macro work with 11x14

I would like to know wich modern lens is best for macro and close up work with 11x14 camera, my idea is

photograph callas , gloves and close up faces.

advices are welcome.

If I'm stopping down for depth of field I use G-Clarons, 210mm is my favorite. I would love

to use an optic in the slightly telephoto range but I can't get enough of bellows extension

with my Empire State 11x14 to use a 14" Dagor to shoot anything close-up. If shooting

wide open or near wide open the Micro-Nikkor series 19mm, 35mm, 65mm, and 120mm

that were made for the Nikon Multiphot are unbeatable. I actually feel that they are a tad

bit superior to the Luminar series. Biggest problem with obtaining maximum sharpness is

camera movement during exposure. I resort to weighing down the camera's standards with

beanbags and using a heavy duty tripod with a Bogen Long Lens Support 3252 for extra

support attaching it to the front standard, but honestly using two tripods is the best way

to go. Exposure compensation for lens extension is a pain to figure out in the field so I

made up an exposure compensation table which makes things so much easier. Prefer

using a 4x5 darkslide in front of the lens instead of a shutter. Try using the shutter while

viewing the groundglass to check for shutter caused vibration. A Sinar shutter on a Sinar

Norma 8x10 works fine but mount it on the front standard of a wooden 11x14 view and it

will cause the camera to vibrate for a few seconds after opening... trust me on this (I

wasted a lot of 11x14 film finding this out)

Good luck...

The Fuji 600C while far from a great lens is acceptable as an 11x14 macro.

Um, Bruce, with a 600 1:1 needs 1.2m extension.

Hi Dan

 

Its not a problem he sells him also a new camera, he is a salesman! ,--)))

I have an Empire State 11x14 too. Although I have tried it yet, I have been planning on trying some "macro" shots with my 210mm Kowa, 240mm Kowa, 210mm Tessar (Wetzler-Docter) and my 240mm Wetzler-Docter. Due to the design of these older ULF cameras, e.g., my empire state 11x14, I picked up Alan Brubaker's Stabilizer System and have supplemented with with two adjustable clamps to better support the Front & Rear Standards/bellows.

 

Kris, which 11x14 films do you use, developer, times, etc. I have a jobo and have not yet developed/shot any of my 11x14 film....the price will be a BIG OUCH for each sheet I screw up, as you know.

 

Sorry if my response/inquiry is shifting the questions on this, but I figured it would save space and keep the 11x14 questions together.

 

Thanks one and all. Jon

I've used a 135mm F3.5 Xenar stopped down with good results up to 12x20. You can actually see the GG.Emile/www.deleon-ulf.com

I use Bergger Film ISO 200 Panchromatic film developed usually in Rodinal but my supply

of this no longer sold developer is running out so have gone back to Kodak HC110 and

have found that developers really don't matter that much now since I'm scanning the

negatives and printing them digitally. With Photoshop CS3 and 16 bit scans some of my

badly exposed or wrongly developed negatives are now printable. Only problem is with the

over developed negs whose D max exceeds my Epson 4990 scanner's capabilities. FYI it

takes me merging 4 separate scans to scan a whole 11x14 neg... a pain but the cost of a

scanner that could scan a whole 11x14 neg is just out of my reach. Currently I use a Heavy

Duty Linhof tripod ($$$) with a wooden Burke & James head (under $20 on Ebay) and a

Bogen Long Lens Support 3252 attached to the bottom of the front standard to get rid of

camera vibrations. Alan Brubaker's Stabilizer System looks interesting and intend on

fabricating a similar setup. The Empire State View is certainly compact but not at all rigid

and God forbid it's windy cause the camera morphs into a sail. Saw a Wisner 11x14 view

and looked absolutely great and really stable and rigid but the price is way out of my

means... equalled the cost of 1000 sheets of 11x14 film. FYI my color work is using a

Nikon D200 but for B&W the 11x14 has a look about it that just can't be matched with

digital capture... I believe it's the boken of the Dagor and Protar lenses. Just acquired a

Schneider Dasykar 180mm F/12.5 lens just barely covers 11x14... technically its

performance is nothing compared to a modern optic but how the image degrades in the

format's corners is just beautiful. Harry Casimir de Rham once wrote me "the ironic fact

that the perfection which can be drawn from within the depths of the human being can

never be found in a machine" and so I love shooting with the 11x14 and its vintage optics.

I have had excellent results using both a 210mm f9 Computar and a 355mm f9 G-Claron as

macro lenses on 11x14. I once used a 240/9 G-Claron and felt that it was also a good macro

on 11x14.

For those thinking that your camera's bellows draw is too limited for a particular lens, ponder building a long macro-focusing tube out of black ABS pipe-- either a series of tubes of increasing length, or a slider type with a smaller tube in the core. This obviously works well using 4" or 6" hard ABS pipe for the smaller films up to 5x7, but is still doable with the largest sheets so long as you are careful to avoid vignetting, and perhaps with larger pipe diameters. There is also a flexible black polyethylene pipe used for drains and culverts-- 3" & 4" drainpipe is very common but I also have seen 8" and larger diameter if you wanted to engineer in some additional "movements" for the extension, again watching out for any vignetting.

 

Thus while all of the G-Clarons mentioned are up to the job, I also don't see a huge technical problem with a 600mm normal lens used for modest macro work, but you would certainly need to ponder issues such as exposure and stability of the camera. Electronic flash is a common solution for exposure and I use several tripods or a tripod and monopod when stability is an issue.

Hi Jesus,

My only lens is a rodenstock macro sironar 210mm lens and I am using it with my cambo monorial 11x14. It is a great lens and you can use it up to 3x.