Agfa Apotar 85mm f4.5 from Isolette II

[SXR_Mark]

This Agfa Apotar 85mm f4.5 lens is from an Agfa Isolette II folding camera (which I think is a 6x6 camera). It is a triplet lens with front element focusing. The lens is AR coated. These pictures were taken with the lens bellows mounted on my Oly OM-D E-M5. The bellows allows me to focus by moving the whole lens rather than by using the front element focusing. Leaving the lens set to infinity and unit focusing gives better results in my experience as changing the separation of the first two elements also has an negative impact on resolving power.

I think this is a really sweet lens. All these shots were taken with the lens wide open. The sharpness is really good. Though probably not first rate, it is certainly more than good enough. Considering I am taking a very small crop from the image circle of this lens, the performance is really remarkable. (Focus may not always be spot on as the flowers were moving in gusts of wind). I have applied a modest curves adjustment but the basic colour saturation is also good.

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[blotafton]

Really nice sharpness and fucus in some of the shots. My Isolette III with the same lens never seems to disappoint.

[Lightshow]

Looks very capable to me.

[pdccameras]

Nice work! The Apotar is a very capable lens - extending out to the 6x6 cm (2-1/4" square) format. Try mounting the lens in such a way that you can use some more of that image circle and you will have a nice tilt-shift lens as well. If you keep your eyes open, you might even be able to find the same camera with the higher spec. 75mm f/3.5 Agfa Solinar - a Tessar formula with superb performance.

Best,

paul

[scsambrook]

[!Karen]

Very impressive

[ForenSeil]

Very impressive indeed.
@blotafton - Bad performance on analog foldermight be caused by focusing problems, old folders tend to have incorrect distance scales and wrong aligned rangefinders