Oh Man! Plaubel Makina III!

[Nokton48]

My New Plaubel Makina II Outfit by Nokton48, on Flickr

Alex in Moscow helped me find this one. A beautiful Makina II oufit for 200 Euros. On it's way to me from Germany.

I am pleased. So now I have a II, III, and IIIR.

 

[Nokton48]

Makina II has arrived by Nokton48, on Flickr

• My Makina II has arrived here from Germany! Only two days time by Fedex! Lovely cosmetic condition but needs a good cleaning indise and adjustment also. Considering it was made in the 1930s, I am not at all surprised!
  
  It is going out this morning to Mr. Binder in New York City. He is an early Makina repair expert, and has a very large collection of Makina parts!

 

[Alex Varas]

My New Plaubel Makina II Outfit by Nokton48, on Flickr

Alex in Moscow helped me find this one. A beautiful Makina II oufit for 200 Euros. On it's way to me from Germany.

I am pleased. So now I have a II, III, and IIIR.

I'm very happy you got it, more items on your way shortly

 

[Col_001]

Just got a iis, needs a bit of cleaning and tlc, previous owner has repaired the bellows with electrical tape, anyone know someone who can repair or renew in the UK. Also it has a Carl Zeiss Jena 10.5cm f/4.5 on it that I can find no info on, anyone know anything?

 

[Alex Varas]

Just got a iis, needs a bit of cleaning and tlc, previous owner has repaired the bellows with electrical tape, anyone know someone who can repair or renew in the UK. Also it has a Carl Zeiss Jena 10.5cm f/4.5 on it that I can find no info on, anyone know anything?

That lens shouldn't be there, no models were sold with Tessars but ok, let's say the prvios owner did a good job and the camera has been adjusted to that Tessar and even rangefinder is as well, also the aperture I'm not sure if the following numbers from 4,5 till 25 will be accurate for that lens.
Those are a lot of 'if's
I just finsihed one IIS model I was planing to sell, plus one II plus another III that is still being adjusted, really that guy has my admiration if he did all the previous things...
So if the camera works, keep it, why not... but unlikely you will sell it in the future.
Of course it's my opinion, sadly I don't have an Anticomar 100mm spare for you but I have one wide lens Orthar without camera.

Alex

 

[Col_001]

Yes, it certainly is strange. Aperture scale goes all the way to f/50, and if it has been a DIY project, it's been well done, apart from someone painting the back of the lens black, badly, but I'm suspecting someone didn't understand the issues with film thickness problems and was trying to sort that, no doubt also with the tape on the bellows. The is however a record on the internet of a lens like this being sold by Christie's in 2004, I'm wondering if this was our, or someone was doing this mod and selling them. Would love to know what the lens was originally from. Any ideas on bellows repair in the UK?
I will give you a shout about the lens once I've established the state of the camera workings. It came from the estate of a friend that passed away, but I think he was using it.

 

[Alex Varas]

There is no way to know where that lens was comming from... 10.5cm f4.5 Tessar.... So many cameras wearing this lens that it's impossible...

Repair bellows, how bad they are? Can you peel the tape without doing more damage to the bellows? How do they look like from the inside?
I use liquid electrical tape (from inside) to close if they are no big, if they are then change bellows would be the best option... is still wanna to repair them better use curtain cloth from the inside and glue them (that I would do).
Photos would be welcome for a better aproach.

 

[Col_001]

What's confusing me is I can't find a lens that would have been the donor mount. The aperture ring is engraved from f/4.5 to f/50, and nothing about it looks cobbled together. Do you know of a plaubel lens that fits this? I'm away from home at the moment, but will send pictures tomorrow.

 

[Alex Varas]

I have no answer for that, maybe you have the one sold in Christies... I tried to find that auction on their sit but I couldn't find it.

 

[Col_001]

I have no answer for that, maybe you have the one sold in Christies... I tried to find that auction on their sit but I couldn't find it.

Here are the photos of the lens, what's also strange is that there is an external thread as well as internal on the barrel, but all the styling is of a plaubel Makina lens. I'm trying to find if the person it came from did indeed buy it from Christie's.

 

[Alex Varas]

Well, aluminum seems the same but number lettering are different, I just checked with 4 Orthars and 2 Anticomar lenses and the font of your lens differs than the ones I have, also there is no ',' in my lenses, they are with '.'
Are your number lettering engraved or painted over only?

