Any Large Format Photographers?

[bunnspecial]

I've worked with large format a fair bit, but my lens collection has been mostly limited to older American made pieces from Kodak and a few lesser known makers. These tend to be excellent lenses, but many are Tessar derivatives and have their limitations-they are slow and need to be stopped down a decent amount to get the corner sharpness up to par(sometimes past diffraction limits).

I've been meaning to pick up a "modern" 150mm lens from one of the major makers. Unfortunately, that got shuffled down the priority list.

I'm an unapologetic wide angle junkie, and in medium format wide angle options get very expensive very fast(my 50mm Zeiss Distagon in Hasselblad V mount is a ~$300 lens-the 40mm runs 4 figures and is only about a 24mm equivalent).

I was window shopping at KEH, and came across this for a VERY reasonable price the other day.

Reports of this lens are that its sharpness and color rendition are excellent, and it has a very generous image circle for 4x5. It will also JUST fit a Speed Graphic, although the bellow get a bit snug.

I have some pre-drilled Pacemaker Graphic boards on hand, so the only concern will be if a Copal 0 is too small for any I already have. If not, that will mean drilling a blank board(I think my local shop has some) or ordering one pre-drilled. Fortunately, neither option is that expensive, although my ability to do a good job drilling my own boards is limited.

I have a second 4x5 camera-an old Burke and James view camera. It only came with one lens board, and it has a huge(Acme #3) shutter on it. Fortunately, the board is wood, so I'm hoping that if I spend the time I can make more boards. The board is a fair bit larger than a Pacemaker 4x5, so I'd like to build a sort of "generic" board where I can lock a Pacemaker board into the center.

In any case, I hope I can be posting images from this lens next week.

 

[Apple fanboy]

I've worked with large format a fair bit, but my lens collection has been mostly limited to older American made pieces from Kodak and a few lesser known makers. These tend to be excellent lenses, but many are Tessar derivatives and have their limitations-they are slow and need to be stopped down a decent amount to get the corner sharpness up to par(sometimes past diffraction limits).

I've been meaning to pick up a "modern" 150mm lens from one of the major makers. Unfortunately, that got shuffled down the priority list.

I'm an unapologetic wide angle junkie, and in medium format wide angle options get very expensive very fast(my 50mm Zeiss Distagon in Hasselblad V mount is a ~$300 lens-the 40mm runs 4 figures and is only about a 24mm equivalent).

I was window shopping at KEH, and came across this for a VERY reasonable price the other day.

View attachment 754540

Reports of this lens are that its sharpness and color rendition are excellent, and it has a very generous image circle for 4x5. It will also JUST fit a Speed Graphic, although the bellow get a bit snug.

I have some pre-drilled Pacemaker Graphic boards on hand, so the only concern will be if a Copal 0 is too small for any I already have. If not, that will mean drilling a blank board(I think my local shop has some) or ordering one pre-drilled. Fortunately, neither option is that expensive, although my ability to do a good job drilling my own boards is limited.

I have a second 4x5 camera-an old Burke and James view camera. It only came with one lens board, and it has a huge(Acme #3) shutter on it. Fortunately, the board is wood, so I'm hoping that if I spend the time I can make more boards. The board is a fair bit larger than a Pacemaker 4x5, so I'd like to build a sort of "generic" board where I can lock a Pacemaker board into the center.

In any case, I hope I can be posting images from this lens next week.

I saw this article and thought of you!
https://www.dpreview.com/articles/6...acro-a-crazy-wet-plate-photography-experiment

 

[Macshroomer]

Along with 35mm and 120 I shoot large format professionally strictly for black and white fine art darkroom prints.

For 90% of my color work I shoot digital but black and white will always be darkroom based due to how well it now does as a niche.

I have that 75mm and use it with a center filter, it is paired nicely on the wide end with a Nikkor SW 90mm F8, another excellent wide angle.

 

[bunnspecial]

I received the lens, although unfortunately I can't seem to locate my stash of spare lens boards. I ordered a 3d printed one drilled for a Copal #0 from Ebay, so we'll see how that works(I'm actually not sure if I have one small enough for a #0 in my stash).

I've been in touch with SK Grimes about making an adapter board to allow Pacemaker Graphic boards to fit my other camera. It won't be cheap, but fortunately should give me maximum flexibility.

 

[fathergll]

Very tempted to try large format but I keep backing off because I hate clutter in my apartment and it's probably going to be a lot of extra things. But I'm always jealous of the output that it has. There is a certain look to it that you can't replicate with digital.