Saturday, May 7, 2022

NOVOFLEX 200MM F/3.8 FOR LEICA


Leica M240 with electronic Visflex and 200mm f/3.8 Novoflex

Without question, the best lenses for a Leica are the Leica lenses.  However, that can put a considerable strain on almost anybody’s photography budget.  Fortunately, there are some alternatives.  I am not talking about cheap lenses that happen to have a Leica mount or that can be adapted for use on a Leica.  It simply makes no sense to spend the money on a Leica with all its performance potential and then discard it by using a sub par lens.

However, there are some very well performing lenses that do offer a valid alternative.  One such lens is the 200mm f/3.8 Novoflex lens.  Unfortunately it is out of production and would have to be obtained on the used equipment market.  That makes it a very cost effective substitute.

Leica used to make the 400mm and 560mm Telyt.  Both gained a very high recognition for their excellent performance.  They were of a simple, 2 lens element achromatic design which also made them relatively light.  Later Leica added the 800mm f/6.3 Telyt-S.  It was of a similar design, but instead of the two cemented lens elements of the 400mm and 560mm lenses, the 800mm was of a cemented three element design.

Novoflex too offered a 400mm and a 600mm lens of the same design as the Leica lenses and they too proved to be excellent performers.  These were augmented later with the 200mm f/3.8 lens.  Like the 800mm Telyt, this Novoflex lens also consisted of a three element triplet.

Novoflex 200mm f/3.8 on Leica Digilux 3

The Leica M rangefinder cameras are best used with lenses up to 135mm.  Everything beyond that used to require the Visoflex housing which essentially converted the camera to an SLR.  That allowed the use of long lenses with no focusing problems.

Leica M5, Visoflex 3, Bellows 2, 560mm f/6.8 Telyt

But these systems were relatively bulky and somewhat awkward to use.  To have the brightest possible viewfinder image, focusing in most cases was best done with the lens wide open.  That, however, eliminated the use of smaller apertures when needed unless one was willing to accept the darker viewfinder image when using smaller apertures.

This problem was finally solved with the introduction of the Leica M 240 and the subsequent follow up models.  For these cameras an electronic viewfinder, the electronic Visoflex is available.

Not only is it a lot smaller and a lot easier to use, it also adjusts the viewfinder brightness automatically.  With the lens stopped down, there is hardly any discernible dimming of the viewfinder image.

That has greatly extended the usable range of these Leica cameras to long lenses but also any closeup photography.

Since none of the Leica rangefinder cameras offer autofocus, the ease and speed of focusing is very important.  All the longer Leica lenses have conventional focusing mounts.  But with the 400mm and longer lenses this would have been difficult at best.  For that reason the 400mm and 560mm Telyt lenses used a sliding focusing mount, often referred to as  “trombone” focusing, and the 800mm Telyt-S used a focusing knob.

Novoflex used a different approach.  All of the long lenses featured a built-in, spring loaded pistol grip which, when squeezed, would focus the lens to infinity while releasing it would focus the lens to its closed focusing point.

That proved to be very successful and until autofocus became available, the Novoflex lenses were considered by many as the fastest focusing long lenses.

Leica M240, Novoflex 200mm f/3.8, ISO 3200, 1/45 sec, f/3.8, handheld

I have both the 200mm and 400mm Novoflex lenses.  Since I don’t do a lot of long lens work, the Novoflex lenses were a less expensive alternative without having to sacrifice performance.  In addition, I found the Novoflox Follow Focus system so easy to use that especially the 200mm can easily be used handheld without any major draw backs.  Before 'graduating' to the Leica M240, I used both Novoflex lenses quite successfully on a Leica Digilux 3 where the crop factor of the smaller sensor effectively doubles the focal length.

Since I don't use very long lenses very much, I found the 400mm relatively cumbersome to use and I began to look for a better solution.  I bought a Leitz 2X extender which converts the 200mm Novoflex to a 400mm focal length with the advantage that I have a substantially smaller piece of equipment.  Of course it slows the lens to a maximum effective aperture of f/7.6.  I don't consider that much of a handicap since the high ISO capabilities of my camera are more than adequate for my use.

