Friday, May 31, 2019

LEICA M2-250


Recently I sold a few Leica items on eBay.  One of the potential buyers struck my interest with his eBay screen name of Schmirgelpapier.  Taking a closer look revealed that it was Don Goldberg of DAG Camera Repair, one of the best Leica repair technicians in the country.  I hadn't talked to Don for a while and it was nice to catch up.  Needless to say, we also talked about the LEICA Barnack Berek Blog.  I asked him if he would be willing to contribute some of his wisdom to the blog, only to be totally surprised by his answer.

One of the items he was interested to talk about was a Leica M2-250, an off the shelf camera that his father Norman Goldberg had converted in the 1960s to accept film for 250 exposures.  I had never heard of this camera and I was eager to learn more about it.

Norman Goldberg was born in Chicago in 1931 and, after serving a five-year apprenticeship in camera repair and attending the Illinois Institute of Technology, he moved to Wisconsin in 1951. There he established Camcraft, an independent workshop which specialized in repairs and custom modifications to professional photographic equipment. In 1966 he became a technical consultant to Popular Photography, devising a lens testing program for them and creating their testing laboratory, and in 1972 he joined the staff of the magazine. He retired in 1987 after working for Popular Photography for 22 years.

While running Camcraft, he became the first Leica authorized service facility for Leica cameras in the US.  He also published a book about camera technology in 1992, titled “The Dark Side of the Lens.

Goldberg is perhaps best known as the creator of the Camcraft N-5 electric motor drive for the Leica M2 and MP. However, he has also several other inventions for Leicas and other cameras to his credit.  For instance, the clip he designed to permit wearing an M Leica on the belt was widely used, and he also offered modifications of the Visoflex, utilizing either a prism or a pellicle mirror.  He also designed and built a considerable amount of testing equipment to test cameras and lenses, including the equipment used at Popular Photography, and he held numerous patents.

 
 Camcraft N-5 motor with power supply

 
Camcraft N-5 motor attached to Leica M2

The first camcraft N-5 motor was introduced in 1961.  After several modifications to the original design, the final version was made by TPI (Technical Photomation Instruments) of Los Angeles.  Eventually Leitz bought the patents and the rights to the motor.  Over the years they made over a thousand units of what was often called the NY Motor.  It was sold for the M2-M and later for the M4-M.

With the motor in place, 36 exposures could go very fast, and the need to change to a new roll of film was ever present.  This lead to thoughts of a larger capacity of film and Goldberg began to design a 250 exposure conversion of a Leica M2 which incorporated the successful N-5 motor.  The modifications are based on a standard Leicavit rapid advance.  They included larger film compartments at both the supply and take up side of the camera which were attached to the camera and the Leicavit.  The manual film advance of the Leicavit was replaced by the N-5 motor.  Power was supplied via a cord, connected to a separate power supply which contained the batteries.  Only one of the M2-250 cameras is in existence, making it also one of the rarest Leicas.

 

 

 

 

 
 M2-250 original design sketch by Norman Goldberg

Far from walking in the shadow of his father, Don Goldberg is very accomplished in the Leica community himself.  In 1970 he worked at Leitz Wetzlar for two years.  There he received the skills of a Feinmechaniker (Precision Mechanic) a prerequisite for Leica technicians.  With the town of Giessen close by, he also decided to learn about Minox cameras at the Minox plant there.  He worked for Minox for three months and then took a position at the Leica Service department in New Jersey.  In 1980 Don established his own camera service business, DAG which he still runs today.

DAG Camera Service
2128 Vintage Drive
Oregon WI 53575 USA
608-835-3342

http://www.dagcamera.com/




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Thursday, May 30, 2019

BIOTAR – AN ALTERNATIVE LENS WORTHY OF A LEICA




One of the best reasons to use a Leica are the Leica lenses.  But they all come at a premium price.  It should come as no surprise that many are looking for alternatives without entering too much of a compromise.  As of late a popular approach has been to resurrect some of the famous lenses of yesterday.

