![]() Now the 400mm gives me 680mm and the 640mm an equivallent of 1088mm. I even got the focus indicator on the SD10 to work perfectly! Then started using the spring loaded trigger, and voila! - perfect focus. I played around with the bellows, but no focus. I got out the tripod, figured out the configuration and fitment, got out my SD10 and M42 adapter and mounted this monster. The gunstock and bellows read Novoflex and that was the only thing which was familiar.Ĭurious as hell, I left the office early and tore off the tatty vinyl to reveal two lenses - the one a Novoflex Noflexar 400mm and the other a 640mm one. All the lenses and barrels were covered with some vinyl to protect it. I was totally baffled with this set-up - never seen anything like it. Next, an attachment which screws into the front of the former lens, and another long barrel which can also be attached to the former lens. "I don't think there is one" came the reply. "What happened to the back glass element?" I wanted to know. Nice round aperture formation, but no glass element in the back! One can stick your finger in the back and touch the apertures. Thick glass element in front with aperture settings from F5.6-F32. Next came the "lens" which is attached to the front of the barrel. This device also had a spring loaded trigger and the whole barrel moved when the trigger was depressed. Then came what appeared to be a gunstock, but with a bellows mounted upside down at the back. First an old Pentax Spotmatic and I knew what was to follow would be some M42 stuff. "This belonged to my father, who was an avid photographer and I want you to have this stuff" Pierre said. He had a vintage dumpy level and I gave him the tripod as a gift.Ī couple of days later, he walked in with and old camera case and unpacked the contents on my desk. My intention was to somehow fit a tripod head on this, but this project just did not materialise. The UV performance of this Noflexar lens is discussed more in detail here.A friend of mine visited me some time ago and saw a wooden & brass dumpy level tripod I restored. Samples of UV pictures shot with this lens are available at the same link. The Noflexar 35 mm f/3.5 can be seen here mounted on a Micro 4/3 camera and with its built-in extension tube fully extended. It is usually much cheaper than the Noflexar, and better for use on a focusing helicoid or bellows because of its smaller barrel and less recessed front element. Because of the unrealistically high prices currently being asked, it is no longer my recommended choice as a first lens to start out in UV photography with mirrorless cameras.Īccording to Klaus Schmitt, the Staeble Lineogon 35 mm f/3.5 in M39 mount (albeit with a higher registration distance than the Leica M39/元9) uses the same optics as the Noflexar 35 mm. I used to recommend it as a good lens for UV photography of relatively low focal length. ![]() The Noflexar 35 mm is at present both expensive and scarce. This lens seems to have been first used in UV photography several years ago by Vivek Iyer. The specimen at the left shows part of a lens originally in Exakta mount, which has a more recessed rear element. This is why it was necessary to use a rear lens cap in the above picture. A further characteristic in some types of mounts (foremost M42) is that the rear element projects from the rear of the barrel and is easily damaged by placing the lens rear on a table. The odd design of the aperture ring means that the front filter mount rotates together with the aperture ring. This lens is also characterized by a small front optical element, deeply recessed within the hood-like front of the lens barrel. ![]() In addition, when the lens is extended by one or more click-stops, strong ambient illumination can leak through the extension mechanism and cause substantial flare and IR contamination of recorded UV images. This leaves small gaps inaccessible in the focusing range. The extension range of the helicoid does not completely cover the focusing range between adjacent click-stops (especially if the focus of the lens has been recalibrate to allow infinity focus on a camera without an IR- and UV-blocking internal filter). However, this idea works better in theory than in practice. The above image shows a partly disassembled Noflexar 35 mm with the click-stops of the extension mechanism visible as machined grooves. The focusing helicoid is used to focus within each click-stop. In addition to a rather short focusing helicoid that allows focus between infinity and 0.35 m, it is equipped with a built-in extension tube that allows the lens to be extended by four click-stops separated from each other by 3.5 mm. The Noflexar 35 mm (above) is unusual in being designed as a macro lens. Novoflex Noflexar 35 mm f/3.5 Noflexar 35 mm ![]()
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