[rollei_list] Re: Back on the list / OT
- From: Eric Goldstein <egoldste@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2011 11:44:20 -0500
According to Kingslake, the Culminar is a reversed Tessar-type... that
is, the cemented doublet is in the front!
Eric Goldstein
--
On Wed, Feb 2, 2011 at 1:34 AM, Marc James Small <marcsmall@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> The Culminar is a pretty good performer, all in all. It is an older lens,
> dating from the 1950's (I am too lazy to fire up my copy of THE LENS
> COLLECTOR'S VADE MECUM to check all the details, but I have owned and used
> several copies of this lens). The focal length is one very forgiving when
> used on a miniature format camera.
>
> I have vague memories of the Culminar lens head being used separately but I
> forget the details. Whoops! Hold hard, lads! Jan finally forced me out of
> my chair and to walk five feet to check out the dust-gathering holdings on
> my shelves and there, voila!, is a Reproflex reflex housing in LTM with this
> very lens. The Reproflex was made by Karl Müller, Jr, of Memmingen, later
> to become Novoflex. I am not certain what the thread on the lens head might
> be but that on the focusing adapter to fit it to the Reproflex is Leica
> thread mount -- Novoflex used Steinheil lenses until the Steinheil family
> closed station and faded away, back in the Longago, in '62, and these lenses
> and adapters had Leica thread-mount (LTM) -- NOT M39 -- threads connecting
> the adapters and lenses. (To complete the saga, Novoflex then used lenses
> from Dr Staeble which had a Praktina bayonet-mount connector, but that is a
> tale for a different day.)
>
> I have shot with this device and the lens is quite capable but, again, keep
> in mind that it is a three-element lens.
>
> Finally, the Germans on both sides of the Great Divide had a horrible
> problem in obtaining decent lubricants through the 1950's, and, while the
> West Germans were never reduced to the use of the sort of regurgitated cow
> guts Carl Zeiss Jena was forced to use during this period, quality
> lubricants were scarce even in West Germany. The answer to your plight is
> simple. Disassemble the lens gently and use lighter fluid (there are
> virtues to being a smoker, albeit the anti-smoking zealots will never
> acknowledge such) to completely flush out the old lubricant -- you might
> need some pipe cleaners (there are virtues to being a pipe smoker ... ) to
> clean out the nooks and crannies but, in the end, you get bare metal. Then
> pack with SMALL quantities of standard wheel-bearing grease. (I must have
> caused heart palpitations in Richard Knoppow with these words.) Work the
> lens units back into mesh and exercise them gently until you have spread the
> grease through both sets of threads. If it is still a bit harsh in the
> turning, then you need some more grease, but be careful not to overdo it.
> In the end, your lens will be returned to battery. It ought to take
> fifteen minutes or so. I have done a number of lenses this way and just
> checked my 2.8/18cm CZJ Sonnar which I use with my Ha$$elblad 2000 FC/M. I
> rebuilt that lens this way in 1994, and it still turns as smoothly as a
> politician does when someone says, "campaign contribution".
>
> Marc
>
>
> msmall@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> Cha robh bàs fir gun ghràs fir!
>
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