Finally snagged a Solinar

[Helge]

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.

 

[moggi1964]

Great to hear. Looking forward to seeing the results.

 

[BHuij]

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.

I'm aware of the proper procedure to ensure proper distance between the lens and film plane, including using shims and repeatedly checking infinity and close focus.

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 (well, technically not SLR, but through-lens composing and focusing at least). 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

 

[Dan Daniel]

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

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.

 

[Arthurwg]

I doubt that God is really watching Ebay (I doubt that God even is, but best to avoid that, eh?)

God is a sprit within us. But OK, never mind.

 

[BHuij]

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. Never mind not needing to worry about perfectly calibrating lens-to-film-plane distance, and worrying about if the focus distance scale is still accurate. I re-collimated the lens after I was done with the strip down and clean job I gave the lens and shutter last night. Infinity is indeed just shy of fully screwed in on the front element.

How much of an improvement in image quality I'll get by unit focusing instead of cell focusing, I'll find out when I get around to testing it. I'm guessing it's probably marginal, but I'll take every bit I can get, right?

As far as unsticking front cells, I've done a few of them now. Denatured alcohol is my solvent of choice, since it doesn't harm glass, coatings, shutter components, etc. I usually let it sit in a film canister full of the stuff for a day or three, then heat it up gently in the oven and unscrew with some rubber gloves for grip. Then it's easy enough to clean the gunk out with q-tips and toothpicks, re-lubricate with something better, and reassemble.

 

[JPD]

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.

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. If you are going to use it as a unit focusing lens I suggest that you take test photos with it set at infinity and then focused at infinity, then set at 10 meters and focused at infinity, and then at 6 meters and focused at infinity, and see at what distance setting it performs the best.

 

[flavio81]

The Agnar was surprisingly good. The Apotar was, unsurprisingly, somewhat better. So of course... now I wanted a Solinar.

The Solinar is only a gateway drug to the

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[flavio81]

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.

Yes.

However some of those front-cell focusing lenses can be pretty high performance, for example:

The 35/2.8 Color-Minotar on the Minox 35mm cameras.

The 40/3.5 Tessar on the Rollei 35

The 45/2.8 Tessar on the folding Contessa

Granted, they're 35mm lenses but all of them are four elements and have a similar (or bigger) angle of view to the ones on the medium format folders, so the compromises are the same (or even more difficult for 35mm)

 

[BHuij]

The Solinar is only a gateway drug to the

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I have all the 35mm cameras and glass I want at this point. As far as I can tell, the Solagon wasn't made for larger formats

 

[Saganich]

An iphone snap of a print from my Super Isolette with Solinar.

 

[binglebugbob]

I picked up an Agfa Billy Record several years ago. I bou ght it because it had a 105mm Solinar lens in Synchro Compur shutter. I had Jurgen Kreckel go through it: Cleaned the lens, cleaned the shutter, new bellows. I picked up an early Voigtlander accessory (shoe mount) rangefinder.
Unfortunately it's been so dark most of this winter and because of Covid-19, I have yet to take it on a photo shoot. I figure it ought to serve as a pocketable Century Graphic.
Anyone know for sure if Agfa made its own lenses, or did they buy them from another manufacturer?

 

[JPD]

However some of those front-cell focusing lenses can be pretty high performance,

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.

Anyone know for sure if Agfa made its own lenses, or did they buy them from another manufacturer?

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.

 

[gone]

Camera arrived yesterday. Lens focus was, amazingly, not stuck. Bellows were also free of pinholes

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.

That Super Isolette above is a truly fine camera, I had one years ago. They're made to a very high standard, the controls are very different than the other models.