Hi Don
I just recieved a Hartblei 45mm super rotator for the mamiya 645 today, just wanted to ask a few questions since you own it too -
Does yours have a slight tint to the colour when looking through the camera?
Does it focus past infinity? On mine only infinity is in focus when the infinity symbol is around 3.5 on the DOF scale.
What aperture do you think the lens performs best at?
Thanks
Jason
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Jason
I just happen to be on the telephone with a good friend of mine how also has the Hartblei when your message came in.
Let me take a stab at answering your questions.
"Does yours have a slight tint to the colour when looking through the camera?"
Short answer is no. The long answer is that you have to remember that this is a total manual lens. You need to make sure the lens is set back to zeros on tilt, shift, and rotation the open the aperture wide open. Once you've done all this the you focus the lens. Sometimes I get the in-focus "meatball" in my viewfinder but most of the times I get the flashing right and left arrows. If you forget to open the lens up you'll likely to see colors and the view itself will be dark - yes it's happened to both of us. This lens makes you slow way way down; almost like shooting large format.
"Does it focus past infinity? On mine only infinity is in focus when the infinity symbol is around 3.5 on the DOF scale."
I don't really take this too much in account. So I really can't give you a good answer. I will be using it more next month and will keep an eye on it and get back to you.
"What aperture do you think the lens performs best at?"
Wow that's an open question. I really don't think there's a "cookie-cutter" one fits all solution. I would say it depends on what you are shooting, film, digital, asa, and more importantly what is the "look" you're after.
I've got at least two images shot with the Hartblei up on our website if your interested. Go to the Sequoia National Park Gallery then open "Summer" Images 0413 and 0481 were both shot with the Hartblei. Unfortunately since this is a manual lens the aperture is not recorded.
I hope I've been of some help.
don