[Leica] Questions about the visoflex III

[andersonfe at msn.com (ferrel anderson)]

I regard to the two versions of the 65 mm Elmar lenses, I offer the 
following comments.  The earlier chrome version is a low contrast lens that 
achieves excellent resolution of 80 lpm at only f8.  Color pictures show a 
pastel rendition, that can be wonderful if that is what you want.  The black 
version is a high contrast lens of much higher resolution.  These comments 
are based on actual picture results with B&W and color slide films.  The 
resolution results were on B&W film taken of resolution test targets at the 
conventional 26 focal length distance.  Neither lens achieved excellent 
resolution at the edges, but at macro distances where the center of the lens 
is used to project the picture results, the resolution is excellent across 
the field.  In comparison shots taken at the reproduction ratio of 1:5 with 
the 60 mm Macro Elmarit R and the 100 mm APO macro Elmarit R lenses with 
Kodachrome, the results were indistinguishable.  When I work with the 
Bellows R, the two lenses that I use without hesitation are the black 65 mm 
Elmar and 100 mm Macro Elmar.  If I want to use macro lenses as universal 
lenses, I choose the 60 mm Macro Elmarit R and 100 mm APO Macro Elmarit R 
lenses.  They are both superb, from the center to the corner of the picture 
and at all distances. 

I should add, that in resolution tests taken with the much Lamented Kodak 
Technical Pan film, the 60 and 100 mm R lenses run circles around the other 
lenses discussed above.  The great leveler though are the films that are 
most commonly used where maximum resolution is from 80 to 100 lines per 
millimeter.  All of these lenses, except the chrome 65 mm Elmar, at optimum 
aperture out-resolve these films.