Plaubel Makiflex Standard.

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Nokton48

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Now back to the original topic!

SONY DSC by Nokton48, on Flickr

Standard Plaubel Makiflex Number Three arrived yesterday in a bundle from a shoppe in Prague. Good conditioned body fully functional, comes with 135 Tessar on Plaubel Recessed Board. Also a 240mm Tele-Xenar in Compur shutter, I transplanted this Tele-Xenar onto a 3D printed Peco Junior board printed in Italy. Shown on my Long Rail Peco Junior, camera focused carefully at infinity, plenty of rail available for closer in shooting. Need to put yellow medium filters and lens hoods on these new lenses, and try 'em out. 135 is perfectly collimated to focus just a teeny past infinity, so perfectly constructed IMO. Quite a bit of machining skill shown here, many of my Makiflexes from Prague have been tweeked and modded. Very clever technicians. The Stovepipe might be legit Olde Makiflex, I remember seeing one other, so maybe? Maybe in some literature too? Both of these cameras take Plaubel Makina Film Backs and Planfilm Holders.
 
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Nokton48

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Nokton48

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Thanks! Bought with busted rear mount for Fifty Bucks. Now added to the Harem. Will be Gorgeous on 9x9cm. Iris was removed, only use this one wide open.

Further Hacking of Zebra 180mm F2.8 Sonnar Makiflex Std by Nokton48, on Flickr

Notice how beautifully the CZJ Sonnar vaporizes the background ^^^^. The BOKEH is the reason I messed around with Pentacon Six mount lenses back in the day. I even have a Zeiss's SOFTAR 86mm CONTAX Filter, I used to use it for wedding Portrait Close-Ups. Filter cost as much as a used Hasselblad lens! :/
 
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Nokton48

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Plaubel Makiflex Automatic 135mm F5.6 Symmar by Nokton48, on Flickr

I saw this 135mm F5.6 Plaubel Makiflex Automatic Iris Lens, same seller as some other lenses I have bought recently. The Symmar Auto Makiflex lenses I've seen in European literature, but never in USA literature. So not as plentiful so I'm glad I grabbed this one too. MAC at Camtronics is working on another auto iris mechanism right now, He will prolly get this one too. The seller says it needs a CLA so that's what I'll prolly do.
 
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Nokton48

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SK Grimes Hasselblad Compendium Adapter 180mm Sonnar by Nokton48, on Flickr

Many years ago, I had Steve at SK Grimes make me an 86mm Adapter Ring, to put my Hasselblad Compendium Shade, onto my 180mm F2.8 Zebra CZJ Zeiss Sonnar. Here I have found it, it's now on my new version 180mm, to fit my Plaubel Makiflexes. Very efficient lens hood, glad I kept it and can now use it with my new short mount version 180 Sonnar. Also from SK Grimes, you can see my 4x5 Graflex Sheet Film Holder (of their own design) for Plaubel Makiflexes.
 
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Nokton48

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Plaubel Automatic Iris Makiflex 135mm f5.6 Symmar Front by Nokton48, on Flickr


The Plaubel Makiflex Automatic Iris 135mm F5.6 Symmar is as WIDE as you can go on a Maki Body. It's kinda wide on 9x9CM. This one needs a good interior CLA, the auto iris is kinda slightly sticky so needs a bit of work. It looks like it was never used, not a mark on it. Here it's focused at infinity, it focuses a bit past it so I am very good with that. This would be good for reportage photography as well as fashion, both areas Plaubel Makiflex excels in a studio or location. Shown with the Mamiya RB67 Stovepipe which is still my favorite for studio focusing.

Plaubel Automatic Iris Makiflex 135mm f5.6 Symmar Rear by Nokton48, on Flickr


Here's the back side of the Plaubel Automatic Iris Makifles 135mm f5.6 Symmar, so that you can see the automatic mechanism. Notice how deeply recessed the mount is. I'm not sure I could ever make something like this myself. So I'm glad I grabbed it when I did. I will also redo the lighting trapping on the back side.
 
