Schneider Kreuznach Lenses & Novoflex Accessories on Leica M Cameras
Cleaning out closets can be very rewarding and that is how I got lucky to get some neglected older Leitz material. The dust on the Bellows II had done no harm to it and after cleaning, it turned out to function as it should together with the Visoflex III on a (analogue) Leica M camera; the Elmar 3.5/65mm which was also included in the set delivered fine images. The bellows is rather bulky, but with the use of the Elmar 3.5/65mm and the lens heads of an Elmarit 2.8/90mm, Tele- Elmar 4/135mm and of the Telyt 4/200mm I soon discovered many new possibilities with this old equipment. Of course, the flow of rings and adapters connected to the use of Visoflex and bellows had to be explored as well, it is a fascinating world on its own that you can easily get lost in. But there are more lenses and accessories around that can be used.
A few months later I found a Schneider-Kreuznach Xenar 4.5/135mm lens with Leica thread mount on a Novoflex bellows with focusing rail (codeword VISBIG) for little money. I learned that my lens was produced in 1958, which made me curious how this one of over fifty years old would perform today. As a short lens this was one of the options for customers who bought a Novoflex bellows, it needs the bellows to focus. So here Novoflex enters the story as well. Subsequently I found a beautiful Xenar 4.5/150mm, which turned out to have been made in 1956. Apart from these two, other bellows lenses from Schneider-Kreuznach could be chosen as well: in a 1956 Novoflex pricelist the Xenar 4.5/180mm and the Tele-Xenar 5.5/240mm are mentioned as well. This list also has several Novoflex lenses, like the 3.5/105mm Noflexar (which was produced by Schacht), and lenses from Steinheil (the Culminar 4.5/135mm for example) and the Rodenstock Imagon 4.5/120mm. Another likely Schneider lens apparently was not yet available in Leica thread mount– nor for Contax – according to this Novoflex pricelist, but this Xenar 3.5/105mm and the Xenar 4.5/105mm were available for SLR camera’s like Alpa, Arriflex, Praktica, Exakta, for the Italian Rectaflex and the British Wrayflex.
The five Schneider-Kreuznach bellows lenses, from left to right: Tele-Arton 5.5/240mm, and Xenar 4.5/180mm, 4.5/150mm, 4.5/155mm and 4.5/105mm
However, Schneider did produce these 105mm lenses in LTM as well and together with the other four they appear in a Schneider leaflet of around 1962 as a group of lenses for use on the bellows, attached to either SLR- or rangefinder cameras with reflex housings. These lenses were specifically meant for close-focus photos, but they could also be used for telephotos, although the bellows limits this kind of function very much. The type of the Xenar lens existed already since 1919; it has been produced in many variants and for various cameras. With four lenses in three groups, it was described in another Schneider brochure as a development of the Taylor triplet (1895). Schneider apparently changed the name of the 5.5/240mm lens from Tele-Xenar to Tele-Arton in 1955, when the last batches of the first and the first batches of the second lens appear. Intriguing is the last of the production batches of only 5 Tele-Xenar 5.5/240mm lenses in July 1955: according to Schneider archival material, these were meant for Leica cameras. Would this perhaps imply that Leitz considered using this Schneider lens as a bellows lens, perhaps to replace the old Telyt 4.5/200mm in the years before Walter Mandler designed the new and much better Tely 4/200mm?
After some time, I could assemble this group of Schneider lenses, when I found the Xenar 4.5/105mm (mine from 1958), the Xenar 4.5/180mm (this one produced in 1954) as well as a 1964 Tele-Arton 5.5/240mm (fig. 1). For the Xenar 4.5/180mm, I needed a Novoflex LEIXUR ring to use it on the bellows with Leica thread mount on the lens side, which Novoflex very kindly sent me. An adapter from another manufacturer exists as well, perhaps from Schneider itself.
On Leica M cameras a bellows can be used together with a reflex housing. Already in 1933, Astro Berlin introduced the Identoskop, which was the first reflex housing for Leica cameras. Two years later Leitz came with the PLOOT and other companies also saw the possibilities of the rangefinder systems that Leitz and Zeiss were producing and offered alternative products. In the 1950’s Kilfitt and Novoflex produced reflex devices and bellows to be used with Leica or other camera’s. The company of Karl Muller in Memmingen produced a reflex housing in 1948/49 which could be obtained for the Contax IIa and IIIa cameras and for Leica cameras with thread mount, the Reproflex, which was followed in 1950 by the Novoflex (hence the name of the firm itself), equally available for Contax and Leica thread mount cameras. Initially, the Reproflex was delivered with a Steinheil Culminar 13,5 cm lens (fig. 2) and it was not intended for use with a bellows since Muller did not produce bellows yet.
