Thursday, January 26, 2012

Series - voigtländer heliar

16:23:08
(Rollfilm 5x8, Rollei Retro 80S, ISO 80/20°)

The Heliar, the "master lens", consists of 5 elements, from which 2 pairs are cemented. If 4 elements are enough for the Skopar, why does the Heliar need five? An invention of the year 1900 lead to the construction of the Heliar.

biergarten (+1)
(Rollfilm 5x8, Efke R100, ISO 100/21°)

All lenses presented before possess a flawless sharpness. The Heliar does even more. It has certain qualities that can not be explained through cold, sober formulas, certain virtues that are emphasized again and again by letters of thanks from the Voigtländer community, it has something that does not show on the laboratory test bench but only in its daily use in the field: the Heliar does not merely make a picture, but an image(*).

winter tree
(Rollfilm 5x8, Rollei Retro 80S, ISO 80/20°)

Even though possessing sharp delineation and excellent resolution, the Heliar --so say its happy owners-- does not have a cold and hard sharpness but a filmy one, that softens the transition between the in-focus and out-of-focus regions, and does not let any part of the picture stand out in a displeasing way, but instead conveys an harmonic and natural roundness to the picture.

sphaera
(Rollfilm 5x8, Efke R100, ISO 100/21°)

And its peculiarity is that this lens is not better suited for a particular photographic field, but it masters the whole spectrum, from portraiture to sport photography.

nostres banderes
(Rollfilm 5x8, Rollei Retro 80S, ISO 80/20°)

Therefore the "master lens" and therefore five elements!

(text taken from a Voigtländer catalogue from 1930)

(*) Das Heliar gibt uns keine Abbildung, sondern ein Bild.

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