Voigtländer Braunschweig Heliar 1:4,5 F=13,5cm (1928)

Material on the lens Voigtländer Braunschweig Heliar 1: 4,5 F = 13,5cm especially for Radozhiva prepared Rodion Eshmakov.

Heliar 135/4.5 after adaptation.

Heliar 135/4.5 after adaptation. increase.


Voigtländer Braunschweig Heliar 1:4,5 F=13,5cm (hereinafter referred to as Heliar 135/4.5) is a standard lens for 9×12 cm cameras. The lens was produced between the world wars, in 1928, judging by the serial number, that is, it is now almost 100 years old. Heliar lenses are considered to have very good pattern and bokeh, for which they are valued mainly as portrait lenses. The lens presented in the article was adapted at the request of the owner for use with Pentacon Six medium format cameras.

Reviews of other very old lenses on Radozhiv:

Specifications:

Optical design - 5 lenses in 3 groups, "Geliar" (development of the "Triplet" scheme);
Focal length - 135 mm;
Relative aperture - 1: 4.5;
Aperture limits - 1: 4.5–1: 32;
Aperture - 12 blades;
Features: does not have its own focusing mechanism, built-in central shutter.

A Brief History of Heliar Lenses

Source: Arne Cröll, "Voigtländer Large Format Lenses from 1949-1972", 2012.

The Austrian company Voigtländer was founded before the advent of photography and was engaged in the sale of mechanical instruments, and then optical ones (for example, glasses). After the discovery of photography and with the development of the daguerreotype, Peter Voitländer collaborated in 1839 with the now famous founding father of optics Josef Petzval, which led to the development of one of the most famous classic lenses.

Heliar lenses were originally developed by Hans Harting as a response to Tessar Paul Rudolph and improvement triplet Harold Taylor. The original version of the lens (1902) was a symmetrical lens of 5 lenses in 3 groups, and the glued doublets had the shape of a Steinchel doublet and were flint-oriented outward. The middle lens of the objective was made of crown, which is rather unusual for triplet-like lenses. Subsequently, the design of the lens was improved by eliminating symmetry.

An early asymmetric variant of the Heliar design.

An early asymmetric variant of the Heliar design.

Next, a new version of the five-lens scheme was developed, called Dynar. In this lens, the bonded doublets are already facing outward by the crown lenses, making this optical design very similar to the Tessar. After the First World War, Heliar lenses were actually Dynar lenses.

Schematic diagram of Dynar / late Heliar lenses.

Schematic diagram of Dynar / late Heliar lenses.

Prominent optician Robert Richter, who calculated optics for Goerz and Zeiss, the author of the Cypronar schemes (patent US1843519) and Telemar (which is often attributed to the achievements of D.S. Volosov - but in vain, patent US2239538), improved Heliar, developing a version with a relative aperture f /3.5. Also Heliar-like design had some small format macro lenses (Canon FD 100/4 Macro) and fast standard lenses (Takumar 58/2.4).

Design features and adaptation

The lens consists of two lens blocks connected by a thread to the Compur central shutter. The lens body is made of brass and covered with black paint. On the case you can find several levers - one of them is used to control the shutter, the other is the diaphragm drive. The lens shutter operates in several modes - the preset excerpt, excerpt by hand and manual opening-closing of the shutter by pressing the lever. The latter mode is needed to use the lens on modern cameras.

To adapt the lens to the Pentacon Six mount, it was only necessary to choose a focusing mechanism with the desired shank and fix the lens. Using 3D printing, I made the parts needed to mount the M42-M42 25-55 helicoid in the Kyiv-6 macro ring. The lens itself with a manufactured focuser is connected via an M42 thread. I also added a part with an M55 thread for filters on the nose of the lens, which also serves as a small hood.
Below are photos of the adapted lens.

Optical properties

The Heliar 135/4.5 is a rather "dark" lens, with medium and small formats its field of view corresponds to the TV range. It is worth noting that the ancient Geliar is “lighter” than many zooms like 28-135 mm, but darker even than the Petzval lenses of the 19th century, which, however, had a much smaller working angle of view.

Heliar 135/4.5 and 150/3.5 Petzval lens (PB Payne 63 Picadilly Manchester).

Heliar 135/4.5 and 150/3.5 Petzval lens (PB Payne 63 Picadilly Manchester).

The lenses of the Heliar 135/4.5 are not coated, and nothing protected them from erosion caused by the interaction of glass (and optical glasses are quite chemically reactive) with air moisture. For this reason, the lens looks cloudy through the light, and the resulting image is faded, dull and lacking in contrast. All of the photographs required a noticeable intervention to enhance the overall contrast.

The sharpness of the Heliar 135 / 4.5 with an open aperture is rather mediocre, much worse than the newer Soviet Industar-55U. Basically, resolution is limited by strong spherical aberrations.

The bokeh of the lens is softer than similar Tessars, but not that much different from them.

Perhaps a lens with better preservation would have shown a much better result, but still, the best option for using the Heliar 135 / 4.5 is to use it on native format cameras.

Below are sample photos taken with the Sony A7s. Photo without EXIF are shifthoramami.

Conclusions

The Heliar 135/4.5 was probably an interesting solution at the time. But today its use on small format cameras is impractical. There are many lenses that have a similar optical pattern with better image quality and, most importantly, more convenient parameters.

You will find more reviews from readers of Radozhiva here.

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Comments: 3, on the topic: Voigtländer Braunschweig Heliar 1:4,5 F=13,5cm (1928)

  • Andrii

    Unstoppable visnovok.

  • vasya

    come out Idiot-collectors who run for bessa, superb and brilliant with heliars, we don’t know what. ;-)
    I’m wondering if I’ll be amazed at the photo portrait with SF camera, I want bi with pentacon six. And better from different formats. And not only at high aperture, but also at f8 for example

    • Rodion

      So you can even put Industar-55U, 150/4.5, on the format. And what, will this heliar be better in terms of pattern or quality?

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