Novoflex 200mm macro lens head

[cyberjunkie]

Hi!
I found a NOS lens, still in its box, which should be fine for small animals hunting, especially with fill-in flash (or two flashes setup).
It is a Novoflex 200mm macro lens head, codename LEINO, which comes with a conical distancer tube with LTM thread.
I already added the lens to my signature but i didn't have the chance to use it in the field, because it is still snowing, so it's more a weather for nice landscapes.
I did a Google search, looking for informations about this lens, but i found VERY little.
There isn't even a poor, lonely, single catalogue of vintage Novoflex products!
Nobody cared to scan one of them... it's strange, because there are 100 years old catalogues on the Web, like those made available by cameraeccentric. I know them all too well, cause i am a collector of vintage large format optics.
Another source is Butkus, but i am afraid that the pdf manuals can't be downloaded right now. I hope they will be made available again!
Lacking any online documentation, i am asking the forum members.
Any first hand experience of this lens?
If you own other Novoflex macro lens heads, how they perform?
Any german user who can confirm that the optics were made by Staeble?

ciao

Paolo

[iangreenhalgh1]

I also read that they were made by Staeble.

200mm macro sounds very useul, the Novoflex double rail bellows are very nice and pretty common on ebay, would be the ideal match for your lens.

[danfromm]

Are you sure it is a macro lens? Novoflex sold a number of lenses of different focal lengths with the code LEINO-xxx, where xxx is the focal length in mm, for use on a fast focus bellows. It isn't obvious than any of them was optimized for closeup.

See http://photobutmore.de/exakta/objektive/novoflex/

[Attila]

[ZoneV]

I have a Novoflex 200mm lens as well.
At the moment I have not used it very often. But from the first tests it seems to perform well in macro range.
The iris with its many blades is very nice - and the build quality is very high, like a tank.

No clue whether this lens is made by Staeble. I have a Staeble Novoflex lens, but I don´t know whether all Novoflex prime lenses made by Staeble or not.

[Farside]

Novoflex Australian catalogue for 2005, has the LEINO 60 and LEINO 105...
http://www.mediafire.com/view/?mzyy0b1txmm
I never could find much online info about Novoflex products, either.

[ZoneV]

I have a Novoflex book written by Friedrich-W. Voigt, from 1961, there is no 200 mm lens listed. But a 240mm/4.5. It seems like there are different ~200mm lenses with short life in their product range. There are even two different 200mm lenses around, I own the 200mm f/4.0 version, I think the other one has f/3.5.

[kds315*]

I have that book too, but it is and cannot be complete as they (NOVOFLEX) have developed other lenses later

[paulhofseth]

http://photobutmore.de/exakta/objektive/novoflex/

[ZoneV]

[cyberjunkie]

AFAIK, LEINO lens heads were made for bellows (read: macro) use.
In fact, mine has an LTM mount, which was standard in Novoflex bellows.
From the interesting link that has been posted, i get that the shortest focal for the quick/follow-focus system was the 240mm (which is in accord with what i knew). EDIT: There was a rare 200mm, but the speed was f/3.8.
I tought that the tele lens heads for the various models of PIGRIFF had some kind of bayonet mount, though i am quite unexperienced about Novoflex stuff. I never had the chance to use (or closely inspect) a Novoflex follow-focus equipment, though i've seen a few of them on sale back then, when the AF lenses were either unavailable, or still very slow.
From the Google translation of the mentioned page (Exakta site), my understanding is that the first version (PIGRIFF) had a screw-mount, while the others (from PIGRIFF-B > PIGRIFF-D) should be matched with lens heads which have a particular Novoflex bayonet, and on the other side there should be a dedicated adapter ring for each camera brand.
Can anybody confirm it?

Somehow, i have always been attracted by the Novoflex "machine gun" focusing system, and in the past i have been told that the achromat lens heads were quite good. I guess that the three-elements model and the Leitz Telyt were even better...
Now AF cameras and lenses dominate, and Novoflex equipments can be found on Ebay for good prices.
Just yesterday, a complete 240mm follow-focus system, and a 600mm lens head, were sold for affordable prices.
I think that a PIGRIFF-B/C, complete with bellows, could be used with my LEINO-200 lens head, to be used for "macro hunting", but i'd like to be sure, before spending money on something incompatible.

thanks for the valuable help
especially Farside's Mediafire link

Paolo

[kds315*]

[ZoneV]

[danfromm]

Paolo, back when (see the catalog I mentioned in post # 3 in this thread) Novoflex used bellows for focusing. They sold short mount lenses to avoid the expense of focusing helicals, not, in general, as macro lenses. One of those short mount lenses was a 240/5.5 Tele-Xenar. I can't believe that you think a Tele-Xenar is a macro lens.

[cyberjunkie]

Hi Dan.
My knowledge of german language is close to nil, but i think i realized mostly everything... with some help from Google translate.
I have seen the reference to the Tele Xenar, mentioned together with the LEINO lenses.
As Nofoflex does not advertise the lenses for a specific use, we are left to our own guesswork, based on common sense.
Of course the Tele Xenar is not a macro lens, but it could benefit from a quick focusing system, and would be good for close range pictures.
AFAIK, the two other LEINO lens heads (60mm and 105mm), as well as the 35mm in focusing mount, were all used as macro lenses, so there is a good chance that the 200mm f/4, with similar construction, was meant for the same use.
The lens heads for follow-focus systems had a separate diaphragm housing, and from the link you posted i understand that the 200mm f/3.8 lens was sold with integral (non interchangeable) PIGRIFF-like focusing handle.
All the others were made for Novoflex bellows. The Tele Xenar was so long to be practically unusable for macro work, but was a good match for a quick focusing bellows (with the attached handle that allowed to quickly set the extension of the bellows).

I know very little about smaller german optical companies, but i found that the long achromats employed by Novoflex were originally made by Enna, then by Steinheil, and from 1961 by Staeble.
I found no relationship with Memmingen optical work which made Memmingia anastigmats before the second world war.

cheers

Paolo