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Is it for macro photography? Moving the relative position of the lens to the mirror makes for greater magnification and smaller field of view???
OP
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Other things were also in the leather cases "back then". I've a waist-level "flip-up" viewfinder for the Nikon F in one, too. Nikon was much classier in those times.
Yep. They are for closeup photography. Changing the distance from optic to film plane does increase magnification. Downside is that there's not as much adjustment as using a bellows. And only fully manual lenses (AI/AiS) work well with them. As I also commented, they really should be used on a tripod.
OP
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Oh yeah. All manual. When you set an ∱-stop, it does close down the diaphragm. Focus wide open, stop down to shoot. Some small focus adjustment is possible with the lens barrel itself, but changing distance-to-subject is what works to set specific magnification. Tubes are marked A,B,C, for reference and combined with lens focal length to determine the degree of magnification. There were charts to give specifics, no idea where those have gone. ISTR I had them at some point.
Celtic 77
Jedi Trainee
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This discussion is great. So much so that i asked my 17 year old granddaughter who's a creative dancer type, if she'd like to enter a B&W photo contest for students. Turns out it the submitted image had to have shot, printed and submitted using film only. Time constraints didn't allow it. BUT ! I said to her, "How about I bring over my old OM1n Olympus and play with it?" Apparently she's on board. I just ordered an adapter for the battery holder and then hopefully off to the races... Looking through the viewfinder I realize what is missing in todays hand held computers (cameras). No spontaneous creativity... Owners manuals that are like the Beginners handbook for flying a 747! All about "programming" the camera, nothing about photography.
OP
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I think you're in an enviable situation if your grandkid is interested in how imaging was obtained in "the old days". And you hit that nail squarely about hefting one of the newer imaging devices. Oddly, I'd hate to be picking up current gear as a pastime if I'd not had the background with film photography! I just pulled my old F-2 out yesterday and put a non-metered prism on it for fun. A roll of Ilford HP5 loaded, gonna "wing it" with exposures. 50mm AiS ∱1.4 for an optic. It would take about two hours to get a working B&W darkroom set up here, getting some of the chemistry would be the only time constraint. Film processing is no problem, but printing would be. Lots of choices for film developers. Got print papers but no Dektol.
OP
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