f-Stops on a 9cm f4 Elmar

Stu :) · 02-23-2004

Hiya,

I was just sitting here looking my newly arrived tele-photo lens (a Leitz 9cm 1:4 Elmar) and some horrid occured.
The first f-stop is 4... fine I can handle that.
Then there is f4.5... cool...
f6.3, I think one of my Linhof lenses has that...
f9, huh?...
f12.5, f18, f25, f36... what gives!

I'm use to nice sane f-stop number like- 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, etc.

Do treat f9 as if it was f8? If so what do count f36 has? f32 or f45... argh.

Stu

PS. This is for when I use a hand held meter. I'm sure I'll be ok with these numbers when using the camera's spot meter, hopefully...

Brian Sweeney · 02-23-2004

Stu,
You have a lens from before time; time in the '50s when they standardized things like F-Stop, Shutter-Speed, and ASA. like mine. There are no click-stops, just continuous turn of the aperture ring.

If you have a hard time "eye-balling" the "modern" F4, F5.6, F8, ... sequence, and this lens is a user, why not make up your own aperture scale and put it over the existing one?

SolaresLarrave · 02-23-2004

I experienced a slight "confusion attack" myself, but then I checked a book on Leica lenses (not Puts's) and found out the same Brian has told you; my lens, just like yours, is a very old Elmar (production years 1931-1964), from before the f-stops standardization (which occurred, apparently, in the fifties). If I want to shoot at f8, just locate the click-less aperture between 6.5 and 9 and that will probably do it.

Another source of confusion: the aperture ring turns the opposite way in regards to newer M-mount lenses. When I use it on my M6 and the meter tells me to turn the ring to the left (to avoid overexposure), I have to turn it right to get the right metering. How's that in your camera body?

Regarding the scale numbers, you can also get a small marker to re-do the f-stop scale. I saw it somewhere in the web... and I intend to do it myself, but later.

About the stop scale... my own Nikon F80 has weird intermediate f-stops and shutterspeeds, dictated by the small built-in computer chip, so nothing completely strange here... Have fun!

Brian Sweeney · 02-23-2004

Okay! We have Uncoated Elmar Users Here!

This Thread Needs Pictures, and I scanned a few more in yesterday. Will post some more soon.

Yesterday I took the new-fangled coated Canon 100mm F4 Serenar to the playground, will drop of the roll today.

SolaresLarrave · 02-24-2004

Here goes the first print I liked, done with my M6TTL and the Elmar f4 uncoated, on Kodak B&W Plus film (the super cheapo, supermarket version). Can't recall the technical data, except for aperture: unfiltered and fully open all the way at f4!

The model has a resigned look...

Doug · 02-24-2004

A very nice shot, indeed, resigned or not! Hard to assess the lens from the posted pic, and hard to tell if the tonal qualities result from the lens, film, scan, or what.

HelenB · 02-24-2004

Stu,
Those 'old fashioned' apertures are one-third of a stop smaller than the 'modern' ones: so f/4.5 is a third smaller than f/4; f/6.3 is a third smaller than f/5.6 etc. Each of those numbers you quoted after f/4.5 are one full stop apart. Does that help?

Best,
Helen