The Novoflex reflex housing, however, being a further development, could be used with a special bellows NOBAL. Bellows and reflex housing were fitted together with a large screw underneath the reflex housing, just like the Leitz Visoflex I was attached to the Leitz Bellows I. An ingenious system fits the reflex housing and the bellows together without the use of bayonet or thread mount (fig. 3). The cubic box for the mirror with the slanting corners of the Novoflex reflex housing is very similar to the Leitz PLOOT, but the solution to lift the mirror and release the shutter of the Novoflex is simpler than the double cable-release of the PLOOT and the Visoflex I. Novoflex provided release bridges for both Contax and Leica screw mount cameras; soon after the introduction of the Leica M3 Novoflex delivered the release bridge NOSYN for the M camera’s (fig. 4). I was very lucky that Novoflex could still send me one! The Novoflex reflex housing (or mirror box) could be fitted with either a vertical finder (code name NOSE) or a “prismatic observoscope” (code name NOPRI) and it must have been a rival for the Leitz PLOOT, and the Visoflex I, introduced in 1951, the Mversion of which appeared in 1955. In the aforementioned 1956 Novoflex pricelist the reflex houses appear for Leica LTM and Leica M camera bodies: the one with the vertical finder for $99.50 and the one with the prism finder for $119.50. The variant with the M bayonet was probably introduced in 1955 and most likely had an adapter ring to connect the LTM reflex housing with a Leica M camera body.
This may have been an interesting solution for Leica LTM and M users alike. For those Leica LTM users who already possessed a Novoflex mirror house and a bellows with, say, one or a few Schneider Xenar lenses, it may have been interesting to get an adapter from LTM to M once they had bought the Leica M3. With this addition to their photographic gear, they could continue to use their lenses for macro. Earlier Novoflex reflex houses fitted with a Novoflex LEMLEI adapter (LTM to Leica M) do not always function very well with a Leica M3, where the ring around the bayonet release button obstructs the mirror release pin of the mirror box. Also in the 1950’s, Novoflex made a bellows with M bayonet on the camera side and the Leica thread mount on the lens side for use with the Visoflex I, II and III fitted with M bayonet (code name VISBIG). Later on, the universal bellows BALCAST would be introduced.
When I began to use the Novoflex bellows with the Xenar 135mm on my analog Leica M cameras I soon found it very easy to use; it is a lot smaller than the Leitz Bellows II. The size of the lenses may at least partly count for the difference in measurement of the Leitz and Novoflex bellows (fig. 5). The latter was apparently designed for use with compact lenses like the Xenar from Schneider, whereas the Leitz bellows were fit to accommodate various lenses and lens heads, some of which are rather large and heavy, like the Telyt 4/200mm and 4.8/280mm lenses. Together with the small Xenar, the Novoflex bellows makes for a nice and compact set, as far as anything with a bellows can be compact at all. With its M bayonet the bellows couples with the Visoflex I, II and III. Of course, one can also screw the Schneider Xenar lenses on the bellows NOBAL for use with the Novoflex reflex housing.
Novoflex made several adapter rings for the use of other lenses, of which the LEIEL is interesting to use the Elmar 65mm and several Leitz lens heads on the Novoflex bellows as well. An advantage of the Novoflex bellows as compared with the Leitz Bellows II became apparent with the use of the lens head of the Elmar 4/90mm (II). When used on the Leitz bellows it s hardly possible to turn the aperture ring on the lens, even though my fingers aren’t very thick, but on the Novoflex bellows the lens head is protruding, allowing the aperture to be used without any problem. Another Novoflex ring LEI-M allows the use of lenses with Leica M bayonet. With the Leitz ring UOOYW/16590N, designed for the use of Leica thread mount lenses on the Leitz bellows, the Xenar lenses can be used on the Leitz Bellows II as well of course, although the deeper recessed lens taking part of the Leitz bellows makes the use of the aperture ring less easy.
