LEICA S with HC f4 120mm Macro II

Medium-format macro system with heavy weight.

A review of using the HASSELBLAD HC120mm MacroII with the LEICA S typ 007.

Gallery

Review

Details of the HASSELBLAD HC120mm Macro II (hereinafter referred to as HC120II) are described in the link. The linked camera uses an X2D-100C camera body, so the lens is used in manual focus (hereinafter referred to as MF), but if you attach a LEICA S adapter H to a LEICA S, you can use this lens in autofocus (hereinafter referred to as AF) like a HASSELBLAD H camera.

When using the HC120II in AF with a LEICA S typ007, the focusing speed is slow, but the LEICA S uses only one center focus point, and as long as you focus in the center, the focusing accuracy is satisfactory. It focuses properly except for subjects with very low contrast. If you move the lens to change the composition from the focus position, the focus position will change, so the photographer needs to correct it while looking through the viewfinder. You cannot expect the camera to focus automatically at any desired location like the latest multi-point focus points.
At the maximum aperture of F4, the focal plane is very thin, and it takes some practice to get it exactly where you want it.

The camera system weighs 3kg in total, including the camera weight = 1.3kg, lens weight = 1.4kg, and LEICA H adapter C = 0.3kg, making it a fairly heavy piece of equipment.

The HC120II uses the front lens group to determine the focal position, and the lens moves back and forth by a motor during AF operation. For this reason, the number of lenses is reduced to reduce the weight of the moving parts.

One of the lenses to be compared, the APO MAKRO PLANAR 120mm F4 (AMP), is the lightest and smallest lens, because it is for MF only and does not have a shutter mechanism. The AMP adds two lenses to the classic planar format to expand the shooting distance range. The lens movement that determines the focal position moves both the front and rear groups, and the lens extends as the shooting distance becomes shorter from the infinity state. When you actually use the AMP, you can see that it is quite difficult to drive the AF with this lens as it is. With the technology of the 2020s, AMP may be able to achieve AF if the lens barrel is made of engineering plastic to reduce weight, a thin lens is used, and an ultrasonic motor is used to drive it, ignoring the price. I would like Carl Zeiss to try to make AMP AND.

The last comparison, Leica’s APO-Summarit S 120mm, is equipped with AF, but it is smaller and lighter than the HC120mm, but it is a lens called a “half macro lens” with a maximum shooting magnification of 0.5x (1:2), and the extension of the eye lens is small, so it is small and lightweight. The APO MAKRO PLANAR and HC120mm are lenses with a maximum shooting magnification of 1.0x, which is called a life-size macro.

The gallery was taken at Hakone Wetlands Park in Sengokuhara, Hakone.

HC120mm lens configuration diagram (quoted from HASSELBLAD official website)

APO MAKRO PLANAR 120mm for CONTAX645 (quoted from ZEISS official website)

Specification and Competitor

Lens name	APO MAKRO PLANAR	HC120II	APO MACRO SUMMARIT S
Focal length(mm)	120	120	120
Max aperture	4	4	2.5
Min aperture	32	45	22
Lens Construction	8 elements in 5 groups	9 elements in 9 groups	9 elements in 7 groups
Min distance(m)	0.3	0.39	0.57
Lens length(mm) Mount frange to lens top	104	166	128
Max diameter(mm)	86	96	91
Filter Size(mm)	72	67	72
Weight(g)	796	1410	1135 1205(With lens shutter)
Release date	1999	–