dan_fromm2

Hmm. I've had my PB-4 and PS-4 for > 50 years. I've had a 55/2.8 MicroNikkor AIS for 35 years. I recently broke down and bought a used D810. I don't have a scanner. Please explain to me why I should buy a scanner. And please send money.

I doubt it is a Berlebach, but ask them if it is one of theirs. berlebach.de

Roy, what you're seeing is pretty normal for 4 elements in 4 groups double Gauss type wide angle lenses. The general recommendation for them is to use full aperture for focusing and to stop down to get good image quality. This doesn't quite go for Wide Field Ektars because they were designed for less coverage -- 80 degrees -- instead of the usual 100 degrees for most others of this type.

Clean your ground glass. If I can focus a 60/14 Perigraphe you should be able to focus a 90/6.8. Which "Speed Graphic" do you have? Pacemaker and Anniversary types both have linked inner and outer bed rails, which make focusing lenses that make infinity with the standard on the inner bed rails easy. The Pacemaker's minimum extension is 66.7 mm, the Anny's is 65.1, if you want to use a lens shorter than 90 mm, check flange-focal distances before shopping. Re the beer budget, these days f/8 Super Angulon types down to 65 mm aren't quite beer, still wine -- not champagne -- is more like it, but if you want to go that way look into Fuji SW lenses.

On Pacemaker Graphics dropped bed will do it. I can't say anything about older Graphics, no recent experience and I'm too lazy/uninterested to take the book off the shelf ... Front rise -- 19 mm on 2x3 Pacemakers -- works with all focal lengths. As for monorails, my hybrid Cambo will allow useful movements with my 47 SA and longer lenses. Can't say anything about a normally configured SC-1 or SC-2, haven't had to try them 'cos I have the hybrid.

Conrad, this really depends on the press camera and on the monorail. The shortest lens that will cover 2x3 (6x9 in metric) is the 35/4.5 Apo Grandagon. Mine focuses to infinity with mm to spare on my 2x3 Crown Graphics and Century Graphic. Using it on my 2x3 Cambo SC-1 isn't really possible, even with Cambo's own bag bellows. I can use it on a funny sort of hybrid Cambo (SC-1 front standard, my own bag bellows, SC-2 bag bellows) with some gymnastics. FWIW, the 2x3 Crown/Century's minimum extension is 34.9 mm. The 4x 5 Crown's is 41.3 mm. Crowns are quite friendly to short lenses. Speed Graphics, not so much. Graphics lack movements but they're more useful than they appear.

Chuck, how are you focusing? I ask because I shoot 2x3 Graphics. 2x3's normal focal length is 100 mm +/-. I have no trouble focusing on the ground glass with a normal lens wide open, using a 3.6x Toyo loupe. 90mm isn't that much shorter than 101 or even 105 mm. In fact, I have no trouble focusing a 60/14 Berthiot Perigraphe wide open on my 2x3 Century Graphic. To put 60 mm in perspective, this is a long "normal" focal length for 35 mm still. You may want to get and use a loupe, also to clean the ground glass. If you clean the GG, be careful when refitting it to the camera. Shiny side towards photographer, matte/ground side towards lens. To find the infinity position, mount your camera on a tripod, pull the front standard out, roll the rails as far back as they will go and lock them in place, aim a a target at least a mile away and slide the standard back and forth while checking focus on the GG. Use a loupe, naked eye won't do. Marking the infinity position on the rails isn't a bad idea. However, I use a variety of lenses on my little Graphics, haven't taken the trouble to find the infinity position for any of them. I just put the standard in more or less the right place and focus on the GG. If I've put the standard in the wrong place for the shot I want to take, I move it appropriately. I always focus on the GG. This procedure -- not using proper bed stops to ensure that the standard is square to the rails -- introduces the risk of slight unintended swing. I mitigate the risk by using a sort of moveable stop. My first was made by the late Fred Lustig, who called it a Chinaman. Seriously. My second was made by SKGrimes. You can see them and read more about them at http://www.galerie-photo.com/telechargement/dan-fromm-6x9-lenses-v2-2011-03-29.pdf

Ed, I once made some "test" shots with my 55/2.8 MicroNikkor AIS, 105 MicroNikkor AIS and 700/8 Questar. Same subject, all from tripod, all with flash illumination, all at 1:4, which is as close as the Questar will go. Indistinguishable. I love the Questar for what it can do when used carefully, can't recommend it for moving subjects. Too slow working.

Hmm. Could be veiling flare caused by internal reflections. Are the reversing rings interiors shiny?

It depends a bit on budget, what you do and which lenses you have. I recently broke down and got a DSLR that can use my old manual focus Nikkors. The D850 appealed but a used D810 was much less expensive and better than good enough so that's what I got. For one of my applications, hand held macro with flash illumination and dim ambient lighting the D810 is harder to focus than I like. My old flash rigs still work but dim ambient = dim view in the finder = great difficulty in seeing when the subject (unconstrained fish in an aquarium) is in focus. I might have been better off, if much poorer, if I'd got a mirrorless.

Folks, there are fire sales and then there are fire sales. Stores have fire sales. In 1969, when I was in the US Army at Fort Jackson, S.C., there was a fire in a PX warehouse. After the fire, a fire sale. I bought a fire sale Yashica SU60E S8 cine camera new in box, without fire, smoke or water damage, for pennies. It was DOA, as were many S8 camera of that era. See Lenny Lipton's The S8 Book about that. After a bit of wrangling Yashica repaired it on warranty. And then it took good footage.

Here's a link to your image, with a few markings: mamiya lens retaining ring.jpg The slots in the red circles are in the shutter's retaining ring. Use a spanner to unscrew the ring.