Bowl, 8 cm high, 15.3cm diameter. With Schneider Xenar 4.5/105mm
The same bowl, also with Xenar 4.5/105mm
Compariosn of Leitz and Novoflex bellows. Left: Leica M3 with Micro-Visoflex III and Novoflex bellows, Schneider Xenar 4.5/135mm. Right: Leica M2 with Visoflex II and Leitz Bellows II, Elmar 3.5/65mm
The five Schneider lenses, with Xenar 4.5/105mm and Xenar 4.5/135mm in the foreground
Several fine third-party lenses were available for use on a Leica camera body, but the choice of near focus (macro) lenses on a reflex housing with extension tube or bellows was limited. Those who were interested in macro photography could use a few of the Leitz lens heads, but the choice of focal points was limited to 90, 125 and 135mm. In the decade 1950-1960 this means that the lens head of the Elmar 4/90mm (first version, new style, from 1951 onwards) could be used, from 1957 the lens head of the Summicron 2/90, from 1959 the lens head of the Elmarit 2.8/90mm. The lens head of the Hektor 4.5/135mm was available and in 1954 the Hektor 2.5/12.5cm was introduced. The well-known Elmar 3.5/65mm would appear only in 1960. Heinz Kilfitt introduced his Makro-Kilar 90mm in 1955.
The range of five Schneider lenses with focal distances from 105 up to 240mm must have been appealing (fig. 6). All five focal lengths were produced from 1950 onward as Xenar lenses, the 240mm was named Tele-Xenar. From 1950/51 they appear in Novoflex price lists. It may have been an advantage that these lenses could be used on various systems on the Novoflex bellows. These lenses turn out to deliver great results, especially in the near focus region. After having used them for several years I have come to like their color rendering and overall detail and sharpness very much. For instance, the bowl with a diameter of 15.3 cm and 8 cm high is treated wonderfully by the Xenar 105mm, which reproduces the details of this handcraft piece in a marvelous way (fig. 7 & 8). I like to take a set of a Leica M camera with Visoflex and Novoflex bellows outside in the garden and see which of the Xenar lenses suits the job of the moment best. With slow moving insects and plants, the Xenar lenses deliver great results (fig. 9). Many photos show how well the sharpness of these lenses works from center to edges (fig. 10 & 11). The feeling of depth gives these images a beautiful three-dimensional effect (fig. 12). Contrast is handled very well. Nineteen aperture blades make a perfect circle, creating a beautiful transition from sharpness to out of focus. Both with natural daylight outside, on a bright sunny day, and with various light sources for repro use at home the results are very good.
These Schneider-Kreuznach lenses are very well made and despite being 50 or 60 years old they are functioning very nicely. Their quality secured them a very long life, both in terms of production and as still functioning lenses. Several of these lenses remained available throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s and beyond. A Novoflex price list of 1971/72 still lists the Schneider Xenar lenses of 135, 150 and 180mm as well as the Tele-Arton 240mm; the Xenar 4.5/105mm was apparently replaced by the Noflexar 3.5/105mm which was produced by Schacht. And for those who might like to try one or a few, either with an analogue or a digital Leica M: of the set of five lenses described here the focal distances of 105 and 135 are easily found in the well-known second-hand market places, the distances of 150, 180 and 240mm are up for sale less frequently.
All images by Lex Bosman, except Fig. 2:
Andreas Marx, NOVOFLEX Präzisionstechnik GmbH.
Many thanks to: Martin Grahl at Novoflex and Jutta Kasper at Schneider-Kreuznach who were very helpful with information, images and with data and brochures from the archives. Donald Kenney and Carsten Bobsin who provided detailed information on Novoflex items. Literature Jim Lager. ‘Non-Leitz reflex housings for the Leica’. In: Viewfinder 49 (2016), 1, 50-53. Olaf Nattenberg. ‘Von Exlei über Leiex zu Nopri und Nobal. Von Adaptern, Balgengeräten und Spiegelkasten‘. In: Vidom 104 (12/2012), 42-52. Hartmut Thiele. Großes Fabrikationsbuch Schneider-Kreuznach Band I, II, III. 3d ed. München 2017. Matthew Wilkinson (ed. A.N. Wright). A lens collector’s vademecum. 2nd ed. 1999 (digital version; no printed edition available).