Tele designed lens 180mm for 4x5"

I'm looking for lens with focal length of about 180mm, but in "tele" design -

shorter real dimension (is that a "Flange Focal Distance"?). Purpose of looking

for such lens is building of one handheld LF camera for portraits. Not for

myself, but a friend of mine want something like this. Should cover 4x5"

without movements and should have wide aperture (like 5.6 or so)...<br> I

know he could buy some old press camera or maybe even some old polaroid,

but he wants a wooden one... (and he isn't familiar with internet).<br><br>

Tnx.<br>

Janko

oh yes, I didn't ask this as a "WTB classified" but as what would you

recommend me to look for on auction or second-hand sites.<br>

tnx again :-)

He wants a wooden handheld 4x5" camera with a 180mm lens for portraits?

I don't believe there is a 180mm tele that covers 4x5", but that doesn't seem like the biggest problem here.

How is he planning to focus? Scale focusing is an option, but it's not terribly accurate without a lot of light or at close distances with a 180mm lens. Something like a measuring string is an option, but that takes the spontaneity out of the handheld aspect. Rangefinder press cameras and Polaroid conversions solve this problem.

Another option would be a 4x5" SLR, like a Graflex RB or the new Wisner SLR. These usually have a lens of around 190mm, so they're good for portraits, and the SLR design facilitates spontaneity, and the Wisner will be wooden construction, so that might be an attraction. Info at www.wisner.com.

hi janko:

your friend might consider a 10" tele-raptar.

it is a little longer than 180mm, but it will cover a 4x5 negative with no problems.

places like equinoxphotographic.com. ebay, and keh camera brokers have lenses like

this both in a barrel and mounted in a shutter.

the graflex rb series d slr is a great camera, it is pretty big and some folks have

difficulties operating it "handheld" ... the wisner seems to be a great little camera if

your friend can afford it. and it is about the same size as a 3x4 graflex slr so it is a

little easier to operate.

good luck

-john

David, huge SLR or TLR are out of question - way over his budget. He is

working with leica and medium format and I know that he would like to play a

little. not much more, but since he saw my sketch for field camera he started

to dream about inexpensive 4x5" fashion and portrait camera.<br>

And that is his dream and I will help him as I can... I will tray to find answers

on-line. How will he focus? I have no idea. However, there is one option - I

named it "in-finder scale"... how to build that, another problem which can be

solved. parallax is another question... but that can be drown again (face

parallax, shoulder-portrait parallax, full figure parallax... all in finder?)<br>

But all of that will came much later, first I have to find some lens for his

camera.<br>

John, my friend have looked true my 210mm G-Claron and he thinks that it is

a little bit to tight for what he wants... well, he is my good friend, but he "can

see" difference between 100 and 105mm lens on leica format. o.k...<br>

tnx anyway.

hi janko:

i seem to remember a friend told me he uses a crown graphic and a

rodenstock 173mm or something like that to shoot portraits and fashion "stuff". i

know your friend isn't interested in the crown graphic part, but that focal length

might be perfect.

if i can figure out the exact focal length i will send you a message ... i think 173mm

is pretty close ...

-john

A 180mm non-tele lens isn't that terribly long. I use a 150mm on a 9x12cm Voigtländer plate camera for hand-held shooting. The GG is broken, so I focus on the built-in depth scale on the bed. No problem at all, I'm getting really good at guessing distances to within one foot. So a 180mm lens on a hadheld 4x5" shouldn't be a problem at all. A true Tele-design 180mm lens will be a lot larger and heavier, besides being rather less likely to cover the full 4x5". Nearly all "regular" 180mm lenses cover 4x5", some 5x7", and wide-angles can cover up to 11x14". So plenty of coverage even with my 80-years old 180mm/f:4.5 Xenar which I picked up for a pittance.

Go ahead, get a "real" lens!

There are some Tele's available in the that size range, but most appear to be designed for the 6x9 format (and just barely). There was a f4 and f5.5 Tele-Arton at 180mm, but it's coverage is only 110mm.

There is also the 8" (about 203mm) Tele-Optar and Tele-Raptar, but the descriptions I've read about the lens indicate it's a 6x9 lens- not 4x5.

A 10 inch or 240 to 250mm appears to be your best option. The 10 inch Raptor may cover. The 240mm Tele-arton however has a bit too little coverage at 152mm.

tnx to all answers. at the end, friend of mine decided not to build such camera... he

have bought one old wooden 18x24 cm(!). for contact prints only :-)