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Leica

Nothing changes..

I wrote about Pseuds’ Corner over 20 years ago and that exposé of pretense remains relevant.

Today this landed in my inbox:



As silly as it gets.

It’s an advertisement for Leica’s new portable projector wherein you can divine two twits in their in-ground hot tub watching a movie seemingly projected on the side of a house. The grass surrounding the hot tub encroaches mightily on the rim and you can only imagine how disgusting the interior must be. Naturally the gal is wearing earrings – who doesn’t in a hot tub? – and the guy has spent way too much time in the gym.

And they are asking $4,200 for this bit of nonsense.

Here’s an extract of the comical prose – I would print more but prefer to spare you the agony:

By combining compact form with impressive image and audio quality, the portable, smart mini projector Leica Cine Compact 1 brings greater freedom to home cinema. …. This turns every space into an immersive experience – rather than just a viewing area.

Minimalist, high quality, durable: the Cine Compact 1 is based on Leica’s functional, elegant design concept. The housing made of solid aluminium featuring a glass front has clean lines and is modern without being overbearing. At the same time, it is robust and designed for many years of action, up to 25,000 hours of projection. Even when it is off, this smart, compact home cinema projector blends harmoniously into the room. A design that stands the test of time and blends in with seamless style.

Go figure.

Now excuse me while I give my modern without being overbearing M10 a solid workout, while blending into my surroundings with seamless style.

Octopus

Cooking, Leica, Macro

Yum, yum.




Click the image for a larger version.

I drop it in rolling boiling water (with bay leaves, peppercorns and vinegar) to sear the skin, then simmer at 185F for 20 minutes/lb., let it cool in its water then grill it for 10 minutes on a medium-high grill. Meanwhile I boil off the water to form a treacle which is brushed onto the grilled octopus. The key is not to boil it in 212F water which makes the flesh rubbery. A wonderful local Asian food market always has these in stock.

Leica SL2-S, 100mm Macro-Elmar-R at f/16, Bellows-R, 3 strobes. 12 images focus stacked in Helicon Focus.

Leica SL2-S with the Nikon PB-4 bellows and 80mm El Nikkor lens

Leica, Macro, Nikon lenses

A versatile bellows and lens pair.

For an index of all Leica-related articles click here.



The 80mm f/5.6N El Nikkor on the PB-4 bellows and the Leica SL2-S.



The reversed 80mm f/5.6N El Nikkor on the PB-4 bellows and the Leica SL2-S.

Bellows variations and history:

My macro hardware journey continues apace, with the Leitz Focusing Bellows II being replaced by the Leitz Bellows-R with the fine 100mm Macro-Elmar-R lens head.

But when it came to bellows it was Nikon who knocked it out of the park. After earlier simpler versions they came up with the PB-4 which is not just a bellows but rather a bellows system. The lower rack provides a large 152mm/6″ movement range, the bellows extension range is a huge 43-185mm/1.9-7.3″ and, wait for it, the front stage offers both tilt/swing and shift movements! With some of the attributes of a 4×5 field camera in a 35mm bellows device, this not so little hummer weighs in at 2lbs 12 ozs. By contrast the lower rack movement of the Bellows-R is 68mm/2.7″.

A bellows system:

System, you ask? There were two film holder attachments, one for rolls (PS-4), the other for mounted slides (PS-5). There was the E2 extension ring with an aperture opening device for ease of focusing back in the bad old film days, and there was the Extension Tube set K if the 6″ maximum bellows extension proved insufficient. There was a repro copy stand for copying of flat subjects, the Model PF, and a waist level finder for the Nikon F body along with a special purpose focusing screen. Last and not least there was the reversing ring BR-2 (later BR-2A for lenses with CPUs) which has a 52mm thread on one side and a Nikon F bayonet in the other. This allows the lens to be reversed on the bellows for best definition when the reproduction ratio is life-size or larger. There was a host of other BR rings for reversing lenses and controlling the aperture.

Additionally my PB-4 came with a Nikon M2 extension tube which provides 27.5mm of extension. Handy, if hardly essential.

Later versions:

Nikon made two more bellows following the PB-4. The simpler PB-5 which dropped the tilt and shift function and removed the lower rack (boo!) and the PB-6 which adopted a monorail design in lieu of the four rails of the PB-4, but also dropped the tilt/shift front stage, while retaining the lower rack. The PB-6 had one advantage in that the rear stage was even more elevated, allowing clearance for camera bodies which had a motor drive attached or are simply very tall, like the D1/2/3/4/5/6. Further a bellows extension could be attached to the front for a truly gigantic extension range.

Why yet another bellows?

My reason for this acquisition is that I find I am regularly frustrated by the relatively short lower rack fore-and-aft movement range of the Leitz Bellows-R, especially when subjects with significant depth are involved where you want to focus stack to get everything sharply defined front to back. With the PB-4 almost tripling the lower rack range that issue goes away. Further the relatively high stand-off between the rails and the camera mount means that fore and aft movement of the rails is unimpeded (both front and rear standards can be moved independently) and the camera body can be rotated through 90 degrees on the rear standard without impediment.

