PDA

View Full Version : Is the Rotelar a Tele?



Bill Brady
15-Nov-2000, 12:15
Hi folks,

Can someone tell me if the 270mm Rotelar is a Tele? Or to put it another way, ho w much bellows extension do I need? I am guessing from the name that it's a tele roTELar.

Joseph Dickerson
15-Nov-2000, 16:39
Bill,

The Rotelar is a telephoto design. Mine requires 6 inches of bellows to focus at infinity (measured from lens board to film plane) and will just cover 4x5 wide open. I believe it was designed for 6x9 (7) as I have seen several in Graflex XL mounts. Like all tele lenses swings and tilts can be a bugger to use but it is relatively sharp and the contrast is good.

I use mine on a 6x9 Gowland and have been happy with the results.

A Nikkor "T" it ain't but then the price should be considerably less too.

Joe D.

Nelson David Blocher
13-Dec-2000, 13:25
Watch your format! It depends on which 270mm Rotelar. Both the 270mm f5.6 and the 270mm f6.6 are telephoto designs. However, the 270mm f5.6 Rotelar is an older design, made to cover 4x5 and available in both Linhof and Graphic incarnations as well as Rodenstock. The 270mm f6.6 was made for the Graflex XL system --- I have never seen one that did not say "Graphic" on the shutter. Linhof literature for the Press 70 circa 1967 indicated that, besides the 53/80/180 Zeiss and Schneider sets, a 270mm f6.6 Rotelar was in preparation but I never saw one. The 4x5 ones that I have used were superior to Tele-Xenars but probably not as good as the later Tele- Artons. I have a 270mm f6.6 in a Graflex XL cowl that I may convert to my Technika 70 outfit (not RF coupled!). An exasperating point on the lens in its XL configuration: it has a focusing scale listed but it does not rangefinder-couple, the only XL lens I know of lacking this nicety. The 270mm f6.6 may not be a Nikkor but it isn't bad either.