Fair price for Horseman?

[digidurst]

Greetings! I have found a used Horseman 450 4x5 in very good condition. Looks new aside

from some fingerprints on the knobs. The shop is asking $650 for it and it comes with 1

lens board and a ground glass that rotates for portrait/landscape modes. Good deal or

should I keep looking?

 

Another question (forgive me but I figured I'd consolidate posts) - how in the heck do I use

my studio strobes with an LF camera???

 

Thanks in advance for the advice - Happy Holidays to all :-D

[michael_briggs2]

An excellent way to figure out the current market price of equipment is to search the completed auctions on ebay.

 

Post-WWII LF lenses in shutter are in shutters (Compur, Copal, etc.) that have connectors on the side for connecting to flashes. Some older shutters use a bi-pin connector, but most use the modern PC connector that is also used on most recent professional 35mm and medium format cameras. New cables are still available for the older bi-pin style connector.

 

Very old shutters and perhaps very few post-WWII shutters lack any connector. One advantage of these between-the-lens shutters is that they sync at all speeds. You could connect one flash to the shutter and put the others on slaves, etc.

[digidurst]

Anybody else care to chime in?

[capocheny]

Ellen,

 

You have to tell us a little bit more in terms of what shutter your lens(es) are mounted in.

Also, not that it's all that important, but what strobes are you using? What is your

experience in using studio flash units and with what equpment?

 

As Michael said...check Ebay for "sold" pricing on equipment. Frankly, for $650... if the

Horseman is in good condition then it isn't a bad deal. It's a fair one.

 

Have you used Google to check on using studio flash with LF gear? You're asking for a very

broad spectrum of information.

 

Let us know and we'll try and direct you...

 

Cheers

[digidurst]

The lenses I'm looking at are:

 

Schneider 180 5.6/315 12.0 Symmar Convertible Lens

 

Nikon 210 5.6 Nikkor-W Lens

 

Calumet 210 6.8 Caltar II-E Compact Lens

 

I'll be using the LF for product work in my studio. Any one lens in particular stand out as a

winner?

 

As for strobes, I've been using ABs in my studio with a Canon 20D.

 

I checked ebay and other used sources but I haven't found too many comparable numbers

but the asking price does seem fair.

 

I know I cast a broad net in asking for the info I did but I'm looking to you LF veterens to

help me make the right decision. I know $650 doesn't sound like a lot but it adds up

quick, right!? :-D

 

Thanks again

[michael_briggs2]

Of the three lenses that you mention, the Nikkor-W has the best design.

 

The convertible Symmar is a, by now old, implementation of the plasmat design of 6 glass elements in four groups. This was a standard lens for professional photographers, but was discontinued by Schneider in favor of the improved Symmar-S in roughly 1970. Schneider abandoned the convertible feature in favor of making a less symmetrical lens with better performance in the regular, unconverted mode.

Newer plasmat-type lenses like the Symmar-S, Apo-Symmar, Apo-Sironar-N and -S, Fuji-W and the Nikkor-W that you are also looking at will be better corrected. So the plain Symmar will give good results, but the Nikkor-W should be better. The Symmar will be single-coated, the Nikkor-W multicoated.

 

The Symmar converts to the longer focal length by removing the front cell. Schneider never promised great performance in this mode. You can find out more about these lenses by browsing the archives of this forum, or using the advanced search page of google to search the forum, limiting the domain to www.photo.net.

 

The 210 mm f6.8 Caltar II-E is a renamed Rodenstock Geronar. The design of this lens is a triplet -- three airspaced elements. A simple design like this can't match the performace of a 6-element plasmat lens, but it can do surprisingly well for LF. It is made and sold as an budget lens.

 

If I were you, I would only buy the Symmar or the Caltar II-E only if money was tight and they were priced significantly lower than the Nikkor-W. There are many modern 210 mm plasmats out there on the used market, so you can wait for one in excellent condition at a good price. Sources for pricing info on these lenses, besides ebay, are Midwest Photo and KEH.

 

The focal length 210 mm is a good choice for product work. In this focal length the plasmat designs give plenty of coverage. The working distance will be large enough to give good perspective and allow for lighting the products, but the working distance won't be too large. How close you can focus depends on the maximum bellows extension of your camera.

[tedharris]

Ellen,

 

Going back to your original question and noting your initial uses .... do not repeat do not

give much consideration to either the Caltar II E or the convertible Symmar. They just

won't cut it for closeup/macro work if you are doing tabletop product shooting. The

Caltar II E is an ok lens but basically a "student lens" it is the same as the Rodenstock

Geronar, budget priced and not up to the same performance as a Sironar or Apo Symmar.

The convertible Symmar was a fine lens in its day (I had one for years) but it is single

coated and that will work against the sort of work you want to do. Stick with the modern

multi coated lenses if you can afford to do so.

 

As for using yoru strobes, if you are using a lens in a modern synced shuter it is easy.

Most modern shutters have a pc post. Most strobe heads will have a socket that takes an

RCA plug and you can get standard cords with an RCA plug on one end and a PC plug on

the other (or some other configurationif it is an older shuter withm say, a bi pole sync

terminal). You sync one strobe to the shutter via the cord and set the otehr heads to

"slave" and voila you are good to go.

[digidurst]

Awesome info, Ted! Thanks!