Avenon, Komura, Kobalux LTM Jackpot!! Deadstock Avenon 21mm f2.8!

Avenon, Komura, Kobalux lenses
David,
Could the problem be due to the shape of the cam on the Kobalux you have not meeting thr R-D1 cam follower correctly? This seems to be the problem with the 35mm Crons that I have reported on and which of course do not use an adapter. I would think that this would be across at least a series of the lens though and Mike does not have a problem with his. Could all be down to tolerences???
 
Just caught up with reading these posts. Looks like all the 21mm lenses are taken, but if there is a waiting list, or you come across any more, please count me in.

Regards,

Alan
 
The Outcome.

The Outcome.

OK Gents.
I have Two pieces of Bad news and Two that are good.
Which first The good or the Bad.

Hmmmmm.

OK BAD News First!
It had been Raining all day! Thus I have not been able to get any shots
as I had planned!
My Haggling has only managed to lower the price to 315 pounds from 340
I'm sorry, I tried But that, I believe was the Limit before actually getting the guy annoyed!
It terns out he is/was friends with Mr Kobayashi ( I don't think the same as CV)
of YK Optical in Yokohama. And he purchased the remaining stock when the
company folded. FYI thats why the name KobaLux ...
The GOOD News:
He had gathered 12 together by the time I had got there Today. He believes that
given a few more days he should be able to dig out a few more.
He showed me his "Stockroom" Racks of boxes Floor to cieling with no Idea
as to whats where!!
I did manage to get one shot off outside It Is Very dark but I dont see a
Focusing problem.

So I will Try my luck tomorrow but the weather forcast is not good.
Maybe at the supermarket or somewhere like that.
 
My observations having Played around with the Lens for a
short while.
The Build quality seems to be better than my silver version
which I have been told is a second version.
There are now click stops in between the aptures.
The apture selection is much more precise/solid.

So to recap
There are 9 lenses spoken for out of a current total of 12
There may be a few more, But these are definately the last
batch out of the company as it Folded.
The Lens Costs 315 pounds, Postage depending on where to.
Plus a small contribution towards my Film/Drinks Fund 😀 .
(I am thinking along the lines of 10 pounds 😱 .
Let me know if you think thats too much)

I will try to take some pictures with it again tomorrow
But as mentioned earlier it looks like more rain! :bang:
I will now start getting in touch with those of you who
have already asked for one.

Thought I'd upload a couple of shots of the Lens on a Camera
The RD-1 with the new Black 21mm and the CV 21mm Finder for D
The M2 with the Older Silver 21mm and the Avenon 21mm Finder.

Don't know if the last shot is of any use its of the Ceiling above me.

Cheers
Mike.
 
Thanks Mike, 10 pounds to your slush fund is fair enough considering all your time and efforts. The VC viewfinder is a good match for the avenon?
 
Thanks Mike, 10 pounds seems more than fair to me as well.

"It had been Raining all day! Thus I have not been able to get any shots
as I had planned!....I will try to take some pictures with it again tomorrow
But as mentioned earlier it looks like more rain! "

Results so far look promising but when you check again tomorrow could you take a close up at full aperture of something like an angled newspaper and check that the spot you focussed on with the rangefinder agrees with the sharpest spot when magnified on screen (jpeg H). This will more clearly show front or back focus and could be done in out of the rain. 🙂 My example for the Summicrons is here: http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=3867
Thanks again.
 
Last edited:
The VC Finder does seem to be a good match for the Lens
But I must admit that, I don't think I use the finder in the
"Normal way" infact I hardly ever use the finder on the camera.
What I tend to do is use the finder to get used to the area
the lens covers and then use the cameras finder to roughly compose.

Strange I know...
Mike.

Jim, I will try to take the type of shot that you suggest.
 
Last edited:
I'm sorry to hear that Y.K. Optical has folded. I actually captured the Kobalux 21mm web page several months ago so I have it on one of my servers. Maybe I'll put it back up on the 'net! 🙂

WRT finders, don't buy the Kobalux/Avenon finder in Mike's picture if you can avoid it. It is massive - 39mm diameter - and at least mine suffers from pretty bad barrel distortion. I use a Russian 20mm finder (for the Russar lens) that is optically excellent and has very clever mechanical parallax correction with a distance scale built in. About U.S. $80 on eBay.
 
Yes, it does look big, I might get the VC 21 finder although I think I will end up simply visualising the framelines after some practice like Mike. Peter, have you tried a Russar lens on your rd-1?
 
vincenzo said:
Yes, it does look big, I might get the VC 21 finder although I think I will end up simply visualising the framelines after some practice like Mike. Peter, have you tried a Russar lens on your rd-1?
Click to expand...
vincenzo I regret to say I don't have an R-D1, just a Leica M6TTL and a Canonet.
 
Have been away for the past days and wow, what an offer!

I'd like to have one as well, if I'm not too late! £10 for your 'expenses' seems fair enough!

