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Re: [APML] Large Format Question



Hello Shekhar:

I've included some replys to your questions:

Shekhar Borde wrote:

Craig,

>
> 1. The lenses for these cameras were generally meant to be stopped down
> to f/16. Some have nice large apertures for focusing but that's all
> they're good for. If your lucky you might get away with f/8.
>

f/8 is pretty fast for a large format lens (from what I know of them, which
is very little).  Is there a particular lens that you think would be pretty
good at f/8 w.r.t sharpness over the entire field and even illumination
out to the edge?  I have heard that LF lenses have a fairly steep light
falloff towards the edge if they are not stopped down to f/16 or more.
 

A nice lens design I've heard good things about is the old "Ektar" series, in particular the 135mm which if I remember correctly was an f/2.8 . And yes, the Large Format lenses have terrible vignetting until their stopped down
 
The other problem is flexure.  You can't really use bellows with this thing
can you?  Is there a fixed length extension tube (for lack of a better term)
that one can get use between the lensboard and film back?  It could be
the correct length so that the camera is approximately focused at infinity.
A helical focuser or something equivalent would then let you fine tune the
focus by a few mm on either side.
This is why I suggested the old Press Cameras because they were built to take a lot more punishment then even modern "Studio" view cameras
 
> 2. Unlike 35mm and medium format, the 4x5 film holders do not have a
> pressure plate to hold the film flat. The use of small f-stops helps to
> compensate for this.
>

I know Hutech (www.hutech.com) sells a large format (4x5) vacuum back
which is basically a modified Toyo or Horseman.  It's not cheap though.
I have noticed that there is a much larger market in Japan for these
things.

Jack Schmidling (http://user.mc.net/arf/cam.htm) sells a more affordable
version of a 4x5 vacuum back.
 

Sounds Interesting, I'll have to check it out, Thanks
 
Shekhar
 

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