Visoflex I

At the heart of the macro system, and the means by which you can attach the bellows unit to the camera, is the Visoflex Reflex housing. This housing allows you to connect the Telyt range of lenses, and the 13.5cm lens (with a short focus mount) directly to it. But, for our purposes, it's the gadget between camera and bellows that also allows you to compose your image.

The Viso I, which came out in 1951, was preceded by the PLOOT reflex housing, and was subsequently followed up by the Visoflex II and III. It's the Viso I (Leica code OZUPO) that I'm using, which screws directly on to the camera, and allows you to change from landscape mode to portrait mode with the press of a little chrome button.

The reflex housing also allows you to select the type of viewfinder / magnifier that you want to use - I have the PEGOO 45° viewfinder that provides a 4x magnification of the image. That image is also corrected i.e. viewed the correct way round. There's also a vertical magnifier (looks a bit like a chimney) that provides 5x magnification, and goes under the Leica pseudonym LVFOO.

To take a picture, you need to raise the mirror out of the way, and there's a release button on one side of the housing for this purpose - Leica did supply a double cable release for this purpose, with one end fitting on the camera and the other on the housing.

I don't have that cable. Instead, I compose the image in the PEGOO, then lock up the mirror by pushing the housing release down and turning the collar to lock it in place (see main picture at top). I then use my cable release directly on the camera. For macro work, it seems fine to work in this manner as I'm not expecting any of the subjects to move around too much (particularly when working indoors!).

In the next post, we'll take a look at the bellows unit, the lens shade and return back to the problem with adapters...

Returning To The Gear...

I've got a few lenses for my camera: a mid-50's 5cm Elmar Red Scale, a 1934 9cm Elmar and the latest addition, the 1937 13.5cm Hektor.

It's taken me a couple of years to get these lenses, and I'm now saving for either a 3.5cm Elmar, or one of the Telyt lenses to fit the Visoflex I. Anyway, that's for much later! Right now, I seem to be favouring the uncoated 9cm lens for macro work, set to f22.

Both the 9cm and 13.5cm lens can be unscrewed from the main focusing body, leaving you with just the lens assembly complete with diaphragm; on the 9cm this gives you from f4 through to f36, with the Hektor 13.5cm your choices are pretty similar - from f4.5 through to f36.

I've yet to use the 5cm on the bellows, though it will fit using the same adapter as the 9cm lens head (the 16558 adapter ring). This adapter converts the large thread at the end of the bellows to an L39 screw thread.

If there's one area which is completely confusing within the world of Leica macro, it's which adapter is needed for which lens, based on which Visoflex. Quite frankly, it's a nightmare and there's plenty of conflicting 'advice' out there on the Internet!

As if to prove the point, having bought the Hektor lens, I wanted the adapter to fit the 13.5cm head on to the bellows. Searching the Internet just left me more confused than when I started, and it seems that originally the bellows would have been sold with adapters - including a 2-part adapter allowing the user to make this fitment. The confusion is made worse by the Visoflex reflex housing - the early PLOOT and Visoflex 1 housing are different depth to the later Viso II and III to allow for the differences between the screw thread cameras and the M bodies, I believe.

I found an adapter tube - a Leitz 16472 - that allowed the 13.5cm head to fit the 16558 adapter I already owned, from Ffordes (very good service, and they come recommended. http://www.ffordes.com/). However, with this setup, it's only good for macro work, which is after all why I bought it; but, the correct adapter should still allow you to focus to infinity and this one doesn't.

I'm guessing that it's actually for the Viso III? The very fact that it's got a number rather than the old Leica 5 letter code, must mean that it was made after about 1960 anyway.

In summary then... don't overlook the old uncoated lenses (or rather, do overlook them, so that I don't have to save up as much money to buy them!). They still deliver the goods and without the high contrast of modern lenses, they have a colour rendition all of their own.

The adapters - confusion reigns! I would suggest that if you are tempted to purchase a Visoflex and bellows, that you get one that comes with some adapters as it would be hugely frustrating to have the main gear sitting there, but being unable to use it due to not having the right adapter! The 16558 should be considered the main one to get hold of as it allows you to fit any L39 screw thread lens.

