tri-elmar a true zoom, or a Variable Focus Lens? A zoom maintains constant focus across the zoom range. A Variable-Focus lens requires the focus to change as the focal length is changed. I'm guessing it might be easier to do a Variable-Focus lens for an RF, as you need to accommodate a CAm anyway.

Vivitar made a Series I Variable Focus lens in the late 1970s. It was reputed to be very sharp, doing away with the compensation portion of a typical zoom.

 

[jke]

The current (d)SLR Tri-Elmar might be something like the Canon EF 17-40mm f4.0 L lens. Granted that has a wider range than the Tri-Elmar, but it fills the same general function. Nikon and Canon both used to make a "short" zoom that was 20-35mm but at f2.8. Canon's version was even available in FD mount, so it has been around for a while. Again, not quite the same range as the Tri-Elmar but close. And both Canon and Nikon make a 24-70mm zoom that are very popular among photographers, but those are both f2.8 lenses, not f4.0. And they are relatively large. The 17-40mm Canon lens is the only one that really comes close to the focal length range, f-stop and size, and it is still larger.