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An interesting lens: Enna Werk Correlar 80mm f2.9
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 24, 2017 7:04 am    Post subject: An interesting lens: Enna Werk Correlar 80mm f2.9 Reply with quote
Hi folks,
My first post here. My name is Toby and I'm a bokeholic. I'd like to share something about this lens because if its very interesting characteristic of having a very changeable bokeh depending on focus distance. The lens was an option on a couple of old cameras from the 50's: the Balda Baldix and the Dacora Digna, and possibly others. The former is a folder and the latter a turret camera, but in both cases it is very easy to remove the lens, as it is uncoupled and held on only by a retaining ring at the rear. The lens focuses by turning the front ring, which moves the front element on a helicoid--like many cameras of the time.The shutter has no T setting, but it is not a big problem to jam the shutter open.

I mounted it on an adapter using a retaining ring. The lens can actually be mounted on a DSLR, but I popped it onto a focusing helicoid and put it on a Sony NEX-7.

When I first got the lens, it seemed to me to be pretty horribly soft and bloomy, and it wasn't until quite later that that was because I had it set at the minimum focus distance on the lens, and was focusing using the adapter helicoid. If by contrast the lens is set to infinity focus on the front ring and then focused with the helicoid, it bubbles with the best of them. Intermediate distances set on the original lens' focusing scale give varying degrees of bubbliness. It's kind of an all-in-one bokeh wonder Smile

Another lens that was fitted to these cameras was the Isco Goettingen Westar 75mm f2.9. It also has a distinctive bokeh, but which does not change much depending on the front focus. The Correlar is unique IME for its variability.

And the nice thing is that these cameras can be found on eBay for a song. I've bought two for about $40 each.

So here are a few shots to demonstrate the character at max and min focus distance and somewhere in the middle.

#1


#2


#3


PostPosted: Fri Mar 24, 2017 7:24 am    Post subject: Re: An interesting lens: Enna Werk Correlar 80mm f2.9 Reply with quote
kymarto wrote:
Hi folks,
My first post here. My name is Toby and I'm a bokeholic. I'd like to share something about this lens because if its very interesting characteristic of having a very changeable bokeh depending on focus distance. The lens was an option on a couple of old cameras from the 50's: the Balda Baldix and the Dacora Digna, and possibly others. The former is a folder and the latter a turret camera, but in both cases it is very easy to remove the lens, as it is uncoupled and held on only by a retaining ring at the rear. The lens focuses by turning the front ring, which moves the front element on a helicoid--like many cameras of the time.The shutter has no T setting, but it is not a big problem to jam the shutter open.

I mounted it on an adapter using a retaining ring. The lens can actually be mounted on a DSLR, but I popped it onto a focusing helicoid and put it on a Sony NEX-7.

When I first got the lens, it seemed to me to be pretty horribly soft and bloomy, and it wasn't until quite later that that was because I had it set at the minimum focus distance on the lens, and was focusing using the adapter helicoid. If by contrast the lens is set to infinity focus on the front ring and then focused with the helicoid, it bubbles with the best of them. Intermediate distances set on the original lens' focusing scale give varying degrees of bubbliness. It's kind of an all-in-one bokeh wonder Smile

Another lens that was fitted to these cameras was the Isco Goettingen Westar 75mm f2.9. It also has a distinctive bokeh, but which does not change much depending on the front focus. The Correlar is unique IME for its variability.

And the nice thing is that these cameras can be found on eBay for a song. I've bought two for about $40 each.

So here are a few shots to demonstrate the character at max and min focus distance and somewhere in the middle.

#1


#2


#3


No pictures in your first posting. From now on you're OK.


PostPosted: Fri Mar 24, 2017 8:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Thanks! I was wondering what was up with the attachments.


PostPosted: Fri Mar 24, 2017 11:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Beautiful bokeh.Probably the most mysterious I've ever seen. Smile))


PostPosted: Fri Mar 24, 2017 12:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Interesting pictures there Toby, I've never really bothered too much about bokeh for its own sake, I think I've been infected!


Bugger!, I'll need to buy more lenses to investigate this, obviously.


PostPosted: Fri Mar 24, 2017 2:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Oh dear, it's quite contagious I'm afraid. Perhaps I'll do a lens a day for the other bokeholics here.


PostPosted: Fri Mar 24, 2017 5:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Welcome here, I hope it won't be too infectious for you;-)


PostPosted: Fri Mar 24, 2017 5:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Wow...very dreamy and strange. Nice!


PostPosted: Fri Mar 24, 2017 5:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
You have wonderful photos made with Correlar. I saw on the flickr photos taken with Correlar. But neither here nor there is a photograph of the lens itself. What is this wonderful lens?


PostPosted: Fri Mar 24, 2017 6:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
sergtum wrote:
You have wonderful photos made with Correlar. I saw on the flickr photos taken with Correlar. But neither here nor there is a photograph of the lens itself. What is this wonderful lens?
I converted one of these a few months ago.. here's what the raw lens looks like pulled out of the Dacora Digna



PostPosted: Fri Mar 24, 2017 8:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
...what would be the flange distance for this type of lens? Can you elaborate what is needed to do a conversion for a mirror less camera?


PostPosted: Sat Mar 25, 2017 3:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
leemik wrote:
sergtum wrote:
You have wonderful photos made with Correlar. I saw on the flickr photos taken with Correlar. But neither here nor there is a photograph of the lens itself. What is this wonderful lens?
I converted one of these a few months ago.. here's what the raw lens looks like pulled out of the Dacora Digna



Thanks!


PostPosted: Sat Mar 25, 2017 3:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Nice to see you here! Congrats to beautiful pictures!!


PostPosted: Sat Mar 25, 2017 4:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
The reason why the 'bubbliness' changes when you focus using the lenses own helicoid is because it is focussing by moving the front element back and forth. Bubbles are due to overcorrected spherical aberration and in the triplet and tessar designs, SA is controlled by the distance between the front two elements - the more you increase this distance, the more prominent the outlines of the bubbles.

You can take any triplet or tessar and make it produce bubbles by increasing the spacing between the front two elements.


PostPosted: Mon Oct 16, 2017 10:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
How easily you got the lens out of the donor camera?

I tried to remove it from a Dacora Digna but the screw ring didn't move. Someone had tried that already before, as I saw from markings.
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