Agfa Ambi Silette Lenses

SXR_Mark · Joined: 12 Jun 2010 Posts: 506 Location: England

I have the 50mm f2.8 and 90mm f4 lenses. They are beautifully made and very compact. I made my own adapter to m4/3. Below are details of the adapter. I machined an aluminium ring that clamps onto the back of the lens. This slides into a sleeve which is machined from a a cheap m4/3 extension tube set.

One disadvantage of rangefinder lenses is the large minimum focus distance. The 50mm focuses to 1m and the 90mm to 1.8. Thus, I allowed the metal ring on the back of the lenses to slide in the sleeve by about 4mm. There is a small screw know that clamps the ring in position. At one end of the slide, the lenses focus to infinity. At the other end the mount acts like a short extension tube. It's not much travel but adds a little flexibility (at least with the 50mm, it's not much use with the 90mm).

90mm on the camera

Mount disassembled wih 0mm lens and 50mm in foreground

The knob on the ring clamps the lens into the sleeve, the black stuff is flocked paper to kill reflections.

SXR_Mark · Joined: 12 Jun 2010 Posts: 506 Location: England

Some samples taken with the 50mm. It's nothing special unfortunately; I wish it performed as nicely as it looks. Minor PP to levels, but nothing major. Generally, the lens is not very sharp. It's not bad, just not very good either. It is a Tessar-type and has distinctive bokeh.

@ f2.8

SXR_Mark · Joined: 12 Jun 2010 Posts: 506 Location: England

These were taken with the 90mm lens all at f4. It is quite soft at this aperture, but since this is already pretty slow, I didn't try make test shots stopped down. The pictures have had a basic levels tweak, but still lack contrast. There is also something about the rendering of a distant, out-of-focus background that I don't quite like, but I can't decide why.

Focus is on the tower block

GrahamNR17 · Expire: 2012-09-06

Wow, you've been a busy boy indeed! I hate to say it, but your successes have given me ideas. Now where did I put the hacksaw Twisted Evil

SXR_Mark · Joined: 12 Jun 2010 Posts: 506 Location: England

I have restored the pictures that were lost in the server crash in 2014.

Reading my comments about the lenses without seeing the pictures made me think I was being harsh in my judgement. But, seeing the pictures again, I think my original comments are accurate. I do not like the results I got with these lenses. I now have much more experience of using vintage lenses (mostly old folding camera lenses) and often get very nice results indeed. I would like to try these again, but the weather at the moment is not going to make that easy.

Mark

philslizzy · Joined: 07 Aug 2012 Posts: 4744 Location: Cheshire, England

Thanks for doing that, I have looked at this thread before and missed the pics.

The lens is interesting, whatever the definition. Probably good for video.

Were these pics taken at Sale Water Park? I recognise that tower block in Stretford.

SXR_Mark · Joined: 12 Jun 2010 Posts: 506 Location: England