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AGFA Minilab lenses?
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 20, 2020 10:26 am    Post subject: AGFA Minilab lenses? Reply with quote
Has anyone ever tried to adapt them?
https://www.ebay.nl/itm/Agfa-MSC-Minilab-8506-122-2-3-3-1x-Lens-Good-Glass-USED-E42F/264004801443?hash=item3d77e993a3:g:N0YAAOSwJr1b0H-0



Edit: removed the original site I linked to It scrapes stuff from auction sites and pretends to sell it. I added the original listing on ebay (which will disappear a some point).

Last edited by D1N0 on Tue Jul 21, 2020 7:43 pm; edited 1 time in total


PostPosted: Mon Jul 20, 2020 1:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I've just received a similar lens in the mail, not tested it properly yet. It's the 2.3-3.1x version of that lens. You can remove the rear clamping rings, it has a 62mm thread that may be 1.0mm pitch, but a regular 62x0.75 filter adapter fits well enough. With some 36mm extension I get infinity focus on my Sony E mount camera. Quite a bit of flare though, I need to clean and flock it properly.

The website you link to looks rather dodgy, all the items that are in stock have 800 pieces available of them.. Have you ordered anything from them?


PostPosted: Mon Jul 20, 2020 1:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Nope I didn't It was just for reference


PostPosted: Tue Jul 21, 2020 6:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
well I just won three in an auction to experiment with. Didn't expect to get them for just €20.

Seller pic:


I don't know anything about them Does anybody know what 1.7-2.4x and 3.0-4.0x stand for? magnification?


PostPosted: Tue Jul 21, 2020 6:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
D1N0 wrote:
well I just won three in an auction to experiment with. Didn't expect to get them for just €20.

Seller pic:


I don't know anything about them Does anybody know what 1.7-2.4x and 3.0-4.0x stand for? magnification?


Indeed. The middle ring allows for magnification adjustment, if you loosen the narrow white and red rings above and beneath it. The barrel beneath the wide ring shows a scale between the two values you list per lens. So for my lens it reads MAG 3.1 down to 2.3.


PostPosted: Tue Jul 21, 2020 9:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
dickb wrote:
D1N0 wrote:
well I just won three in an auction to experiment with. Didn't expect to get them for just €20.

Seller pic:


I don't know anything about them Does anybody know what 1.7-2.4x and 3.0-4.0x stand for? magnification?


Indeed. The middle ring allows for magnification adjustment, if you loosen the narrow white and red rings above and beneath it. The barrel beneath the wide ring shows a scale between the two values you list per lens. So for my lens it reads MAG 3.1 down to 2.3.


Thank you. I assume larger magnification means wider angles and short focal length since it is basically projecting an image on paper of a certain size (9*13 or 10*15 cm) so a 3.0-4.0 would have a wider angle and shorter focal length than a 1.7-2.4. Just trying to understand the physics of these things.


PostPosted: Sat Sep 26, 2020 11:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
I have not adapted them yet but this shot was taken lying in front of the camera and an extension tube withe the 3x..4x..variant. There is some flare but the sharp bits are really sharp.

Tak/105/2.8 by The lens profile, on Flickr


PostPosted: Sat Sep 26, 2020 1:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
They will be excellent macro lenses, but might not be great at distance.

I'm quite jealous of the bargain you got, these are exactly the sort of lenses I have been seeking for macro work. Smile


PostPosted: Thu Oct 08, 2020 9:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Another one with the 1.7...2.4x variant. DOF seems narrow but is actually quite wide for this close. The lenses can't be stopped down. Aperture is fixed.
Pepper by The lens profile, on Flickr


PostPosted: Fri Oct 16, 2020 3:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Looks like you need to flock the inside of your extensions.


PostPosted: Fri Oct 16, 2020 11:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Ray Parkhurst wrote:
Looks like you need to flock the inside of your extensions.


It is actually a stripped teleconverter. So quite shiny. It is black but looks like bare metal when light is reflected.


PostPosted: Fri Oct 16, 2020 2:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
D1N0 wrote:
Ray Parkhurst wrote:
Looks like you need to flock the inside of your extensions.