Steven
 
OK Gents
As it Stands I would like to put a deadline on this of
Wednesday evening to either place an order or not.
Please send me a PM if you think youve been missed out
I have contacted all that have requested one thus far.

If anybody else is interested from this point on
I can not guarantee whether you will get one, untill
I go back to the company on Tuesday evening or
wednesday afternoon.
I would say judging by what I saw
that we are probably OK for probably three or four more
but I think thats about it.
This will be the Last of these lenses.

No one for the 28mm's ??

Mike.
 
Jim Watts said:
David,
Could the problem be due to the shape of the cam on the Kobalux you have not meeting the R-D1 cam follower correctly? This seems to be the problem with the 35mm Crons that I have reported on and which of course do not use an adapter. I would think that this would be across at least a series of the lens though and Mike does not have a problem with his. Could all be down to tolerences???
Click to expand...

Don't know. The R-D1 works fine with my other lenses and this lens works fine with my other LTM and M mount cameras. It could be the camera is slightly out in one direction while the lens is slightly out in the opposite direction. Put the two together and you have a focusing discrepancy.

-Dave-
 
pfogle said:
David, sorry if I missed this, but are your Kobalux samples posted?
Click to expand...

Those samples aren't online any more. But I've attached a pic showing part of the issue. It's made up of two full-res crops from the center of two test photos, both taken with the Kobalux at f/2.8. The first, on the left, is focused via the R-D1's rangefinder. The RF's point-of-focus is just short of infinity and is where I'd expect it to be given the subject-to-camera distance (roughly 50 meters). On the right the lens is focused to infinity. The shot at infinity is just a bit sharper than the other. You may have to look carefully to see it. Stop down to f/5.6 and DOF covers the difference easily.

The more significant part of the problem, which you can't really see here, is that even when focused to infinity objects beyond the building shown in the example crops are rendered quite softly. Stopping down helps a little but even at f/11 distance areas are fuzzy. This is because even at infinity the point-of-focus is in front of where it should be to render "infinity" with the definition the lens is capable of.

At first I thought this might be an adapter problem so I tried a few different ones. Made no difference. Then a couple weeks ago I did a focus test using my M2 and a yard stick (first time in 30+ years of RF shooting that I've ever done such a test) and found focus was just fine with the Kobalux-supplied adapter. Infinity looks much crisper on the M2 as well. After reading Jim's post yesterday about adapter thickness issues I tried every adapter I own (15 of 'em!) with the lens on the R-D1. Performance is the same regardless of the adapter used.

My 15mm Heliar seems to render "infinity" okay and my longer lenses are fine. So I'm at a loss to explain what's going on. Even if the RF cam weren't engaging properly with the lens I'd expect infinity to be correct. And if the lens were messed up I'd expect to see obvious problems with it on all my RF cameras. Weird...

-Dave-
 
Well,
I think I'm about to dissapoint a few people.
I am, due to having lent my MF Kit out to a friend
stuck without a tripod.
So the shot below is handheld. Trying to shoot indoors
as it is pelting down outside.
I am afraid that it really doesn't do much to eliviate the concerns
that some have about the possibility of front focusing on the RD-1.

All I can say is that I personaly feel that the silver 2nd
version and this 3rd version, To me at least do not seem to
exibit near focusing problems with my RD-1.

Please understand that I can in no way Guarantee
that any of these lenses will nor will not exibit this
problem. I am very happy with mine and thus have bought
a 3rd generation one as well.

I haven't had the chance to try the 3rd version on film
but I definately do not expect a problem there.
the first shot shows the whole frame. and the second is a larger crop.
shot at f2.8 . I will experiment further but its quite a task
with such a wide lens.
I was focusing in on the lower edge of the second brochure
from the top. I should probably try this again at a higher
asa and at a lower angle.


Cheers
Mike.
 
Mike,

I am not being critical of you efforts here nor in anway backing out of my prior commitment to take one of the lenses (see my e-mail) but I do see front focus here.

In theory DOF should extend for twice the distance behind the point of focus than in front. If you focused on the front edge of the second brochure Leica Lenses) the DOF falls off too quickly behind this point in comparison to in front. As in your posted examples it looks equally sharp for quite a distance in front of your focus point I can't quite make out the point of optimum sharpness. The good thing is that DOF even at f/2.8 means that the focus point will be sharp but not much beyond it, so its probably acceptable in most cases and should be better when stopped down. What was your focus distance in the second picture? An infinity test as per Davids posting would be helpful when the weather improves.
 
Hi Jim,
I understand, what you are saying. Hey I consider critisism a good thing.
I only critisize / am critical to those that I care about or have a thought for.
Well, as I mentioned I am currently without a tripod so the way I shot was
probably not the ideal way of shooting.
I basically turned the focus ring to the Min (0.7m) then moved the camera
and myself untill I had focused on the edge.

Mike
 
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