 

[Col_001]

The lettering is engraved. The front of the Carl Zeiss part is consistent with the same lens I have found that was mounted in a few different cameras and large format lens boards. Are the engraved f/numbers the same format? Seems like it would have been incredibly expensive and pointless to make such a copy unless you had access to the factory machines and blanks, not to mention the aperture mechanism. A special order perhaps. Don't know what advantage the Zeiss tessar would offer. I'm very intrigued by it. Have emailed Christie's to try to find out if this was the same lens, or if there are more in existence. Thanks for your help.

Oh, and range finder hasn't been altered and from rudimentary testing the lens corresponds to focal distance on camera, at least for sub 2m. More testing needed.

Another example of the 10.5cm

 

[Alex Varas]

Yes, the font in all my lenses are consistent, same and only in one is engraved, rest are painted over, I can't feel the lettering if I pass my finger over it.
My wildest guess is someone from Zeiss deleted old aperture and made this lens, so probably is the same as Christie's or from the same source.
If you can get photos from that auction everything will be clear

 

[alentine]

Splendid indeed.
Thanks for sharing Nokton48.

 

[Nokton48]

Just got a iis, needs a bit of cleaning and tlc, previous owner has repaired the bellows with electrical tape, anyone know someone who can repair or renew in the UK. Also it has a Carl Zeiss Jena 10.5cm f/4.5 on it that I can find no info on, anyone know anything?

Do you have a ground glass back? You should check the rangefinder calibration. If it is OK then the camera may be usuable.

Good luck with it!

 

[Col_001]

Do you have a ground glass back? You should check the rangefinder calibration. If it is OK then the camera may be usuable.

Good luck with it!

Thanks, I don't have one, but I know my friend was using it, just sent bellows away to have some new ones made, so will test when they arrive. Can't wait to put a roll through it.

 

[hashtagquack]

While this thread is back I thought I might just pop in to request some advice from the Makina gurus. I recently purchased a beautiful iiir from another member here however it seems the RF calibration may have been knocked in shipping. It appears to be correct at infinity and checked on the ground glass however at closer distances the RF moves out of alignment. I've had the top cover off however cant seem to identify the screw that allows for changing the rate of movement of the RF mirror to the lens movement(or any of the adjustments for that matter!) Any words of wisdom would be much appreciated (Photos even more so!)

 

[Alex Varas]

It's odd a bump can take off only close focus.
What I would do is to check the distance marks with the ground glass and the rangefinder to see which one is correct.
The screw you are looking for is located here:

The bronze screw located in front of mirror, this one sets the whole rangefinder plate back and forward pivoting on the left screw cover pillar. There are 2-3 screws that set securely the rangeinder plate so just unscrew them enough to let this screw do its job.
Of course is a trial error procedure and once you move this you hace to adjust back the screw for the horizontal adjustment set at the left of the rangefinder (there are 3 vertical screw and one at their right, this last) and then go again to close focus and check if you are closer or more far than before, then repeat.

'I think' this is the way but I might be wrong, the all mighty WizCam would tell you how to do it much better than me, I'm just an aficionado.

 

[hashtagquack]

Thank you Alex! That's very helpful! I'll give it a go this weekend and report back with an update.

 

[terrycback]

Hi, I have had a camera of my father's for years and from doing some online research I'm fairly certain it's a Plaubel Makina II. Does anyone know where I can find a manual for it? My son bought some film and we are having a hard time figuring out how to load it and how to operate the camera. Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Alex Varas]

Here you have something:
https://lommen9.home.xs4all.nl/plaubel/index.html

https://www.cameramanuals.org/prof_pdf/makina_iis_booklet.pdf

Both will let you know how to operate the camera and how to load film.

 

[terrycback]

Here you have something:
https://lommen9.home.xs4all.nl/plaubel/index.html

https://www.cameramanuals.org/prof_pdf/makina_iis_booklet.pdf

Both will let you know how to operate the camera and how to load film.

Thank you so much alexvaras! I appreciate it. We will give it a try. The shutter doesn't seem to be working so I doubt we'll have much luck getting too far with it, but it'll be interesting to try!

 

[Nokton48]

Zoo 1 Makina III FP4+ by Nokton48, on Flickr

Zoo 2 Makina III FP4+ by Nokton48, on Flickr

Makina III 100mm F4.2 FP4+ Adox Borax MQ.

 

[Nokton48]

Zoo 3 Makina III FP4+ by Nokton48, on Flickr

Animatronic Dinosaur. Makina III Test FP4+ 100mm F4.2 ADOX Borax MQ 5x7 Arista #2 Multigrade dev

 

[Nokton48]

Makina II Test HP5+ Overcast by Nokton48, on Flickr

Makina II Test 1/25 at F2.9 HP5+ Deep Overcast day. ADOX Borax MQ Arista #2 5x7 RC Multigrade dev