I Couldn't Resist...

Although I was going to cover the equipment I'm going to be using for the macro shots, I couldn't resist posting up the first image here!

This close-up of a carnation flower was taken on Fuji Velvia using the uncoated 9cm f4 Elmar lens from 1934. I was really pleased with this image (and a couple of others I've got post too); not least because it shows that you don't need digital cameras to get great results, it's almost as if we've forgotten that superb images were created for decades before digital came along! Now, I realise that using film is not to everyone's taste, but I derive a certain amount of enjoyment in using this vintage gear and having to sit down with a calculator in one hand and a book with formulas in the other!

I'll take a look at the formulas I'm using later on, as well as actually finishing off describing the gear I'm using. Until then, cheers!

The Camera...

So here's the camera that I'll be using for the macro work that I'll be covering on this site. It's a Model II Leica, also known as a Model D in the U.S. I bought this camera about a year and a half ago (Dec '07) as I'd wanted a Leica for years, but could never afford one - not even a secondhand one (I still couldn't afford a new one!).

The camera has been modified, as it now sports a couple of flash PC sockets on the front body and I'm led to believe that this would have been a fairly common modification decades ago. It has connections for both 'X' and 'M' flash (electronic and bulbs respectively). This feature could be useful as I do intend to use a flash for indoor macro photography; outdoors... we'll see, as I'm more likely to stick with long exposure times when I'm outside.

Although, this does highlight a potential problem - the model II does not have slow speeds, well, no slower than 1/30th anyway. After that the shutter will have to be set to 'Z' and I'll have to start counting!

Anyway, there's the camera, a 1937 Leica II - in the next post we'll take a quick look at some of the lenses, including my new (to me) 13.5cm Hektor - if it arrives in time!

The Equipment - Metering...

Before I introduce the Leica equipment that I'll be using, I thought we'd take a quick look at the exposure meter I'll be using. In keeping with the theme of using vintage gear, my exposure meter is an old Weston Meter. When I originally bought this about a year and a half ago, the meter barely registered any light at all and things didn't look good for it's long term survival.

Fortunately, I had heard about a business called Megatron, and they can fit new light cells and recalibrate Weson meters. My meter was duly sent off, and received back shortly after, in full working order. Although the new cells and recalibration cost £42, I figured that this was small change in the bigger scheme of things, and I'm hoping it'll be good for another 15-20 years at least.

One minor 'issue' with this meter, which incidentally is of a similar-ish vintage to my Leica II, is that it is not marked up in ISO... or ASA... or even DIN. It uses a unit of measurement called the 'Weston' and so you need to account for that when taking measurements. A Weston unit is about 80% of an ISO unit, so that an ISO100 film is around 80 Weston.

I'm hoping that this will be able to give me a reasonably accurate base exposure, which I can then feed into the various charts, tables and formulas, in order to calculate the actual exposure to be given - but more on that much later.

In the next post, we'll look at the camera itself before moving on to the bellows, Visoflex and lenses.

Leica Macro

Welcome to this new blog all about macro photography with a Leica. Perhaps I should qualify that a little... it's about my journey taking macro images using vintage Leica gear. At the heart of the system is my 1937 Leica II (Model D) screw mount camera which I love using, even in this day of digital. The fact that I can still use a camera that was built 72 years ago (and works flawlessly) is actually quite a joy.

I've just sold some other photographic gear and I'm now the proud owner of a Visoflex I and universal bellows (with lens shade and adapters). I've also got a couple of books to help me out; a 1938 'Leica Manual' and a 1950's book called 'The Leica Way'.

Why am I doing this, when macro with digital is so simple? Because I enjoy the process of using film and vintage gear, in fact, the actual image at the end is the icing on the cake; but it's not the cake itself. Where I use black and white film, I will be doing all my own processing and printing, colour film will be processed by a lab.

So, I hope you'll join me on my journey and perhaps we'll learn something together, or perhaps you can help me out when I get stuck!
Over the next few posts I'll take a slightly closer look at all the equipment that I'll be using, how I'll be calculating my exposures based on using various formulas and, once or twice, perhaps even a photo of my efforts (I'm not expecting anything decent for a while!).

Thanks,
David.