Optimizing the use of the tilt/shift function – the 80mm El Nikkor:

How best to exploit the handy tilt/shift front stage? Well, normal lenses need not apply as their image circles are too small. Tilt and/or shift that front stage and you quickly start impinging on the edges of a regular lens’s image circle, where definition is poor. No, what is called for is a lens with a large image circle, and none is finer than the 80mm f/5.6 El Nikkor of May 1966 which was computed as an enlarging lens for coverage of film up to 6x7cm. Nikon made a large range of El Nikkors all the way up to a 360mm f/5.6 monster, used to enlarge images on 11″ x 14″ film. Wow!

The 80mm f/5.6 is a six element design, an improvement on the 75mm f/4 four element variant. The 80mm lens comes in M39 Leica Thread Mount and the image circle is a large 65mm, meaning no edge issues even at full tilt and/or shift. Further, in the absence of tilt or shift you are using the center of the image circle, which is the sweet spot. The lens is an optical unit only, meaning it has no focusing helicoid. The 1966 design was revised in 1980 for yet better performance, now named the 80mm f/5.6N EL Nikkor.



Construction of the 1966 80mm f/5.6 El Nikkor.



Construction of the 1980 80mm f/5.6N El Nikkor.
40.5mm filter thread replaces the 34.5mm of the original
and apertures are illuminated for darkroom use.

Note the increases in the entrance and exit pupils in the later design. This is much more than an exercise in ‘badge engineering’.

As regards the illuminated aperture dial, Nikon states: “N-type EL-Nikkor lenses have a window that lets light through to the aperture value when the lens is mounted on an enlarger. While this mechanism is very convenient for darkroom work, it causes light leak when used as a photographic lens, and must therefore be covered.”



The arrow indicates the illumination pass-through window for darkroom work.
A small piece of black electrical tape takes care of the light leak.

You can read Nikon’s amusing history of this lens here. The article primarily addresses the redesigned late ‘N’ version.

Adapters required for use with the Leica SL2-S:

The PB-4 has Nikon F mounts front and rear so a Nikon F-to-Leica L mount adapter is required at the rear of the bellows and an M39-to-Nikon F adapter for the front stage, where the rear of the lens is attached.



The 80mm f/5.6 El Nikkor. On the left (rear) the M39 LTM-to-Nikon F ring.
On the right a 40.5mm UV filter, the 40.5mm-to-52mm step-up ring
and the Nikon BR2A reversing ring. This setup allows the lens to be mounted
either way on the PB-4 bellows.

One especially neat feature of the 80mm El Nikkor is that it has a second set of click stops which allows the lens to be rotated once mounted so that the apertures are optimally visible. Neat.

How about the 135mm Elmar lens head?



The fairly rare 16580L Leitz adapter is required to convert
the 135mm f/4 Elmar lens head to M39 LTM, which can then
be screwed into the M39-to-Nikon F adapter for bellows use.



The 135mm Elmar lens head on the PB-4 bellows with
ring light attached. Note the clearance between the camera’s body
and the ring light from the bellows’s rails.

With the 135mm Elmar mounted in the 16580L adapter the magnification range with the PB-4 bellows is from infinity (bellows collapsed) to 1/2 life size (bellows fully extended). Thus the combination of the 80mm and 135mm lens heads yields a range from infinity through 2.5 times life size.

Cost:

It pays to be patient as prices are all over the place. I paid $156 for the PB-4 with the M2 ring and $76 for the 80mm f/5.6N El Nikkor. The ‘N’ denotes the later redesigned version of the lens which is reputed to be the finest optically. The filter thread size is 40.5mm, an improvement on the quirky 34.5mm on the original 80mm El Nikkor lens. Good luck finding a step-up ring or UV filter in that size.

Alternative lenses with a large image circle:

The German manufacturers Schneider (Componon) and Rodenstock (Rodagon) also made fine 80mm f/5.6 enlarging lenses during this era, both 6-element designs and covering a large image circle. Mint samples can be found for around $100. Schneider Componons are frequently plagued with element separation so check carefully before purchase. The likely causes are use of incorrect balsam and the considerable heat generated in a traditional film enlarger.

The Scheimpflug Principle:

For maximum depth of field with subjects which are not plane to the camera you want plane lines for the digital sensor, the lens and the subject to coincide at one point when the front stage of the bellows is tilted. This is known as the Scheimpflug Principle. In practice, with the outstanding EVF in the Leica SL2-S, trial and error, aided by the finder magnification function to check focus, is the quickest way to go. As the front stage is tilted the shift function can be used to restore centering of the subject in the viewfinder.



The Scheimpflug Principle illustrated.
This is how focus is optimized when the subject is not parallel to the sensor.

Using the tilt/swing front standards can greatly reduce the number of images required for a sharp overall focus stack. For example, where a flower stem leans away from the camera, the tilt feature, the sensor and the stem are aligned using the above illustration.

Tilt or swing?