One such company was Meyer Optik Goerlitz.  They had planned to issue a new version of the Biotar under the Oprema label, based on the original design.  Unfortunately, the company did not succeed and the new Biotar appeares to have been not much more than a dream.

At the end of 2018, OPC Optics, based in Bad Kreuznach, acquired the trademark rights to Meyer-Optik and its lens designs.  It is the hope of many that this well established comp[any will continue the work on a new version of the Biotar.  They appear to be well on the way.  Already they offer new versions of the Primoplan and Trioplan lenses.

The Biotar is a six element gauss type optical system whose design dates back to the year 1927 when famous lens designer Willi Merté developed his first Biotar which was designed for cinematography.  In the 1930th Merté continued to improve the Biotar lenses among which the 75mm f/1.5 reached legendary status. The Biotar 75 f/1.5 was first introduced in 1938, sales began to pick up with a presentation at the Leipzig Spring Fair in 1940.

But due to second world war and to its high price at the time it remained a very special lens for the selected few. Until today it has become one of the most expensive vintage lenses easily selling for over a thousand dollars – if you get a usable one.

Even during its time in production it was an unfulfilled dream for most photographers as it took a two month salary for an average engineer of its time to buy this lens. Very few were actually produced but their quality was so outstanding that some are still in use today.




Its sharpness at the center in conjunction with a dramatic swirly bokeh is legendary. At open aperture the Biotar 75 is as sharp as can be in the center of the image and it renders the famous and sought after swirling bokeh to the side. The image gets an almost three dimensional complexion with the object stepping out in front of the viewer. The feel of the image is at the same time somewhat delicate which generates great contrast in available light situations with clear shadows and lights in the background.



The “swirly bokeh” is an outstanding feature of this lens. This means that out-of-focus highlights in the background are subdued and at the same time rendered in a circular fashion. You can see this effect clearly in the following image.  This specific feature of the lens creates an eye catching effect and the impact on the viewer is almost surrealistic.


Already at f/2.0 contrast goes up dramatically and at f/5.6 to f/8 the optimum sharpness is obtained. It is better than many so called modern high end lenses of today. The color correction of the lens is outstanding. There is no lateral chromatic aberration as it is almost apochromatic in its effect. Talking to photographers they start to rave about the lens and its abilities not only in portraiture photography but also for landscaping and nature.

The Biotar 75 was considered the fastest portrait lens of its time and not many faster ones have ben build over time. Due to its high price, which would translate into something close to eight to ten thousand dollars today, the lens was manufactured in relatively small numbers. But over time photographers around the world cherished the lens not only for portraiture but for so much more, especially fashion, sports, wedding, architecture and even macro. 



The Biotar 75 is legendary but it was the goal of the redesigned lens to maintain the exact Biotar characteristics while carefully improving the mechanical aspects and making it feasible for modern camera equipment and different mounts. So at the center of the development was to ensure the lenses ability to produce crystal sharp images at the center of the picture with a dramatic but not overly aggressive swirling bokeh at open aperture and its crystal overall sharpness at f/5.6 or f/8.0. It took several iterations to reach this goal.

By using modern glasses and hi-end coating some disadvantages of the earlier Biotar lenses due to reflections on the surfaces could be avoided while maintaining all advantages. The 15 aperture blades of the new Biotar support the creation of the swirly bokeh and were of course made from steel and with a special anti-reflective coating.

optical construction of the Biotar 75mm



New version of the Biotar as it looked like 
under the now defunct Oprema label

The design of the new Biotar did result in a few prototypes to be made.  Let’s hope that OPC Optics  will find a way to produce this lens.



For other articles on this blog please click on Blog Archive in the column to the right

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      www.eddycam.com   
     
      


Buy vintage Leica cameras from 
America's premier Leica specialist 
www.tamarkin.com

                          
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