DIY Perscheid lens

[arri]

I try to make my own soft focus lenses because I don´t want to spend so much money for a 420mm Imagon oder for a Perscheid lens.
My own 400mm Imagon is ready an I´am pleased with it.

Now I want a Nicola Perscheid lens the Emil Busch company made since the 1920th in coorporation with N.Perscheid.

The lens is a four element lens in two groups. The achromatic lenses are not as good corected as possible and that´s the reason why the lens has a much higher spherical aberration than a standard aplantic lens.

For my lens I use two Leitz Elpro achromatic close up lenses, a VIIa and a VIIb lens. I mount it in a compound III size aperture barrel and god a 450mm f/9 lens.

It is much slower that the Perscheid lenses but the full open apertures of this lenses are not really usable. You can´t focus a Perscheid lens at f/4.5 and the optical quality is so "soft" that it looks really bad, absolutly not acceptable for me.
My sample shot were made with f/9 and a green/yellow filter.
Sheet size is 9x12cm. Very small for this long focus but the 18x24cm shots will follow.
The negativ were partial pre flashed, absolute no idea how it happens but the picture shows what I want to know.

Around the leafs it shows beautiful halos and in the unsharp backgound it shows discs and rings, I did not await this.
The first example is very interesting and I cna´t await to use it more.
In the next days I get a second Elpro VIIa lens. Than I can make a 340mm lens with f/6
Than I want to test both lenses in the larger format. I´am sure that the results will be different to this here.

Film is Fuji xray UM-MA in Kodak HC 110, at ISO 160. 1+39
Sheet film 9x12cm, Sinar Norma

[xkaes]

Very nice. Thanks for the info. Do you have an aperture than you can use to stop-down? I do the same sort of thing with Minolta & other two-element 55mm supplementary filters on a #1 shutter and control the softness with the aperture.

http://www.subclub.org/fujinon/softfocus.htm

[arri]

Very nice. Thanks for the info. Do you have an aperture than you can use to stop-down? I do the same sort of thing with Minolta & other two-element 55mm supplementary filters on a #1 shutter and control the softness with the aperture.

http://www.subclub.org/fujinon/softfocus.htm

The Elpro lenses are mounted in an aperture barrel in Compound III size, I can mount in a shutter of this size as well but I use the Sinar/Copal shutter.

[arri]

The new toy.

Leica Elpro close up lenses mounted in a Compur II shutter.
I made adapter rings for three lenses, 2x VIa and 1x VIb

The both VIa lenses are a 200mm lens with f/5.4 and one VIa and one VIb lens are 134mm with f/3.7

The lenses are good usable for 4x5". The 200mm for 5x7" as well.

I use the short Compur II shutter with 1" (25mm) length. Maybe the results will be diffrent when the longer shutter is in use. I has 38mm, I guess.

A lens set with 134mm, 200mm and 400mm foci.

[J. Patric Dahlen]

It looks very usable. The sharpness is surprising, and the softening effect is a s good as it gets. And mounted in the shutter you could think that the Elpros were made to be used that way!

[arri]

Here are the first sample shots, I use the Fuji xray film UM-MA in 9x12cm size.
Developed in Kodak HC 110, 1+39, ISO 160.

"Leitz Elpro Lens" 200mm f/5.4
B&W yellow/green filter -1EV

The last two shots with Rodenstock Imagon 250mm with no yellow/green filter


Leitz Elpro lens @f/5.4


Leitz Elpro Lens @/22


Rodenstock Imagon 250 @H=5.8 (no sieve)


Rodenstock Imagon 250 @H=9.5

[xkaes]

Thanks for posting those comparisons. That Compur II looks like a perfect match for 55mm Elpro lenses. Although I also use 55mm lenses (Minolta, Hoya, Kenko, Opteka, & Spiratone), my widest shutter in #1, so I can only go so wide/soft.

[arri]

Thanks for posting those comparisons. That Compur II looks like a perfect match for 55mm Elpro lenses. Although I also use 55mm lenses (Minolta, Hoya, Kenko, Opteka, & Spiratone), my widest shutter in #1, so I can only go so wide/soft.

For 55mm thread lenses a size 3 shutter is nescessary.
The Compur 2 shutter has a ~46mm thread and this works only with the shown smaller Leitz Elpro VI lenses with 44mm thread.

The Elpro Vii with 54mm can be adapted to the Compound III shutter with 56mm diameter.

[xkaes]

OH. I was under the impression that the Elpros were only made in 55mm -- see:

http://fuzzcraft.com/achromats.html

They welcome any new information.

My 55mm lenses would be great on a #3 shutter, but they'll have to "settle" for my #1.

Anyway, any lens can be adapted to any shutter -- the diameter of the lens or the shutter, whichever is smaller, being the maximum f-stop limiting factor.

[arri]

Here´s a list of the Leitz Elpro lenses with thread sizes, diopter and possible combinations.

Leitz Elpro n.pdf