Making a Novoflex mount......suggestions?

[pollux114]

So I got a set of Novoflex gear and I thought the focus mount (gun stock) had an adapter on it, but I was wrong. And seeing as you guys were so helpful the first time around.....I figured I would try again.

I shoot Canon and I'm having a real hard time finding a Novoflex>Canon adapter (without having to pay $200 for it) so in the meantime I would like to be able to at least USE the lenses. I've been thinking about ways to make my own mount, and so far the best I can figure would be something like this:

-2" diameter PVC pipe section (what would be the optimal length here? I've heard the bellows significantly reduces the MFD of the lenses, so would using a 3, 4, 0r 5 inch section of pipe have the same effect?)

-M42>Canon adapter ring (or equivalent) superglued to one end of the PVC

-Pigriff "gun stock" focus system mounted to the other end with a pipe fastener

Obviously, having each end of the pipe cut perfectly straight, and the entire mount paralell with the rest of the focus mount/lens is extremely important, and will likely be a challenge.

So my questions are:

A. Do you think this will work?

B. Will the length of the pipe determine my MFD, and focus range? (I suspect it will.....and if so, any opinions on length vs. MFD?)

C. Has anyone already done this, but better?


Thanks again

[Attila]

I have a Novoflex 40cm f5.6 lens without genuine Novoflex below and mount.

I am using a simple M42 extension ring works perfectly.

[pollux114]

So you're just mounting the lens head directly to the camera? How do you change focus in that case?

[luisalegria]

Ditto with Attila, you are better off making your own adapter for the Novoflex.

You can take several intermediate steps, and substitute several things.

Whats the fitting on the camera end of your Novoflex mount ?

[pollux114]

Ah, I didn't think about doing something with a set of extension tubes


The mounts on the lens heads are threaded, and look to be M42ish

As for the mount on the rear of the "gun stock"....I don't really know. If there is such a thing as a Novoflex Bayonet then I would guess that that's it. It's a very small bayonet, I'll post a picture of it when I get home....maybe it IS an adapter and this whole process is for nothing.

Attilla, using your setup, do you have an idea of the MFD on the 400mm?

[Attila]

MFD ? What is this mean ?

I did put an M42 extension ring to rear side of gun stock mine has M42 mount and works well. Genuine Novoflex mount has a below.

http://www.mflenses.com/index.php/Novoflex/Novoflex-400mm-f/5.6.html

[pollux114]

hah, sorry I forget that everyone doesn't speak the same language on the internet......... MFD= Minimum Focus Distance

[Attila]

No idea I think pretty long. If I remember of well around 3m.

[Gerrit]

You have your objectif wich fits to the pigriff and at the other end of the pigriff is a sort of bayonet in this will fit a bal-u or a ba tubes and on that tubes you have to mount a camera mount. For exemple an oma mount fits at one end to the ba tubes an at the other end to an olympus OM. With a very cheap adapter you can fit this to an eos camera.
Oma is relative cheap, also penta (for pentax k) and also for nikon there is nika. Coa is for m42.
For more modern camaras like eos ore minolta af the adapters are much more expensive.
I use an oma with an adapter to olympus 4/3 (E510) and a penta directly to a pentax K100d

[Gerrit]

400mm with pigriff b and tubes BA has a focus range from 8,20 meter til infinity.
400mm with BAL-U 1.90 meter til infinity
600mm with BA 16,60 meter til infinity
600mm with BAL-U 4,00 meter til infinity

You can adjust infinity in the top of the gun. There is a cap you can screw off. Than you will find a srew which can be turned to left or right to adjust infinity. Be carefull there is a strong spring behind that screw.

[pollux114]

Good info, thanks

Any idea where to find a BAL-U bellows, or those tubes? (I'm assuming they're just Novoflex extension tubes?)
So far eBay is turning up nothing for me......all I can find is the BAL-S or bellows for specific mounts.

