Fast wide lens for medium format

[ben_attb]

Hi

 

I am looking for a fast wide lens (35mm or wider) with an image circle that covers a piece of film that is 6 cm x 3 cm. The mount is not important.

 

I looked into the Pentax and Mamiyas but they are f3.5 which is too slow for my use.

 

Any leads in the right direction?

[tom_chow]

You might try the Manual Focus 35mm f/2.8 PC / TS lenses from Nikon & Canon (CF). The PC-Nikon 35mm vignettes on the X-Pan (65mmx24), I think part of that is the baffles in the body, but you may be into some questionable image quality at the edges. I have not tried the Canon TS 35mm on the X-Pan, but I've used it with shift on a Sony A7 to get 58x24 and 46x36 stitches.

[JDMvW]

There are wide angle lenses of Zeiss design available in the 6x6cm format size for the Pentacon 6 family.

 

The Flektogon 50mm f/4 and the MIR 26B 45mm f/3,5 if that is wide enough for your purposes.

 

A run down of these and other wide-angle P6 lenses at

 

40-50mm Wide Angle Lenses with the Pentacon Six Mount

 

There aren't a lot of medium and large format lenses below 40mm

[ben_attb]

There are wide angle lenses of Zeiss design available in the 6x6cm

 

Those lenses are unfortunately too slow and not as wide as I'd like.

 

If speed was not a concern, I would go with a Zeiss Contax 645 35mm f3.5.

 

Perhaps there are fast FF Nikkor's with larger image circles?

[orsetto]

You're looking for something that doesn't exist outside scientific labs or the military.

 

Commercial medium format lenses below 50mm were considered "exotic" until 645 became prevalent in the early '80s, after which 40mm and eventually 35mm were more common. But none ever inched any faster than f/3.5, and most are mediocre wide open. Truly "fast" lenses (f/2.2, f/2.0, f/1.9) are rare and strictly limited to standard or long-normal focal lengths of 80mm (Contax, Mamiya 645) or 110mm (Hasselblad V and H).

 

As far as "cheating" with faster, smaller format lenses: forget it. Rule of thumb in 24x36 format is, the faster the lens, the tighter the image circle (put to the test, most barely cover 24x36 without significant vignetting). You could experiment with a Nikkor, Canon or Samyang 35mm f/1.4, but chances are you'd be disappointed. Ditto the 50mm, 28mm or 24mm f/2.0 or f/1.4 variants. One of the very rare exotic fast Nikkor repro lenses might cover 6x3, but AFAIK they don't do well at mid to long distance.

 

Dedicated Nikkor and Canon shift lenses are a possibility, but none are faster than f/2.8 and none would be considered great shot wide open. Results on the 33x44 Fuji GFX sensor are mixed at best: edge coverage isn't great, extrapolated to 6x3 film you could assume it will be worse. Rumors are strong Fuji will soon release a native GFX 30mm shift lens, which might better cover 6x3 film, but it will be expensive (and probably no faster than f/2.8).

Edited November 30, 2019 by orsetto

[dan_fromm2]

Ben, Orsetto is right. You're going to have to change your requirements or get extremely lucky.

 

Re lucky, Elcan made a 1.5"/2.8 lens, their type C-280, for the Vinten F.95 aerial camera, which shoots 6x6 on 70 mm film. Longer than you say you need, possibly fast enough, and very scarce. Can be recognized by serial number 280-xxxx.

 

Re not quite so lucky, Elcan made a 1.75"/2.8 lens, their type C-88, also for the F.95. Much too long for you. I have one, don't love it. They show up from time to time.

 

Wander over to mflenses.com and ask about focal length reducers that also increase maximum aperture.

[mag_miksch]

.....focal length reducers....

seems to be a good idea, speed boosters reduce focal lenght, increase aperture and reduce image circle, eg. FF to APS-c, so you have to look for a lense covering 6x9, f=4

[orsetto]

Aside from Hasselblad V to Fuji GFX, are there any speed boosters that directly couple a medium format lens to the same (or another) medium format mount? All the ones I've seen couple a specific 24x36 mount (Nikon, Canon, Leica R) directly o a smaller APS-C body (Fuji, Olympus, Panasonic). In theory, I suppose you could put a Hasselblad 50mm f/2.8 F lens on a standard Hasselblad>Nikon adapter, then attach that to a x0.71 speed booster, and the speed booster to an APS-C body to get the effect of a 35mm f/2.0 on APS-C.

 

But that APS-C mount speed booster should come nowhere near to covering a piece of 6x3 film: wouldn't the exit image circle of the speed booster itself cover only APS-C no matter what lens is in front of it? Or am I being dense and overlooking something obvious (like the speed booster being relative instead of fixed re exit coverage: do they consistently reduce to APS-C specifically, or do they more variably reduce the image circle and increase the speed of whatever lens is in front of them)?

 

If the latter, the 'blad 50mm f/2.8 would still speed up to f/2.0 but its image circle would decrease to just over 4x4. You might be able to convert something like the 6x9 Mamiya Press 50mm f/6.3 or Fuji GX680 50mm f/5.6 into a 35mm f/4.0 that fully covers 6x3. But it won't be "fast", and the goofy lens mount (or lens board in the case of Fuji) would be tricky to graft onto the speed booster. A Contax or Mamiya 645 35mm f/3.5 lens would convert to a 25mm f/2.5, but image circle would drop to 3.2 x 4.3 (well short of 6x3, unless you don't mind some vignetting).

 

Wide and fast (in the smaller format sense) seem mutually exclusive when it comes to medium format film coverage, even with Frankenstein-ing a speed booster (because wide lenses able to fully cover 6x3 thru the booster are so slow to begin with).

Edited December 2, 2019 by orsetto

[rodeo_joe1]

PA-Curtagon 35mm f/2.8 shift lens?

[babouphoto]

Mamiya Sekor 100/2.8? It's made for 6x9 and is 45mm (so not quite 35mm) but it is an exceptional lens!

[orsetto]

PA-Curtagon 35mm f/2.8 shift lens?

 

Or the Contax RTS mount Zeiss 35mm f/2.8 PC-Distagon: possibly the only 35mm shift lens that would cover 3x6 wide open at f/2.8 without crapping itself near the edges. Pricey and scarce, tho, just like the f/2.8 PA-Curtagon. The more common f/4 PA-Curtagon is a bit of a dog. Olympus Zuiko f/2.8 shift is excellent, but not when used wide open. Most shift glass needs stopping down for good full width performance.

Edited December 5, 2019 by orsetto