tacocharly

im slightly perplexed as to why there are so many people that use

photo.net that are scientists in their own right, yet somhow it seems

that there is nobody assembling their own lenses, not even simple

tessars, or at least not talking about it. i became interested while

building an 8x10 view camera over my winter break from college, where

i am a failing physics major. i havent taken the right classes for

compound lens design yet, dont know if i ever will, but ordered a

textbook on classical and modern optics for 3 bucks off

bigwords.com. it should give walkthroughs of classical lens formulas

such as tessar's.

 

can it be that hard to do? there are tons of places online where i

can buy the elements so i dont have to grind them myself. has anyone

built a compound lens before? for any sized camera? know anyone who

has? know anything i dont know?

thanks

-ethan

well, this is about a year late, but i was shooting lots of paper negatives well before this thread was started, wuth an 8 by 10 camera i borrowed. i just scanned and uploaded them to the web a few days ago and was doing some research for an upcoming project with paper negatives. if its any help to anyone in the future, you can take a look at these, shot mostly on ilford miltigrade rc, or kodak polycontrast rc. http://ethan.sadmensclub.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=8x10granddaddy,ofpaperplates

i wish i had any skills whatsoever so i could help out. half of what i know comes from photo.net, the other probably from thinking about what i have read online while im in physics class or math class. i have avoided programming at all costs because i dont want to have the same job as my dad (unemployed programmer who walks around the house in his underwear), ha going into physics, wuess where that leads?!

anyway, i can do some simple tech support, dont mind fielding some emails explaining dummystuff, but i really dont hink im all that usefull, great technical knowledge of traditional photography, but the computer and i dont always get along.

i wish i were old enough to have a drivers liscence, driving your winnebego sounds like the best summer ever, but i cant drive so ill have to find something else interesting to do this summer.

anyway, i dont know what i can do here, but thanks for all that photo.net has done for me.