Help me choose a lens!

[alec]

Hi there,<p>

 

Looking for a lens for my newly acquired 11x14 field camera. Here are my

requirements in order of priority:<p>

 

1) Must cover 11x14 with good room for movement. I'd like an image circle of at

least 600mm wide open.<br>

2) Under $2000<br>

3) Can take a standard size filer, such as 77mm or so.<br>

4) Has a shutter. If no shutter, shutter can be purchased and installed & the

whole thing still meets requirement #2.<br>

5) Lens is coated<br>

6) As wide a lens as possible given the above requirements<br>

7) Light weight<p>

 

Any ideas?<p>

 

Thanks!<br>

--A

[pico_digoliardi]

Methinks the Crusaders are still looking for something similar.

 

I'm waiting with bated breath for an answer.

 

I think the key question is How Wide do you really want/need? It's a bit easier to work back from there.

 

Best,

[alec]

I'm not all that worried about focal length, really. That's why it's #6 on the list. Anything over 600mm starts getting a bit narrow for my taste for 11x14. If I had it my way I'd Like something around 300-350mm, but I'm keeping an open mind about it.

[nowherefound]

You could always go the way of a protar. It is light, not too spendy, but it does lack a shutter. Packard shutters are easy enough to add.

[capocheny]

Alec,

 

Why don't you contact Tim at www.LensN2shutter.com and tell him what you're looking

for. He mounted a 19" RDA into a Copal 3 shutter for me at a very, very reasonable cost.

 

Nice job 2! :)

 

And, he has quite a number of barrel-mounted lenses that he can mount into a shutter at

your request.

 

Cheers

[pico_digoliardi]

Mr. Simonon:

 

I have to ask why you need a lot of movements. Sincerely, most ULF (and LF, and MF) applications need, at the most, 12 degrees of back tilt for common applications and for straight-throughs, no back tilt but significant front rise.

 

I humbly suggest we concentrate upon what you really need. Can you tell us of your anticipated applications?

 

Best,

[alec]

Thanks Guys. Pico, I'm looking to do some landscape photography (indeed, little movement needed for that) and some architectual photography, mainly of buildings here in NYC. I need a lot of movements for the latter. Even if I could get by with something fairly wide, I want the added comfort of being able to compensate for more difficult shots.

 

The Schneider 550mm Fine Art lens fits the bill, except for pesky requirement #2. =(

 

--A

[michael_briggs2]

People say that the 355 G-Claron and the 450 Nikkor-M have huge coverage when stopped down. (I don't have experience with ULF.) Asking for huge coverage wide open is asking alot (your #1). You can get both of these lenses used in exc condition and have money left over from the $2k that you are willing to spend. Modern, coated lenses, in modern shutters that won't go funky on you -- sounds like excellent choices to me.

[scott_peters]

Nikor 450mm or a 19" artar would be good choices. Both have good reps.

[clayh]

355 G-claron. Sharp, lots of coverage. Will cover 12x20 with an inch or so of rise.

[alec]

Clay,

 

Interesting you mention the 355 G-Claron. This would have been my first choice, outside of coverage. The data I found on this says it has a 444mm image circle at f22, which doesn't provide much (if any) movement on 11x14. Does this fall under the category of Schneider understating it's coverage? I've heard they do that often. If so, can you tell me what kind of image circle I can expect from this lens? Would I need a center filter to compensate for light falloff?

 

Thanks!

--A

[pico_digoliardi]

Alec: You might want to peruse the following page.

 

http://www.largeformatphotography.info/lenseslist.html

 

It is about as concise a listing with FC and coverage as I've seen.

 

If you are interested, a colleague of mine has a 375mm Caltar F6.3. Coverage is reputed to be about 468mm, but I've no certainty.

[pico_digoliardi]

How could I forget the economical Schneider 210mm Super-Angulon?

[michael_briggs2]

For this question, tables listing the manufacturer's specs for coverage aren't particularly useful. Schneider and the other manufacturers spec the coverage to support enlargements, and so the resolution on the film has to be a high value of line pairs per mm, so that the final resolution on the print will be acceptable. Assuming that you are making contact prints, you can accept a lower resolution on the film and still have a perfectly sharp print. Some lenses have larger coverage if you accept a lower lp/mm image, others don't. So the best source of information is user reports of which lenses work. If you browse the "ULF (11x14,banquet)" section of the archives of this forum, you will find previous discussions.

[pico_digoliardi]

There is a gentleman named Jim Galli who has used many, many old lenses for LF and 11x14.

 

One very cool sample of what an "old" lens can do on 11x14 is here:

http://tonopahpictures.0catch.com/Conley/1114Conley.html

 

His home site: http://nn.railfan.net/links/galli.htm

[clayh]

The Schneider coverage numbers are very conservative. I have a 12x20 camera, and the 355

is used on it most of the time. Like I was saying, i get just over an inch of rise with the thing,

which would mean that it covers just over 600mm, or ~24". It is sharp right to the edges

when stopped down below f/32. I have never really noticed horrendous fall-off with the lens,

but there undoubtedly has to have a little just from the geometry involved..

[alec]

This is my lens, for sure. Just need to find a source. I've found a few new ones, but I think I can do better on the used market. Just missed one on E*ay that went for under $600 with a Copal shutter. Thanks all for your help!

[profhlynnjones]

With your $2,000 requirement, you might find a couple of really hard to find optics whilch would work.

210mm Schneider Angulon, f6.8 85 dgrees

360mm Symmar f5.6

250mm Wide Field Ektar might work

400mm to 450mm Dagor f.6.8

 

Pick up the phone and call Jack Deardorff, he still makes them, (219) 464 9748. Jack is the last of the Deardorff view camera makers and we have known each other for over 40 years. I am sure he would have some suggestions.

 

Lynn

[jim_galli4]

Thanks for the nice plug Pico! My little web site is actually at <a href="http://tonopahpictures.0catch.com">http://tonopahpictures.0catch.com</a> though.

 

The 355 G-Claron is a fantastic place to begin with 11X14. You won't be dis-appointed. I have a lovely extra 14" Dagor but I've broken the rules around here one too many times telling folks I have stuff extra to sell.

[alec]

Jim, your site is really REALLY cool, and opened my eyes to older lenses. I've found a few on the bay which were kinda neat, but still not exactly $65. Whare are you finding those $65 lenses?! Flea market? =)

 

I'm torn between the 355 G-Claron and the 360 Symmar S. I've heard great things about both, but have two negative comments about the G-Claron: Flare problems and poor background blur. The latter problem is somewhat subjective. The only negatives I've heard about the Symmar S is size & weight. Both are a consideration, but not a technical problem with the lens.

 

The other interesting factoid is that the 360 Symmar S lenses appear to abound, while I've only found a couple G-Clarons out there. Could either be that people like the G-Claron lenses, or perhaps there were too many Symmar S lenses produced.

 

Still on the fence. My camera is gonna be in the shop for a little while longer, so I have time to think it through.

 

--A

[jim_galli4]

Hi Alec. Thanks for the kind words. Not fancy but there's getting to be a lot there. I'd definitely pick the G-Claron as a first lens. It's smaller and very user friendly with the 77mm filter sizes instead of 110mm (Ithink) for the Symmar.

 

As far os old stuff, just keep an open mind and try lots of stuff. There are some pleasant surprises as well as a lot of old dogs. Jim