Leica M240, Novoflex 200mm f/3.8, Leica 2X extender, ISO 2000, 1/1000 sec, f/8 (16)

Leica M240, Novoflex 200mm f/3.8, Leica 2X extender, ISO 2000, 1/250 sec, f/8 (16)

Same file, cropped

Leica M240, Novoflex 200mm f/3.8, Leica 2X extender, ISO 2000, 1/180 sec, f/8 (16)

Same file, cropped

Leica M240, Novoflex 200mm f/3.8, ISO 800, 1/350 sec, f/8, handheld

Slightly cropped

Cropped detail of the same file

Cropped detail of the same file

Leica M240, Novoflex 200mm f/3.8, ISO 800, 1/1000 sec, f/8

Cropped detail of the same file

Leica M240, Novoflex 200mm f/3.8, ISO 1600, 1/2000 sec f/8, handheld

Cropped detail of the same file

Leica M240, Novoflex 200mm f/3.8, ISO 1600, 1/1000 sec, f/8, handheld

Cropped detail of the same file

Leica M240, Novoflex 200mm f/3.8, ISO 800, 1/500 sec, f/8, handheld

Cropped detail of the same file

The general opinion is that Leica M cameras are unsuited for sports photography.  I wouod probably use a Leica SL or SL2 if I was doing a lot of that type of photography, however, for the occasional use, my Leica M140 with the Visiflex works quite well.

Leica M240, 200mm f/3.8 Novoflex, Leica 2x extender, ISO 3200, 1/1000 sec, handheld

Leica M240, 200mm f/3.8 Novoflex, Leica 2x extender, ISO 3200, 1/500 sec, handheld

To paraphrase Johannes Mario Simmel, “Es muss nicht immer Leica sein” (it doesn’t always need to be Leica)

More sample shots:

Leica Digilux 3, Novoflex 200mm f/3.8, ISO 400, 1/800 sec, f/8, handheld

Leica Digilux 3, Novoflex 200mm f/3.8, ISO200, 1/500 sec, f/8, handheld

Leica Digilux 3, Novoflex 200mm f/3.8, ISO 200, 1/320 sec, f/8, tripod

Leica Digilux 3, Novoflex 200mm f/3.8, ISO 800, 1/640 sec, f/3.8, tripod



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16 comments:

  1. When using the a 200 mm lens on a Digilux 3, is't that a full frame equivalent of a 400 mm lens?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That is correct. But you are still using a 200mm lens. It remains just as easy to handhold as on a full frame camera.

      Delete
  2. In the 19th picture from the top, the horizontal wires appear to be somewhat out of focus. Why?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They were substantially closer than the tower and out of the range of the depth of field.

      Delete
    2. It is amazing that the cropped example is able to show the thin wires.

      Delete
  3. I am surprised to see the rather good performance of the Digilux 3 with its rather small sensor.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Digilux 3 was actually a very nice camera, but overall it obviously can't compete with a full frame camera. Depending on the work the camera is supposed to do, it is a lot more important to have the lenses necessary to do the work properly without the need for any great amount of cropping. Therein lies a huge advantage of a high resolution, full frame camera. The cropped examples taken with the M240 clearly show that.

      Delete
  4. The cropped examples are amazing. You can't tell that they are only a small portion of the total image. It is especially amazing to see that the shots taken with the 2x extender appear to suffer no losses at all

    ReplyDelete
  5. Couldn't you use the screen in back of the camera instead of the electronic finder?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You could, but the focusing with the Visoflex is substantially more accurate since you are looking at a magnified image.

      Delete
  6. The first picture with the runners appears to be soft. Is there a fall off with the lens when used wide open?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The loss of performance with the lebns wide open are quite minimal. The reason for the slight softness is due to the fact that I had to use a 1/45 sec handheld with a moving main subject. The rule of thumb here is a minimum shutter speed of 1/200 sec to successfully handhold the camera.

      Delete
  7. Why didn't you use a tripod for all of the shots?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I find lugging around a tripod very cumbersome. For that reason I shoot handheld whenever possible. Subsequently most of the sample photographs are a good representation of what one can expect under real world shooting conditions. However, to give a better impression of the lens performance with the 2X extender, I did use a tripod, unless marked otherwise, to avoid any losses to to camera movement.

      Delete
  8. These are great examples of the advantage of using a 2x extender to keep equipment size manageable.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree. As a matter of fact, I have decided to sell my 400mm Novoflex. Anyone interested?

      Delete