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Nokton48

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MAC at Camtronics has been cleaning and tuning several of my automatic aperture Makiflex lenses. I asked him if they are mechanically quirky to work on, and he responded "Not really". My 180mm f5.6 Symmar needs a bit more work, it was in kinda bad shape. And somebody squirted lube on the blades, a gooey mess. Now a beautiful rare lenses. The Symmars seem to be available only in Europe, as brochures cover them. Now I have the 135, several 150, and 180 Auto Makiflex Symmars. The 135 looks and operates as new. The 135 could benefit from new light trapping. Easy to do. BTW the holy grail of auto Maki lenses is the 150mm f4.5 Voigtlander Apo-Lanthar. Unfortunately most of the Auto Lanthars I've seen in Makiflex are separating. Ken Ruth warned me off the Apo Lanthar!, a Guy In Milan sent him a Maki one, he couldn't fix it! Does separation get worse with time? I think they should have used better lens cement inside the Apo Lanthar cells.
 
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Nokton48

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Plaubel Makiflex Standard Number Three Highly Modified Front 45 Swing by Nokton48, on Flickr

This camera came to me as it is, very highly modified. It has a 45 degree (on the optical axis) FRONT SWING, with a click-ball detent, on the center position. A beautiful modification, shown with one of my favorite lenses, the 150mm F9 Rodenstock Apo Ronar, mounted on a Durst Recessed Plate, these boards fit perfectly in the throat of the Makiflex Standard.
 
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Nokton48

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Schneider 360mm Schneider Tele Arton Makiflex Auto Arca Swiss 4x5 Stovepipe by Nokton48, on Flickr

One of my favorite telephoto lenses on my Plaubel Makiflexes; the Schneider 360mm Tele-Arton in barrel mount. Just completed this forward mounting of the lens, using tubes from China made for Wista. Lenses focus just past infinity point, so perfect for my uses. Focuses close on the Makiflex too, to about 2 meters so . Quite useful. This lens is beeg and heavy! but bright to look through. To finish this one, I need to spray some krylon flat black onto a piece of cardboard, then use a cheap tiny paintbrush to paint the edges around the lens flange flat black. Good enough for me. This lens took a 95mm Medium Yellow Filter, and 95mm Rubber Hood, to finish it off, ready for field. Needs a sturdy tripod and cable release, although the Auto Maki does go up to 1/500 for hand holding. High speed lenses therefore required, along with fast film.
 
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Nokton48

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HOLY GRAIL 150mm Voigtlander 15cm F4.5 Apo Lanthar Plaubel Maxiflex Auto Aperture by Nokton48, on Flickr


This for me is like finding the HOLY GRAIL of Plaubel Makiflex; I purchased a decent set (just teeniest bit of edge seperation dreaded) LANTHANIUM elements or some such. I've seen a few over the decades, Ken Ruth (famous repair Guy) warned me over very long phone conversation. He got a Maki Apo Lanthar all the way from MILAN to California; he couldn't fix it! He told me to BEWARE seperation in the 15cm Apo Lanthar. This one will not affect optical performance at all I believe. I'll get a Medium Yellow Filter and Rubber Hood to finish this. I bought the cells for 225BP, in a Linhof Compur I put on a Norma board. Recently I purchased this Auto Aperture marked F5.5, I have no idea what it fit. Well it seems to be VERY similar to the Linhof Compur in terma of construction. The image at infinity on the Auto Makiflex is razor acute sharp on the glass, it appears a perfect match. The F/Stop Band will need to be re-calibrated, that's doable. So HAPPY I bought this for a great deal.
 
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Nokton48

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FOBA DIMIL minus sweep underlight floating Maki by Nokton48, on Flickr

Here I have removed the hardwood section on my FOBA DIMIL minus the sweep. Installed top rung, 3/8" tempered glass 24 inches deep and a bit wider width to solidly hold the heavy glass. Got another piece to install underneath, for backgrounding. Laying a piece of diffusion material on this top will add beautiful diffused underlighting, so this is new and exciting to me. Here I am "floating" my Maki Auto, and underlighting it. Also a FOBA1000 light up high right behind to provide some rim lighting. This is fun.
 
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hyking1983

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Hi~guys, I recently bought the Makiflex. It's so great~but I found the low speed dial doesn't rotate(I know the correct way to do that,but it didn't work),
has anyone else run into this issue before?Do you have any good way to fix that?Thank you~
 
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