The extender experiment
(which I'll definitely try again)
This is my beloved Voigtlander Vito C, a “rangefinder” from 1960’s with a fixed Voigtlander Lanthar 2.8/50mm lens. Absolutely everything on this camera is manual and I called it a “rangefinder” because you’re not looking through the lens. Compared with a truly rangefinder it is also not prompting when it is in focus.
What I like about this camera is the large viewfinder and the large 2.8 aperture for a slow ISO100 film. What I don’t like is the slow shutter speed, maximum 250 (normal though for a camera that old with a fabric shutter). I bought this camera from a young guy who found it in his grandfather’s attic and it came together with few bits and pieces. One of them was an extender, an Accura auxiliary telephoto lens that can be attached to the original and extended 1.7 times. That means if I attach the extender to my camera, my 50mm lens becomes 85mm.
Until now I didn’t use the extender (I own the camera for more than 10 years) as I thought it is a gimmick. Well, how wrong I was! I am absolutely amazed, blown away, by the precision of the whole system. It is absolutely perfect! Any photographer knows that photography is based on optical physics, but to attach a lens in front of a lens using just a screw and obtain quality photos, for me it’s unbelievable!
Every photographer knows or should know that attaching anything (yes, even a UV filter, especially the cheap ones) in front of a lens comes with a compromise as it changes the way light enters the lens. The Accura extender is no different and the effects can be seen in the attached photos.
The most obvious “side effect” of using the extender is the vignette. For me, this is normal considering the attaching method – the extender blocks the edge of the lens barrel. Some people like the vignette, some don’t and some are creating one in post processing for an artistic feel of the image. Using the extender creates a strong vignette and depending on the scene, it can be larger or smaller, or more prominent if you like.
Another “side effect” is the distortion, in this case, the “barrel effect” normal for telephoto lenses.
In case you didn’t know, I love photographing rugby and with that comes the use of telephoto lenses. Telephoto lenses gives me more confidence as I don’t have to approach the subjects and this is the beauty of using the extender: I can get the same image by standing a bit further without interacting, without being intrusive.
For the moment, all I can say is that I’m very pleased with the results and definitely will use the extender again.
you could always crop to a square - or is that cheating in the analogue world? or use the vignette to for dramatic effect...