Back to my main question for a minute, if I can put together a makeshift mount in the meantime, would a longer piece of pipe result in a shorter minimum focus distance? If so, any ideas of an optimal length?
I guess I would be looking for roughly an 4-5m working distance for the 400mm, and 8-10m for the 640mm

[luisalegria]

Pipe-inside-pipe is a perfectly good construction for a focusing mount for a lens that isn't too heavy. There have been hundreds of ways of making this work over the years. You will want to add some close-fitting rigid pieces on the inside pipe to make up the difference between OD of the inside and the ID of the outside. You want a close fit. Some people even manage to get home-made helical focusing on these things.

The longer the tube the closer the focus. There is no way to be certain what the length needs to be unless you test focus on the Novoflex lens and make measurements.

If you mean to mount the whole Pigriff at one end of this and your camera at the other though, thats not going to work, it just seems to require too much strength for this non-metallic pipe-in-pipe idea.

The REALLY tricky part is getting the lens mount on the tube, at both ends. This has to be not only straight but mechanically very strong.

I doubt that superglue or even epoxy will suffice for either end, you will want a solid mechanical connection. A better construction for instance would be M42 extension tubes screwed into your M42->EOS adapter, with tape wrapped around the M42 extensions to make a close fit inside your pipe; this takes care of the rectilinearity problem. The M42 rings can then be bolted or screwed to your pipe.

Another approach is to forget the Pigriff for the moment and use an ordinary bellows for your Canon with extension tubes added to provide the necessary extra length, with the Novoflex lens head adapted to the mount on the bellows/extension tubes.

[pollux114]

So my mount idea worked, I started with a 6" section of ABS pipe and at first I thought something had gone horribly wrong........I pointed the lens up, nothing but blur.......squeezed the focus handle....still nothing but blur.
I kept aiming at things closer and further away.......still nothing, so I pointed it at my feet, and bingo!
Well, my feet weren't actually in focus, but almost. With the 6" section I was getting a minimum focus distance of about 1.5 metres.....with both the 400mm and 640mm lens heads.....it was quite the macro setup!

Completely useless for wildlife photography, I chopped the pipe section down to about 4" with much the same result. My minimum focus distance is now about 2.5 metres.

I didn't want to cut any more off the pipe until I figured out if infinity focus was possible.
Is it possible to acheive infinity focus at that range? right now the trigger on the pigriff only extends the focus range about 2 feet.

There is a cap at the rear end of the pigriff, with a screw inside....I turned it back and forth a little but I couldn't see any difference.

Am I going to have to cut down the pipe even more to get infinity focus? And should I have to adjust that screw? (or is something else the infinity adjustment)?

[Gerrit]

The length of a BA-tubes is about 4cm
The length of the mount oma or so depends on which brand of camera you use. The total length BA + mount will be around 5to6 cm

[luisalegria]

It seems to me that your pipe is just too long still.

The !maximum! length of the pipe needs to be whatever is needed to get the Novoflex device to focus at infinity, or whatever distance you want to use. As for getting closer focus, thats why you need a variable extension, like a bellows.

How are you mounting the pipe on the camera and Novoflex ?

[pollux114]

Thanks guys, I got it working for now until I get something more permanent in a bellows/adapter combination. I think I cut it a little short the last time, because the lens will actually now focus PAST infinity a bit. I tried fiddling with the screw again, but I couldn't fix it.....any suggestions are welcome. My minimum focus distance now is about 6 metres for the 400mm, and 9 for the 640mm. I figure that should be good for birding.

I did exactly what I was thinking in the first post. Actually, I didn't even use an M42 adapter because apparently I don't have one anymore!
All I did was cut the center out of a body cap and super glued it to one end of the pipe for the camera mount.

Then to get it onto the pigriff, I just cut 4 small slits about an inch down the other end and fit it on over the Novoflex mount. Then using a couple levels to make sure it was straight, I tightened a pipe fastener around the end, locking it onto the Novoflex bayonet mount.

It's actually quite solid, and I'm only going to mount my XSi on it for the time being because it's so much lighter than the 40D.