Some time ago I got an aluminum case full of lenses. Finally I found some time to test one of the lenses that was locked up in there. At the beginning I thought this is an ordinary 35mm lens. But as curious as I am I researched a bit more about it and figured out that the Novoflex Noflexar 35mm F3.5 is also a macro lens. Then I had to dig deeper, because until now I never was aware that Novoflex was selling lenses. Novoflex was founded 1948 and started to build bodies and lenses for Leica. Lots of Lenses were made by Staeble for Novoflex, the Noflexar 35 was one of them. It was brought to life in 1962, just remember that when you see what images it can produce on a modern 60 Megapixel sensor. It’s interesting that it has a brother called Staeble-Lineogon 1:3,5/35mm. This one was made for the typical Leica M39 mount. I would love to get my Hans on that one as well.
I got my information form here, here and here
Before I could use it, it needed some cleaning love, but luckily it was an easy job. I guess you can imagine that I was very excited to adapt it to my camera to capture some images.
To see how incredible sharp this lens is, I suggest you watch my video. But I will post also some images bellow.
Because it’s a 35mm macro lens, it makes it easier to shoot it handheld. I have it most of the time with me, thats how much I like to work with it. Another great thing is the price, I saw it online starting from 150 Euros. Thats a great value for such a versatile and sharp lens.
So how does it perform as a normal 35mm lens? As long as you n ail the focus for a 60 megapixel sensor, it performs very well. You will find more details in my video.
I think this is a wonderful lens for traveling or even for street. As mentioned in the video, the Focus ring turns 360 degrees, but this is only necessary for close distances. If you work between infinity and one Meter, it’s only about 1/5th of a turn. But of course I am typically much faster with my 35mm Summilux and the rangefinder. The Leica Visoflex 2 viewfinder is a great tool for critical focus, but from my point of view the rangefinder is much quicker.
There is one more thing what I love about this lens, you can do wide angle closeup portraits. I am pretty sure this is not for everybody, but I like the intimacy of such portraits.
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