It is actually a stripped teleconverter. So quite shiny. It is black but looks like bare metal when light is reflected.


Let's see what the same pics look like after flocking.


PostPosted: Fri Oct 16, 2020 2:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I will eventually get a m62 to m65 adapter and a m65 to m42 adapter (or K-mount if I can find one) This was shot with the lens just lying on the table in front of the camera and the make shift ring in between.


PostPosted: Wed Oct 20, 2021 1:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
First part of the adapter has arrived from Russia m62 female to m65 male. I could find a m65 female to m42 male only on ebay, so that's coming in from china.

fits by The lens profile, on Flickr


PostPosted: Mon Nov 15, 2021 11:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
The second part (m65 to m42) arrived this weekend. The lens is pretty dark due to a fixed aperture, very very low contrast and very very sharp.

Minilab lens adapted by The lens profile, on Flickr


PostPosted: Mon Nov 15, 2021 12:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
This is a 1:1 crop:
1:1 by The lens profile, on Flickr

and this is an export of the 1:1 on 4k format
Enlarged by The lens profile, on Flickr


PostPosted: Mon Nov 15, 2021 4:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Like 1 Anybody know what the original intent was for these things?


PostPosted: Mon Nov 15, 2021 4:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
jamaeolus wrote:
Like 1 Anybody know what the original intent was for these things?


They are enlarger lenses for automated minilabs like 1 hour photo service stuff. In the right setup they might be excellent slide copiers.


PostPosted: Thu Jun 02, 2022 6:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Hope it's okay if I add my two cents here as well:

As mentioned in our article on Agfa enlarging lenses (where I put a link to this thread, because it was the first substantial information I found on these lenses, when researching them...thanks a lot for that D1N0!), I've adapted one of them (8506/123) as well:
https://deltalenses.com/index.php/2022/03/21/agfa-enlarger-lenses/

Here are a couple of shots I was able to use them for:

They lift me up… just to screw me over! by simple.joy, on Flickr

Chipmaking process by simple.joy, on Flickr

Antenn-delion by simple.joy, on Flickr

Unfortunately it's quite a heavy and cumbersome lens to adapt, doesn't have a variable aperture, and I'm still not quite sure what magnification it's ideally used at, but I feel like sharpness and CA correction is really good. Certainly one more example to show that Agfa was a significantly more capable lens manufacturer than I would have given them credit for, at least in terms of enlarging/industrial lenses. Going by the inscriptions these lenses were Made in Germany. If anyone here has any experience with the Agfa MSC labs, I would be really interested to know more about them.


PostPosted: Thu Jun 02, 2022 10:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Were you able to confirm which machine these were taken from?


PostPosted: Thu Jun 02, 2022 10:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
This recent acquisition came from a d3 minilab . . .


PostPosted: Thu Jun 02, 2022 10:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote



PostPosted: Thu Jun 02, 2022 10:38 pm    Post subject: And inside . . . Reply with quote


PostPosted: Thu Jun 02, 2022 10:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
The condensor casing it came it is marked 8508/370, which seems as good a name as any.
The date code is 07.01 B0100876 - the first part of which seems to match the production run (2001).
However the lens is unmarked and instead of having variable focus, or focal length, it has a four-stop diaphragm.

It's optimised for a very short FFD (maybe 20mm) in its natural orientation, but it works tolerably well reversed at lower magnification. Will post some pix shot with it later.


PostPosted: Thu Jun 02, 2022 10:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
16:9 wrote:
Were you able to confirm which machine these were taken from?


Yes, pretty sure they were used in the Agfa MSC (Multi Scanning Compact) Lab as well as the Agfa MSC 100, maybe MSC 101, 200, 300 as well. Found a manual where they are shown alongside other "Special lenses" (Pretty sure they are not that special in terms of quality for the most part, because those seem to be "wallet lenses", which don't have a good reputation when it comes to adapting):
https://www.manualslib.com/manual/946305/Agfa-Msc-100.html (on page 298)

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