Don, I have two 2x3 Grafmatics, one busted (internal spring), the other OK, that I've never used. I shoot roll film with my little Graphics. The consensus, such as it is, on graflex.org and largeformatphotography.info/forum/ is that good ones are very useful.

Geoff, that device at the B mark is a flash cable adapter. It fits on the shutter's Kodak/ASA flash terminal, accepts a PC flash cable. Don, I have most of the standard issue normal lenses for Century Graphics. Don't ask. They are in Rapax/Graphex or Flash Supematic shutters. All the shutters have normal ordinary cable release sockets. I've seen some that have had screws in the cable release socket. If your shutter (what is it?) has a cable release socket with a screw, remove it and you'll be able to use a normal ordinary cable release to fire the shutter.

Cowboy, stopping down will reduce mechanical vignetting caused by the rear of the lens' barrel. Do the experiment. It does the same for the front of the lens' barrel. I just tried it. Do the same.

John Shaw is a good photographer but a poor teacher. Get Lefkowitz. Angel, Heather. 1987 (revised, originally published in 1983). Book of Close-Up Photography. Originally published by Ebury, London. Revised edition published by A. A. Knopf Inc. 168 pp. ISBN 0394532325. A much better book than John Shaw's Closeups In Nature. If nothing else, she uses and discusses more than Nikons. Angel does the John Shaw thing better than he does. Blaker, Alfred A. 1976. Field Photography. W. H. Freeman & Co. San Francisco, CA. 451 pp. ISBN 0-7167-0518-4. A deep discussion of all aspects of photography, with considerable emphasis on close-up. Discusses getting the magnification, lighting, and exposure. Weaker than Lefkowitz on working above 1:1, stronger on lighting, especially flash. Extensive bibliography. Bracegirdle, Brian. 1995. Scientific PhotoMACROgraphy. Bios Scientific Publishers. Oxford. 105 pp. ISBN 1 872748 49 X. A terse drier updated version of Lefkowitz. Very useful bibliography, unfortunately scattered into small sections after most chapters. Gibson, H. Lou. Close-Up Photography and Photomacrography. 1970. Publication N- 16. Eastman Kodak Co. Rochester, NY. 98+95+6 pp. The two sections were published separately as Kodak Publications N-12A and N-12B respectively. Republished in 1977 with changes and without the 6 page analytic supplement, which was published separately as Kodak Publication N-15. 1977 edition is ISBN 0-87985-206-2. Gibson is very strong on lighting, exposure, and on what can and cannot be accomplished. His books, although relatively weak on getting the magnification with lenses made for modern SLR cameras, provide a very useful foundation for thinking about working at magnifications above 1:10 and especially above 1:1. Extensive bibliography. Lefkowitz, Lester. 1979. The Manual of Close-Up Photography. Amphoto. Garden City, NY. 272 pp. ISBN 0-8174-2456-3 (hardbound) and 0-8174-2130-0 (softbound). A thorough discussion of getting the magnification, lighting, and exposure. Especially good on working above 1:1. Extensive bibliography.

What is this silliness? The distance between a lens' rear node and the film plane when the lens is focused at infinity is the focal length. This is true regardless is the size of the sensitized surface behind the lens. The distance between a lens' rear node and the film plane when the lens is focused at a closer distance is also invariant with respect to the size of the sensitized surface.

Niels, the ES-1 doesn't come with a holder for a roll of negatives. The PS-4, which attaches to the PB-4 bellows and I don't know which others, does.

I recently got a used D810, have used it for digitizing slides with the ES-1 I bought years ago at a camera show for $5 and with the PB-4 + PS-4 I bought new in 1970. The ES-1 telescopes and setting it at 1:1 with a 55/2.8 MicroNikkor AIS is easy -- just mount the lens on its PK-27 on the camera, dial in 1:2, attach the ES-1, pull the tube all the way out -- but making the slide perfectly level isn't easy. Setting the bellows to get 1:1 with the lens on an E-2 is more difficult but the slide is automatically leveled. OP, look into getting a bellows and slide holder.

Not the best idea. C-41 films like Kodak Gold, for that matter all negative films, have considerable exposure latitude. If you're going to pretend to test, you should use a narrow latitude reversal film. Try an ISO 100 E-6 film.

OP, do you have the manual? Have you read it?

I don't see why not. Whether you'll like to use it with a 75 is another question. If you haven't bought an SG yet, think about other field cameras that are easier to use.

The only difference between the Super Graphic and Super Speed Graphic is the shutter the standard issue normal lens is in. The bodies are the same. The Super Graphic (SSG too if you don't understand "the bodies are the same") is hostile to short lenses. This because the inner and outer bed rails are not linked. Focusing a lens that makes infinity with the standard on the inner bed rails isn't easy. See http://www.bnphoto.org/bnphoto/LFN/CamProf_SuperGraphic.htm If you want a Graphic (not Graflex, in Graflex-speak Graflex means SLR) that works well with w/a lenses get a Pacemaker Crown Graphic. Pacemaker Graphics (Speed with focal plane shutter, Crown with a thinner body and no fps) have linked inner and outer bed rails. That said, Charles Monday, who posts elsewhere as Shutterfinger, once told me that the SG's minimum extension is 41.9 mm. If he's right this is usefully shorter than the 4x5 Crown Graphic's 52.4 mm. All this may be moot. What short focal length(s) do you have in mind?

I now see that you're a member in good standing of the Humpty Dumpty school of lexicography.

View cameras have more movements, in particular nearly all monorails have full rear movements. For landscape, where minimal movements are usually the case, a proper view camera is overkill. It is true that some technical cameras have backs that can be pulled away from the body and wiggled around, this feature isn't a real substitute for independent decentering movements, tilt and swing. I'll say it again. You had a lapse and typed what you probably didn't mean.