AGFA Color SOLAGON 4.5/70mm inner baffles removed F2.0

Pancolart · Expire: 2013-11-18

Here a funny discovery. This beautiful lens has inner baffles and aperture adjustment lifted to F4.5 originally.
But it can be reversed.

Aperture moves only in range of few stops. This cannot be defeated, the size of hole is very limited: see photo 1. What can be done is to change the position of blocker pin. For this purpose i had to make different pin from original. Now aperture starts at wide-open and closes few steps. See the apertures on photo 2.
Another thing had to be done: two inner baffles surrounding aperture were removed. See photo 2 and 3. Both also acted as glass holder (screw ring). I needed to find similar rings to fix glass into position.

Now we have faster Solagon with adaptable flange distance (5cm or 3cm reversed) and full frame image size.
Maximally closed aperture can be seen on photo 5, lens on photo 6.

I doubt i will helicoid adapt it myself so i am selling it in Marketplace. I hope that sharing the idea and procedure allows a bit of promo.

Photo 1 and 2

Photo 3 and 4

Photo 5 and 6

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

There will be a good reason for the baffles - I expect the lens has very poor corrections at wider than f4.5 meaning the IQ will be crap, but some people like swirly, glowy wierd rendering you get when corrections are at a low level.

bernhardas · Expire: 2017-05-23

edited

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

Hey, don't knock the swirly weird rendering.
People do magnificent stuff with this.
It does take a certain touch to do it right though, and its by no means an easy technique.
I haven't managed to make it work.