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Wollensak 21.25 inch f10 Apochromatic Raptar
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 30, 2011 6:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Ian, I'm an angler permanently stuck in the small boy state of development. Any fish is good fish.

With respect to adapting large format lenses in barrel to small format cameras, any tube is good tube.


PostPosted: Fri Sep 30, 2011 6:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Great fix !

The bellows give you much more focus range also, which is very important on that long lens as its not a telephoto. Its a permanent fix I would think. Thats a Praktica bellows isn't it ?


PostPosted: Fri Sep 30, 2011 8:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Aye, I think I'll stick to using the bellows with it, make it easy to use.

Russian bellows, KMZ logo, I have an identical set in M39.


PostPosted: Fri Sep 30, 2011 11:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
iangreenhalgh1 wrote:
Aye, I think I'll stick to using the bellows with it, make it easy to use.

Russian bellows, KMZ logo, I have an identical set in M39.


Good idea. I have what seems to be the same Soviet bellows in M39, but with an MMZ logo. I hang a Nikon behind it to try out LF lenses and sometimes use it for closeup work.

Works well, is lighter than my PB-4. What with the adapters involved, it is a good match for, e.g., my 210/9 Konica Hexanon GRII (not engraved "Apo"). I don't think you want a short process lens but if you do the 210 GRII is a very good one. Much better on 35 mm at all distances and at the same aperture from f/9 down than the 200/4 Micro-Nikkor AI/AIS. I refer to the original one that goes to 1:2 on its own mount, not the newer on that goes to 1:1 and is said to be much better. Can't compare, don't have the new one.


PostPosted: Sat Oct 01, 2011 12:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Well I have a 8.5 inch Ross Xpress LF lens I have remounted in a similar way, that works great too, I have a Tair-3C 300mm that is excellent so really, I am looking for anything in the 300 and up length that is upto the standards of the Xpress, Tair and Raptar.

To give you some idea of the power of this Raptar, take a look at this panorama of a local reservoir taken with my Tokina 17mm:



Can you see the two little white dots on the water in the far distance?

They are a pair of swans, as oyu can see with this shot taken with the Raptar from the same spot:



Bit low in contrast but that is easily fixed in photoshop:



100% crop:



Another example, this time one of the wind turbines in the distance:



Finally, notice the comms mast on the right, here is a shot of the top of it with the Raptar:



100% crop, looks like I missed the focus:



Image of the entire mast, 4 shots stiched together:



PostPosted: Sat Oct 01, 2011 12:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Another example, this is with my Meyer Oreston 1.8/50:



From same spot with the 541mm Raptar:



And this is also from the same spot, a sheep on the far side of the reservoir:



100% crop:



Same spot again, a TV mast at least a mile away:



100% crop:



A wind turbine:



100% crop:



PostPosted: Sat Oct 01, 2011 2:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Looks like a great lens, the fist picture above is sweet , takes super pictures and can give you a work out too. Very Happy .


PostPosted: Sat Oct 01, 2011 7:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
That lens has some serious resolution!!


PostPosted: Sat Oct 01, 2011 11:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
It's actually not very heavy at all for the size, the bellows makes it twice as heavy, the Raptar and tube on it's own is pretty light.

I think I can get better results from it with more practice, I shot all those wide open and I had real difficulty ascertaining correct focus even with the 14x magnify feature on my NEX as the sun was really bright and made it really hard to see the screen. I need to get one of those focus aids Atilla uses on his NEX in order to be able to focus this Raptar accurately.

I wonder how this lens would perform with a 2x TC?

Tha would make it a 20/1082mm which is rather extreme in length.


PostPosted: Sat Oct 01, 2011 12:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I was looking at Google Maps and I worked out that the picture of the wind turbine was taken at a distance of 1.9km (1.17 miles):



The red X marks where I was stood and the turbine is circled in red:



PostPosted: Sat Oct 01, 2011 6:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Very pretty countryside there


PostPosted: Sun Oct 02, 2011 1:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
It certainly is. Some landscape shots I took the same day:





PostPosted: Sat May 26, 2012 4:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Well I dragged the Wollensak contraption out again and tried it with a Pentacon 2x TC, seems to do quite well, I could only use it wide open as the TC reduced the light transmittance:

http://forum.mflenses.com/wollensak-apochromatic-raptar-21-25inch-and-pentacon-2x-tc-t50064.html


PostPosted: Mon May 28, 2012 11:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I tried the lens again today with the Pentacon TC and it definitely spoils the IQ, on today's shots it introduced a strange colour ghost, I'll have to examine it and see if it needs cleaning or has a loose element.

Without the TC, the lens performs wonderfully well, the limitation to sharpness at distance is heat haze, the lens can resolve a lot of fine details even at several kilometres distance. Smile

No sharpening on these shots, just some tweaking of the contrast, all shot wide open at f10.

This is a shot of Devonshire Dock Hall, Barrow-in-Furness, where all the UK's submarines are made:



Heat haze spoils the sharpness, sadly. I checked on Google Maps and the distance of the building from where I was stood was exactly 10km:



Haze wasn't such an issue on this shot of wind turbines on Kirby Fell, I measured the distance on Google Maps as 9.3km. Pretty amazing you can clearly see telephone wires from this distance I think:



A boat on Haverigg Beach, about 1km away, the wind turbines are 14-15km away, each one is 100m tall with 136m diameter rotors.



A small boat about 500m away:



Finally, a couple of stitches:




PostPosted: Mon May 28, 2012 11:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Impressive indeed!


PostPosted: Mon May 28, 2012 11:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Cheers. I felt a bit silly stood there using it, I got a few funny looks from people, looked like I had setup a telescope! Smile

I'm definitely going to try doing some more work with this lens, not so much birds and wildlife, but landscapes and stitching, I like the look it lends to the pictures, with the ultra-compressed perspective and deep dof.

Now, can I find a 36 inch version? Rolling Eyes Very Happy


PostPosted: Tue May 29, 2012 3:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
It certainly looks like you have an excellent lens for panorama shots. The boat on the beach with the turbines in the background looks like a nice subject.

As for heat haze - I was looking in the Edmund catalog and they have reactive optics mirror kits - mirrors that are precisely deformable by dozens of actuators, driven by a microcontroller. Thats part of your heat-haze solution !


PostPosted: Tue May 29, 2012 6:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Cheers Luis.

Living where I do, heat haze is not likely to be a problem very often, doesn't often get warm enough!
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