Focar Lenses
Focar Lenses
If you get hold of a copy of the Perkeo II manual, you'll find detailed instructions on p20. The Focars slip on over the camera lens mount.
Basically you use a tripod and measure from the FRONT of the Focar lens to the subject. If it's between 44.5 and 80 cm you use Focar #1. If it's between 31 and 44.5 cm you use Focar #2. They are approximately 1.5 and 2.25 diopters. You don't use both together.
Just to confuse you, the table shows the distances in feet and inches, ranging from 2ft 7.5 inches at infinity to 1 ft 6 inches at 3.5 ft focus for Focar #1, and 1 ft 5.5 inches down to 1 ft 0.5 inches for Focar #2.
You really need the table in the manual to set your focus correctly for the lens to subject distance, and you need a tape measure in your kit as well!
And don't forget to allow for the parallax! The Bessa manual quotes 10% for Focar 1 and 20% for Focar 2.
(In fact almost any folding Voigtlander manual from the 1950's will have the Focar tables in. Curiously the distances in the Bessa I manual are the same - I thought they'd be different..
