This Weird Vintage Lens has a neat Trick up it’s Sleeve

9/08/2024 ISO 1200 Magazine 0 Comments

Some time ago I got an aluminum case full of lenses. Finally I found some time to test one of the lenses that was locked up in there. At the beginning I thought this is an ordinary 35mm lens. But as curious as I am I researched a bit more about it and figured out that the Novoflex Noflexar 35mm F3.5 is also a macro lens. Then I had to dig deeper, because until now I never was aware that Novoflex was selling lenses. Novoflex was founded 1948 and started to build bodies and lenses for Leica. Lots of Lenses were made by Staeble for Novoflex, the Noflexar 35 was one of them. It was brought to life in 1962, just remember that when you see what images it can produce on a modern 60 Megapixel sensor. It’s interesting that it has a brother called Staeble-Lineogon 1:3,5/35mm. This one was made for the typical Leica M39 mount. I would love to get my Hans on that one as well.
I got my information form here, here and here

This lens has a neat party trick, you can pull It apart (in 4 steps) and transform it to a tack sharp wide angle macro lens.

with it’s 10 aperture blades it can create wonderful bubbly bokeh. A wonderful combination for portraits and closeups

Before I could use it, it needed some cleaning love, but luckily it was an easy job. I guess you can imagine that I was very excited to adapt it to my camera to capture some images.

With this M42 Leica M adapter from K&F Concept it gets a bit more chunky, thats why I would be interested to use the m39 version from Staeble.

To see how incredible sharp this lens is, I suggest you watch my video. But I will post also some images bellow.

Because it’s a 35mm macro lens, it makes it easier to shoot it handheld. I have it most of the time with me, thats how much I like to work with it. Another great thing is the price, I saw it online starting from 150 Euros. Thats a great value for such a versatile and sharp lens.

this is one of my most favourite photographs that I captured with the Noflexar 35. Luckily I have always butterflies in my backyard and this one was kind enough to give me 120 Seconds of its time. I love how the lens rendered this image, the out of focus bubbles are lovely.

I was amazed of the sharpness that this lens delivered on the modern 60 megapixel sensor from the Leica M11

This is a 100% crop from admiral butterlfy.

So how does it perform as a normal 35mm lens? As long as you n ail the focus for a 60 megapixel sensor, it performs very well. You will find more details in my video.

I really enjoy how the color rendering of this lens.

borders are also very sharp.

I think this is a wonderful lens for traveling or even for street. As mentioned in the video, the Focus ring turns 360 degrees, but this is only necessary for close distances. If you work between infinity and one Meter, it’s only about 1/5th of a turn. But of course I am typically much faster with my 35mm Summilux and the rangefinder. The Leica Visoflex 2 viewfinder is a great tool for critical focus, but from my point of view the rangefinder is much quicker.

That is an example where I thought I could have been faster with a rangefinder coupled lens. Love the dog 🙂

There is one more thing what I love about this lens, you can do wide angle closeup portraits. I am pretty sure this is not for everybody, but I like the intimacy of such portraits.

I really like how this self portrait turned out. The serious look with the out of focus bubbles are a pleasing combination. I used the Leica Fotos App on my iPhone to focus on myself. You have to believe me that my eye lashes a tack sharp, because I will not zoom in to show you all my wrinkles 🙂

I hope you enjoyed this add free article.

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About Markus Hofstaetter:

Professional photographer for wet plate, portrait, events and virtual tours. You can find more about my work on my website, my blog, on Facebook, on Instagram or on Youtube. You can support me on Patreon, buy me a tea or just PayPal me so I can create more articles like that. You can find my main instagram page here and my street photography page here. Prints are available here.

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