Comments on using the Visoflex?

Roger. it was a great race and it was also before all the restrictions on access to pits,drivers and track. We arrived a couple of days early, stayed in our Citroen HY (looks like a corrugated shed) and had free access to pits and track area for the trials and the set-up. Even if you are not a great fan of motor sport, it is something else at the 24 hour race. You go to sleep for a couple of hours with the sound of engines screaming during the night, get up with the sun and shoot the activity in the pits, watching cars coming in, covered in oil and dirt, pieces flopping off the bodywork, drivers exchanged, fuel and tires replaced and out they go - all 4-5 feet in front of you!
There is this smell of fuel, burnt oil, food and cigarette smoke - mixed in with the more pungent smell from the fact that there are about 3 toilets for 250 000 spectators - stuck there for at least 30 hours!
On the monday after, we left (wise drivers wait until the after the race - facing spectators who have been watching cars going 200 mph) and we also found the best croissants I have ever had at an early morning bakery.
 
I'm still kicking myself for not buying the 180/2.8 Tele-Elmarit with preset diaphragm in Visoflex II mount when I had the chance in the early seventies. I heard that they only made a couple of hundred in V-II mount. The guy wanted $200 back then. Astro Berlin made (makes?) a bunch of fast long focus lenses with interchangeable adapters, including Visoflex II. I had a 150/2.3 Astro Pan Tachar until it got stolen. They also made a 150/1.8.

Does anybody have any information on a Visoflex II that has interchangeable focussing screens? Mine has the ground glass mounted in an aluminum frame that slides in place at the top of the mirror box. Otherwise it looks like a regular V-II. I was told that it was a Visoflex IIs, with the "s" standing for "scientific", and that other screens were available, including a clear screen with cross hairs for focussing an arial image.

It's fairly easy to modify a number of those cheap 400mm f/6.3 telephotos from the 1960's to get infinity focus on the V-II and III. Probably the most common is the Spiratone. I have a Sterling Howard Tele-Astranar which I modified years ago, and it was sharp enough to shoot a couple of record album covers. One of them was used as an inside fold-out, so the image is about 12.5 X 25 inches. CD covers just don't have that kind of visual impact!
 
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Al Kaplan said:
other screens were available, including a clear screen with cross hairs for focussing an arial image.
Click to expand...

If you want any Viso parts, ask Don Goldberg. Easy to Google him, and he's a -great- guy. I recently bought an M5 arm from him for $10, that would have cost me $70, to order from Leitz. And they would have had to special order it from Germany. A Viso III screen (which I replaced myself in five minutes) cost me $20.

My Viso II prism had a big chip in the bottom magnifying lens, which I found visually annoying (but Hey, only paid $11 for it) but DAG had a replacement magnifying lens for $20, which I also swapped out in five minutes. A truly great Viso resource. He might have your Viso IIa screens, and I'll bet he knows all about them.
 
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I also use Visoflex II and III ...on M2 and M5 respectively

LeicaVisoflex2.jpg
 
I just bought a M2 with a lot of other stuff. When I got home I explained that it was such a good deal because I could sell the other stuff... So I´ve got a Visoflex (III I think - how do I know?) an OUBIO adapter, 200/4 telyt, two adapter rings for close focus, an orange filter and a UV filter. All in user/beater condition but everything seems to be working. How much would this be worth? Of course I will have to take some shots before I sell it. Are there any issues with the Visoflex system that I should pay attention to? Anything that a future buyer will ask?

/Ola
 
Comments on using the Visoflex?

Hello everybody,
I also enjoy (although I admit not very often) using a Viso III and some lenses: Elmarit 135mm lens head, 200mm Telyt and 280mm Telyt. All of them really nice stuff!
I didn't give up yet hope on getting one day a 65mm Elmar and I also find the 400 and 560 an excellent outfit to add if opportunity arrives. As a matter of fact, I recently acquired a 5.6/400mm L, and I really hesitated if I should get a Telyt instead...
Some time ago I also started a thread on this forum about eventual interest on a modern Visoflex, maybe paired with a couple of modern lenses versions.
Greetings to all,
Rui
 
Modern lens versions would be nice! A 180 Apo would be fantastic! But then so would a re-issue by Zeiss of the original 1938 180mm Olympic Sonnar.
 
Amoebahydra, how COULD you? Put a chrome Sonnar on a black M7 camera body? Shame, shame! It would look just SO much better on my old M3...
 
At Last! 90mm F2 in Viso Mount!

At Last! 90mm F2 in Viso Mount!

Here's M2 with my brand-new Leitz Canada ZOOEP 90mm F2 Summicron Visoflex short-mount adapter. Works beautifully, a perfect match to my lens barrel, very bright to look through, even with an orange filter. Also got two chrome Canadian OUEPO extension tubes for this rare, and hard-to-find Viso helical.

I'm off to burn some Eastman XX:
 

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