De-mounting a Schneider Apo Digitar M (Macro) 5,6/80 mm, Schneider Helical-focusing mount

[degrub]

moving a discussion from the "For Sale" listing....
i am interested in using a Schneider APO Digitar M 80mm f/5.6 lens for macro work and digitizing old film with my FF and MFT cameras and BALPRO bellows. There are several copies of the lens available in the FS forum, but they are configured with the helical focusing unit instead of a Copal 0 or just bare lens.

i may be interested in the "new" lens. i have searched for how to remove the helical focusing portion, but not found anything. i do not need the focusing or shutter features as this will be mounted on a bellows. Any direction for how to remove ?
thanks.
Frank.

@JeffK might have some insight on this. If I can recall, he recently did something similar.

Frank, there is no shutter.

It's likely that the helical focus mount cannot be removed from the lens and iris mount assembly. According to @rdeloe in this thread, the iris mount is bonded firmly to the helical focus mount: Little review of Apo Digitar 5,6/100 mm | The GetDPI Photography Forum. I bought one of the iris-mounted 100mm lenses and Arca-Swiss confirmed to me that the helical focuser cannot be removed from the lens and iris assembly without endangering the lens. (Arca simply mounted the entire assembly for me at less cost than normal.)

However, in any case, you don't need to attempt to remove the helical focuser. Just screw the base of the helical focuser to a normal lens board using screws through the three holes on the bottom lip. Then focus using either your camera or the helical focuser. This iris mount version of the lens is very simple to install in many different situations. It's also much more convenient in use than the normal Copal shutter-mounted version.

Apologies for hijacking the for sale thread. i will move this discussion elsewhere.

i was intending to use the Novoflex Balpro 1 bellows system with the lens. Uncertain if the diameter of their end plate is large enough to allow direct mounting of the focusing unit. i have sent them an inquiry. They do have Copal 0 adapter plates and 46mm V groove adapter plates.

Looking for advice and experience as i am new to this type of lens and mounting.
Thank you
Frank.

 

[degrub]

The diameter of the base of the Schneider helical focus mount measures a little under 74mm.

 

[anyone]

It may or may not work easily to take helical and lens apart. The question is whether it's possible to remove the rear lens cell. If yes, then it should be easy to access the retaining ring which is just the same as when mounting a copal shutter to a lensboard. If not, things get more complicated, as you need to unscrew the retaining ring, but have the rear element as an obstacle.

Are you planning to stitch, so you need the larger image circle of the medium format lens? If not, there are plenty of good macro lenses available for full frame.

 

[Alkibiades]

It is very easy to mount this lens on the helicoid to the Novoflex leeboard, I have one here. You don't even need to sew it, just use a little bit express glue and its done.

 

[Alkibiades]

here some pics from Novoflex adapter and the lens, the mounting is very easy to manage.