When mounted normally on a tripod the front panel swings about a vertical axis. To confer tilt, which is arguably more useful, the whole rig – camera body and bellows – must be turned through 90 degrees whereupon the front panel now tilts about a horizontal axis.

A first result:

The El Nikkor on the PB-4 offers a magnification range from approximately 1/3rd life size when fully collapsed to 2.5 times life size when fully extended, in either regular or reversed lens mount. This image was taken at 1/3rd life size:




Click the image for a larger version.

Leica SL2-S, 80mm El Nikkor f/5.6N at f/11, ISO400, three strobes. Composite of 37 images focus stacked in Helicon Focus. The long lower rack movement of the PB-4 is a real boon with this ‘deep’ subject. Looking at the enlarged version you can see where a bug explored various parts of the center between exposures!

At the bird box

Nikon lenses, Photographs

Bird photography for the lazy man.

I set the camera up with a long lens on a tripod on the patio, with a wireless shutter release fitted:



The Nikkor 400mm f/5.6 ED IF Ai-S lens on the Nikon D800.

Then I repaired to the office whence I have a great view of the bird box and banged away when the bird(s) arrived. Now if only I could get something better than a common sparrow ….



The view from the home office.

And here are a couple of happy results:



Common sparrow.



Common sparrow with prey.

Nikon D800, 400mm f/5.6 ED IF Nikkor at f/22 on a Linhof S168 tripod.

I made the box from odd wood scraps and it has been nothing but a joy.

Nikkor 200mm f/4 Micro-Nikkor IF

Leica, Nikon lenses

The last long macro lens with manual focus from Nikon.



The 200mm Micro-Nikkor f/4 IF.

Nikon made three versions of the 200mm Micro-Nikkor – the Ai (1978-82), the Ai-S (1982-2005) and the AF-D (1993-2020). The first two are optically identical (9 elements in 6 groups) while the last was reformulated (13 elements in 8 groups) with autofocus added. The manual focus versions focused down to half life size while the autofocus optic went all the way down to life size, albeit at a substantial weight penalty. At 800g/28.2ozs the Ai-S weighs 390g/13.8oz less than the AF-D version. All feature Internal Focusing, meaning the lens does not change in length as it is focused and allows the manual focus versions to sport the smoothest and lightest focus movement.

For the sort of contemplative, studio-based macro work I favor, autofocus is the very last thing you want or need. With focus stacking software manual focus is the order of the day.

At 200mm the lens affords a long lens-to-subject distance making for ease of lighting. Mine was made in 1999, one of 20,004 manufactured and arrived in mint condition from Japan. It came with the detachable tripod collar, a must-have for proper balance on a tripod. The collar is easily removed for handheld use and allows the rig to be rotated through 90 degrees on a tripod.

The lens has a reputation for being sharp at normal and close focus distances, and my experience confirms that this is so. Best resolution is at f/8, with little change through f/16. There is modest loss of resolution at f/22 and f/32, owing to diffraction. The lens is fully usable at f/4 and f/5.6. Mechanically it’s hard to imagine it could be improved upon, with everything machined at the highest quality level. I bought mine for a song, all of $168 with tax, duties and shipping from Japan.

This is what I think of as a ‘lazy man’s macro lens’. Unless extreme close-ups are required no attachments are necessary – no bellows, no extension tubes, and the generous working distance from the subject, even at the closest focus, makes for ease of lighting and use. The short lens hood is of marginal value and, as appears to be the case with all IF Nikkors I have used, flops about and is generally a nuisance.

As a walkabout 200mm, with the tripod collar removed, it’s a dream to use and with the tripod collar fitted it’s very easy to use for extreme close-ups.

Here is the result at f/4 at infinity focus, handheld, SOOC:




Click the image for a larger version.

And here is a close up of a Peony from my garden at the closest-focus distance:




Click the image for a larger version.

Leica SL2-S, Nikon F to Leica L adapter, 200mm Micro-Nikkor at f/11, ISO100, three strobes. 11 images focus stacked in Helicon Focus.

If you want simple, high quality macro gear at a bargain price the 200mm Micro-Nikkor IF is just the ticket.

Comparison with the 200mm Leitz Telyt:

Careful tripod base images taken with the Micro-Nikkor and Telyt show the two to be uncannily similar in performance at all apertures through f/16. At f/22 diffraction starts to take the edge off definition with both and the Micro-Nikkor adds f/32 at which aperture it is slightly worse than it is at f/22. The lens weights with adaptors and tripod mounts/Arca Swiss plates are also uncannily similar – 33.9oz for the Micro-Nikkor compared with 33.2oz for the Telyt. However, as you gain the macro focusing range with the Micro-Nikkor, and given that used prices are also extremely similar, the Micro-Nikkor would be the better choice. Both optics are made to the very highest mechanical standards and the Micro-Nikkor permits removal of the tripod mount for handheld use, saving a few ounces. The Micro-Nikkor also adds Internal Focusing which I find superior to the traditional helicoid design of the Telyt.