Since I also have the Chamonix 45H-1 I was intrigued.
As mentioned the bellow extension is 360mm, and there are no extension boards.
Today I have the Fujinon T 400mm. It works well and is sharp, but is big and weights a bit. And is cumbersome to use with front tilt and swings because of the Tele design.
What about trying to use my G-Claron 210/9 and G-Claron 240/9 as convertibles (both the modern plasmat version)? They are much smaller and lighter, and easier to use.
Would it be possible? And what would the result be like. Could it be useful?
The common wisdom on the net seems to be that the G-Clarons (both the new and old versions) can be used as convertibles. You get about 1.75 times in focal length and lose 2 stops. There seems to be no big difference in focal length depending if you use the front or rear group. What changes is the bellow draw. With the front group it's about 1,5 times and with the rear group 2 times the original focal length.
So I decided to do a small test.
G-Claron 240mm f9
Using it as a convertible produces a focal length of about 420mm. Exactly what I was looking for.
With the rear group you need a bellow draw around 480mm which doesn't work on the 45H-1.
But with the front group you just need 350mm or thereabout. And after testing I can confirm that you just can reach infinity focus mounted on a normal lens board. I could focus to somewhere around 20 meters. With an extended lens board this could work well. And the lens is small and light and would not be that much unbalanced on the lens board. Not as the Fujinon 400 anyway.
So what did it look like? I took a a test shot on my neighbor's house. Not very exiting but lots of detail.
Focused on the the chain on the wall.
Shoot on FP4+. Scanned on an Imacon Felxtight Precision II. No sharpness added.
G-Claron 240mm @f22
Link to full res file (right click to download)
G-Claron 240mm with only front group for about 420mm @f45
Link to full res file (right click to download)
G-Claron 210mm f9
Using it as a convertible produces a focal length of about 370mm. Not as good as the 240, but fair.
With the rear group you need a bellow draw around 420mm which doesn't work on the 45H-1.
But with the front group you just need 310mm or thereabout. It should work well for many situations.
So what did it look like?
G-Claron 210mm @f22
Link to full res file (right click to download)
G-Claron 240mm with only front group for about 370mm @f45
Link to full res file (right click to download)
Make up your own mind if you think it's working.
Me, I'm not going to use it as my first landscape option, corners are not really that good. But it could work as a light weight trek option.
And it's sharp in the center, so for portraits it could work well.
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