Looking for a very large lens

<p>Hello all,</p>

<p>I've been looking for a very large lens. Something that will cover somewhere between 40 and 50 inches. Anyone know where i can find something like that?</p>

<p>Thanks in advance,<br>

Andy</p>

<p>I suppose you want it to cover while focused to infinity :)</p>

<p>Why not use a pinhole?</p>

<p>Andy, do you have a camera/support to deal with such glass ? No all cameras can handle such tele.</p>

<p>Les</p>

<p>Brother, you're tilting at windmills. This site http://ultrahighresolution.de/lenses.html claims to have an 1800/16 Apo Ronar for sale. Probably very expensive. There are two other long process lenses that might do for you, 70"/16 Apo-Artar and 1780/16 Apo-Nikkor. All scarce and expensive, a couple turn up on eBay most years.</p>

<p>Oh, and by the way, if you have in mind to shot portraits, lenses that are shorter, less expensive and more easily found will do for you. What <em>do</em> you intend to that needs such a large circle?</p>

<p>Good luck, Andy, have fun and stay on good terms with your banker.</p>

<p>Leszek, there are ways to support heavy lenses. The one I use requires a monorail camera. If the OP has in mind a trailer- or tent-cam then supporting the lens is no problem at all. Aligning it is, but until proven otherwise the OP's project is unlikely to go far enough to have to solve either problem.</p>

Think pinhole.

<p>Have a look at the Schneider XXL. They have a huge coverage. Their site says up to 20x24, but I know it is a lot more than that.</p>

<p>Without having any specific source, if you are looking for something more reasonably priced to experiment with try looking at process camera lenses such as used to be used in the printing trade before digitalization - some of these covered huge plate sizes, and high quality glass can often be found at junk shop prices. <br>

Nick</p>

 

<p>Not long ones, Nick.</p>

<p>Now that I think of it, Nick, I'd really like to have a 1210/12.5 Apo-Nikkor and I don't want to pay more than $300 delivered for one in good order. Where is it?</p>

<p>The only affordable long lenses are going to be ex-process camera lenses, or aerial reconnaissance lenses, both with a coverage angle of around 45 degrees. To get a clean 50" image circle from such a lens focused at infinity, it would need a focal length of around 60" (1500mm) or more. As Dan says, a lens like that is going to be huge, heavy, expensive and difficult to find. It's also going to be impossible to find a normal shutter for it.</p>

<p>I used to operate a 20" x 24" Littlejohn process camera, but the longest lens we needed for that was a 600mm Apo-Ronar. The reason we could get away with such a comparatively short lens was because of the closeness of focus and consequent bellows extension. No shutter was needed; we just turned the copying lights on and off.<br>

A cheap alternative, if image quality isn't paramount, would be to use a simple 1 Dioptre CU lens. Stopped down a bit you could probably get a passable image out of one.</p>

<p>BTW, those old WWII 48" Aero-Ektars are radioactive Gamma ray emitters and I'm surprised that it's legal to sell or ship them!</p>

<p>RJ, Aero-Ektars can be lived with. See, e.g., http://home.earthlink.net/~michaelbriggs/aeroektar/aeroektar.html. If my USAF lens data sheets (see <a href="http://archive.org/details/USAF_lens_datasheets">http://archive.org/details/USAF_lens_datasheets</a>) are correct, the largest format regularly used by USAF is 9" x 18", on 10" roll film. According to the 1963 GOI catalog, aerial lenses used by the USSR and allies covered at most around 700 mm. Far from the coverage the OP needs to work at infinity.</p>

<p>Shuttering process lenses isn't as impossible as it seems. Devotees of Packard shutters insist that with practice they can get accurate timed exposures (no faster than 1/25) from one. For sizes, see http://www.packardshutter.com/ Sinar-Copal shutters are another option. The largest conventional shutters are Compound #5 and Ilex #5, both open to around 65 mm and their fasted speed is 1/50. And then there are ancient roller-blind shutters and mutilated Speed Graphics. All of these exposure timing devices should, I think, be hung on the front of the lens.</p>

<p>I use an SKGrimes adapter to hang an industrial (no diaphragm) Compound #5 in front of my 900/10 Apo-Saphir. Viewed from the front of the assembly, the lens' diaphragm starts to make the visible entrance pupil smaller at slightly wider than f/16, so I can use f/10, f/16 and all smaller stops. The 1210/12.5 Apo-Nikkor's entrance pupil is about 97 mm, not much larger that my 900/10's 90 mm. If I ever get a 1210 Apo-Nikkor (fat chance!) I'll use the Compound 5 on it too.</p>

<p>I hang the shutter in front of the lens for two reasons. The shutter absolutely won't support the lens; neither will the camera's front standard, I have to put a crutch under the lens. And the lens is so fat that it blocks access to the shutter's controls. This is a problem with Compounds, whose "time-bulb-instantaneous" switch is on the front. </p>

Basically the OP is looking for a lens like the one used on the ultra-large format Polaroid camera such as the one Joe

McNally used to photograph surviving "first responders" to the Sept. 11, 2001 suicide attacks in New York City.

 

See https://www.911memorial.org/tribute/joe-mcnally , http://www.amazon.com/Faces-Ground-Zero-Portraits-

September/dp/0316523704/ref=la_B001I9N9XM_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1388033522&sr=1-6

 

John Reuter at the 20x24 studio in NYC should be able to help.

<p>That's nice, Ellis. Which lens did he use? Tracy Storer (http://www.apug.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-46366.html) says it was custom made, focal length around 6'.</p>

<p>By the way, where's the OP? It posted its question and seems to have disappeared.</p>

Somewhere I read that the ultra large format cameras built by/for Polaroid used two of the lenses made for the Lockheed

Skunkworks SR-71 "Blackbird". Polaroid had access to them because they had something to do with those cameras or

the film they used. The lenses were stacked with the front elements facing each other.

 

As I wrote earlier, John Reuter at the 20x24 Studio (which is still in business) will know.

<p>I see. Unobtanium.</p>

<p>FYI, 20x24 Studio's home page has been reported as an attack page. I wonder whether it has been hacked.</p>

Not necessarily unobtantium , a long focal length process lens might do the trick.

 

Write John at info@20x24studio.com

<blockquote>

<p>Not necessarily unobtantium , a long focal length process lens might do the trick.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Yeah, I've already suggested a few. Obtainium, but very expensive unless the OP is lucky.</p>

<p>I took y'r hint, sent John a note about his site.</p>

<p>How about a 40 inch (1016mm) B&L, f5.6, yellow (or gold?) dot aerial lens? Weighs about 30 -35 lbs and is a monster and is incredibly fast for this focal length.<br>

God only knows what it was originally mounted to, but it has the back focus distance for RG&B wavelengths scratched into the rear lens element retaining ring.<br>

Have thought often of making a HUGE, swing lens pano camera for aerial film, but the thought of all that glass swinging around scares me. lol.</p>

 

<p>Frank, close but no cigar. </p>

<p>That monster is likely for an aerial camera that shot 9" x 9" on 10" roll film, diagonal a bit less than 13". The OP wants a lens that will cover "somewhere between 40 and 50 inches."</p>