the best Lens shade ever is....?

My favourite lenses are the Apo Symmar 5.6/100 and the Super Angulon

XL 5.6/58. I used both of them without a Lens shade. Yes, of course i

could use my old Linhof Shade (with the slot for slip-in filters)

further on. My problem is that these Lens shade don't fit the Super

Angulon. Some times ago I have seen a Lens shade from Toyo. This is a

little ballhead with a socket for the acessory shoe and a supporting

arm. At the end of the arm is a cardboard holder mounted. The arm

with the attached black cardboard can de adjusted in nearly every

position to keep stray ligt away from the lens. With this item I have

the problem that it is made for cameras with an acessory shoe on the

lens standart and not for cameras like my Super Technika V with the

acessory shoe on the body. For this position and longer bellows

extensions the support arm is to short and on windy days I'm like

under canvas!

What can you recommend?

The gizmo you're talking about isn't signficantly better than just holding your hand or a dark slide or any other solid object wherever you want it in front of the lens. The only advantage I've ever seen to these kinds of things as compared with just using your hand or a dark slide is that you can position them and then check the ground glass to make sure they aren't interfering with the image, which is hard to do with complete accuracy when using your hand or a dark slide.

 

I think the best shade for your camera is a compendium shade. Linhof makes one for the Technika cameras. They are very expensive (sorry for the redundancy in saying it's made by Linhof and is expensive) but they show up used on e bay occasionally and MidWest Photo Exchange or Ken Mar Camera often has them used. If you're buying used, make sure that the one you buy will work with the Technikas. I believe Linhof also made compendium shades for the monorails and I'm not sure they work with Technikas.

 

The advantage of the compendium shade is that it prevents light from striking the lens from all directions, not just from the direction of the sun light, and as front movements are made the shade can be adjusted to conform to the movements.

 

The Lee hood/filter system is also good but it's incovenient to use on a Technika with larger lenses because it won't rotate without bumping into the camera bed, which means you have to hold the lens in one hand and screw the hood onto the lens with your other hand, then mount the lens and hood together on the camera. Not an impossibility but not very convenient either and of course polarizers in the hood are very impractical since you generally need to rotate them with the filter in place.

 

Whatever you end up using, remember that the object of a good shade or hood isn't just to keep directional light such as sun light from striking the lens. You can do that yourself using your hand or a dark slide or any other solid object. A good lens hood also keeps stray light from striking the lens in all directions and is actually needed as much on a bright cloudy day where the light is omni-directionsal as it is on a sunny day where the light is striking the lens only from one direction.

<I>The Lee hood/filter system is also good but it's incovenient to use on a Technika

with larger lenses because it won't rotate without bumping into the camera bed,

which means you have to hold the lens in one hand and screw the hood onto the lens

with your other hand, then mount the lens and hood together on the camera.

</I><P>Wow! really?! I ask that because that is not the way mine works. You screw

an

adapter ring on the lens and then attach the attach the lens shade/filter holder to the

adapter ring. The filter holder/lens shade rotates on the ring as you need it to. And

while in theory the polarizer is supposed to go in front of any other filter, I have had

no problems attaching the polarizer directly to the lens, rotating it to the angle

desired, and then attaching the shade/holder to the the filter. Of course with the

58mm S-A and a combination polarizer and lens shade you are apt to get some

vignetting , even if you use (as I do) the wide angle adapter rings.

Bogen makes a small articulating arm with several joints and a clamp on each end. About two feet, fully extended. Every self-respecting table-top studio product photographer has several of them.

 

Clamp one end to the front tripod leg, put an 8x10 black cardboard in the clamp at the other end. Position the card over the lens and tighten the joints.

 

If it's windy and you don't want a "sail" mechanically attached to your camera, a Matthews C-stand with a small flag (and sandbag) will do nicely.

 

Anyone who isn't availing himself of all the wonderful cinematic gadgets used by movie "grips" is really missing out. Learn all about scrims, dots, cookies, trombones, gobos, flags, etc. Your work will improve and you will be infinitely more colorful at cocktail parties.

 

Check out the Matthews Grip Equipment website and get their catalogue.

P.S. - click here for a "griptionary":

 

http://www.matthewsgrip.com/gript.html

<a href='http://www.leefilters.com/CPTSHO.asp?PageID=391'>http://www.leefilters.com/CPTSHO.asp?PageID=391</a>

Ebony make a flexible arm that fixes to the accessory shoe. It has a crocodile clip at the other end to hold the ground glass protector, which you use to shade the lens. Available from Robert White if you have money to burn.

 

Personally, I use myself or my gray card.

During his classic period, AA used his hat as much as anything. With single-coated and uncoated lenses. -jb

Ellis - Yes, it did work that way with my Technika V and larger lenses. The problem came at the point where you tried to screw the hood/adapter ring onto the lens. With my 210 APO Symmar and my 90mm Super Angulon there wasn't enough clearance between the lens and the bed to allow the hood/adapter ring to be screwed onto the front of the lens with the lens on the camera. The corners of the hood would bump into the bed, preventing the hood/adapter ring from turning and screwing onto the lens. With smaller lenses, like the 150mm G Claron and the 300mm Nikon M ,it wasn't a problem because there was enough clearance between the hood corners and the camera bed to allow the hood to be screwed onto the lens. I had used the Lee system with my previous camera, a Tachihara, and liked it a lot but sold the Lee system when I got the Technika because of these problems. There were workarounds but they were inconvenient.

Go the Linhof compendium if you can find one second hand they are light and resonably compact when one seperates the rail from the shade bellows, for a Technika its the one that attaches by two pins that snap fit in the front standard ,having said that i would like to ask you a question Martin .

I imagine it would be a little tricky using a SA 58mm on a Technika I actually thought 65mm was as low as you could go.

Do you find it practical matching up a SA 58mm with a Technika in regard to operating the lens .

A little tip for what its worth ,i have put a tripod bush on the side of my Technika in the place of the hand grip ,this allows me to use a 75mm lens on portrait format without dropping the bed also it would

allow one to use grads without fouling the bed. nothing worse than a fouled bed (ha ha)

cheers Rod

After you pull out the dark slide it makes a great lens shade...

The darkslide is the best idea yet, you'll never be caught without it. As an authentic retro method, use your hat.

but unless you are looking through the lens to check you might include the darkslide in your image!!!...then its not the best lens shade ever.

With all due respect to Brian Ellis, I have the shade holder you are talking about and I love it. Unless you are in a studio where flare causing light can come from different sources in the field we only have to worry about the sun, once you shade it you are good to go. I see no reason to carry one more piece of bulky equipment when the shade holder works just as good. If the holder you are talking about has an alligator clip, why dont you just cut pieces of cardboard or mat that are longer so it can reach the front of the lens? Certainly cheaper than a linhof compendium lens shade, even at e bay prices they are still not cheap.

i recently bought a flag that clips to the front standard with a kind of flexible arm.....it cost next to nothing...it stays still so that once the shot is set it wont creep into view by me holding it over too far and i can use a lee system with a 105 polariser....hell you could buy ten of these things and have shading all around...only problem is i might get strange looks even from other photographers!!