You can’t and shouldn’t just swap lenses around without careful calibration and insuring that the lens is exactly on the mark, and parallel as can be.Camera arrived yesterday. Lens focus was, amazingly, not stuck. Bellows were also free of pinholes. Both firsts for me.
The lens was dirty but cleaned up great. Shutter was gummy and sluggish. A little disassembly, flushing and cleaning with denatured alcohol, and a lot of exercise, and it’s working now. Every single speed is either 1 full stop or 1.3 stops slower than nominal, but consistent from firing to firing. So it’s a functional shutter but not stellar. I will be putting this lens into a different Compur Rapid I have that has nearly perfect speeds.
But first I’ll run one roll through this camera as-is. Seems like a shame to have a nice copy of a Jsolette with Solinar and not use it at least once. This camera body will get the Apotar lens I have, and most likely be sold at some point.
Really happy with it overall! Can’t wait to put this lens through its paces.
You can’t and shouldn’t just swap lenses around without careful calibration and insuring that the lens is exactly on the mark, and parallel as can be.
Hope you know that?
The original factory didn’t just drop the lens/shutter assembly into the camera. It was carefully shimmied up to be as precisely aligned as possible.
The good news is, my Solinar is not going to be used in an Isolette. I bought it to use as a unit focus lens on my Goodman Zone, which is an SLR. So I don't need to worry much about film to lens distance as it's going to be variable, and focused on a ground glass
I doubt that God is really watching Ebay (I doubt that God even is, but best to avoid that, eh?)
Most of these front element focusing lenses seem to have prime focus for infinity just a little short of fully screwed into place on the rear element of the front group. I'm not sure othe best way to find optimum spacing of the front element but maybe someone here knows how to find this.
Ammonia will dissolve the old Agfa grease-cement. Also dissolves paint if you leave it soaking. So maybe drip small amount of ammonia into the gap between the two elements and give it time to work its way in. Keep repeating over a couple of days.
Yeah this matches what I've heard elsewhere - front cell focusing is inherently a compromise in image quality, and Cooke triplets and Tessars usually have optimal image quality at infinity focus. So setting the Solinar lens to infinity, and using it from there as a unit focusing lens instead of cell focusing on my Goodman Zone should be an improvement.
The Agnar was surprisingly good. The Apotar was, unsurprisingly, somewhat better. So of course... now I wanted a Solinar.
Front cell focusing lenses are designed with a comprimise, with their optimum performance at a mid-range distance (think group photos) so the aberrations won't be so bad at closer distances.
The Solinar is only a gateway drug to the
S
O
L
A
G
O
N
Yes, and then there is sample variation. In theory a unit focusing Tessar would perform better than a front cell focusing one, but in practice it's not always the case. And stopping down takes care of some aberrations.However some of those front-cell focusing lenses can be pretty high performance,
Agfa took over Rietzschel's camera and lens manufacturing in 1925 after both had merged with other companies into IG Farben. Agfa continued to use some Rietzschel brand names, like the Solinear (later Solinar) and Apotar.Anyone know for sure if Agfa made its own lenses, or did they buy them from another manufacturer?
Congratulations. Your shutter speeds are what I almost always see w/ an old camera like this. I used to test the speeds, but after a while it became obvious that 75%% of them would run pretty close to 1/50, slow under that, then be around a stop or more off on the higher speeds. I'd just meter for a 1 stop difference, things went fine when using B&W film.Camera arrived yesterday. Lens focus was, amazingly, not stuck. Bellows were also free of pinholes
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?