Wide Angle Lens for Super Speed Graphic

[sheldon hambrick]

Id like some recommendations for a wide angle lens to use on a Super Speed Gra phic. Id like to have the equivalent of a 20 to 24mm on a 35mm camera. I can only spend around $500, so it will have to be a used lens. Im intending to use it for scenics. Thanks in advance.

[Britt Leckman]

Sheldon, I am making the asupmtion that you are speaking of a 4x5 Super Speed Graphic. T o get the equivalent of a 24mm lens in 4x5 you would need something like a 65mm Schneider Angulon or a Rodnstock Grandagon. However, with a Speed Graphic, or a ny "press camera" when a 65mm lens is focused to infinity you will get a portion of the camera's focusing bed in the picture. Even dropping the bed and using t he front rise movement to recenter the lens on axis will still not solve the pro blem. I have a friend who loves his 65mm lens and also uses a press camera his solution to the problem was chop off the front 3 inches of his focusing bed! Th is is pretty dramatic action which also limits his ability to focus on objects m uch closer than infinity. I would recomend that you look into a perhaps 90mm wid e angle lens which is equivalent to about a 28mm lens in 35mm. It's not as wide as the 65mm, but there are more of them available used, they give you move move ment, and you don't have to worry about light fall off to the edges of your imag e.

Best of Luck.....

[Wayne Firth]

I use a 65mm f/8 SA on a Graphic with excellent results. Just drop the bed, it works fine. However, It can also be used without dropping the bed by having the lens mounted above center on the lens board. I have one mounted this way and it works fine also. This lens will cost about $500.

[John Lehman]

I also use a 65mm SA on a Supergraphics; with the back in landscape (horizontal) it works fine with the bed dropped (minimal movements); with the back turned vertical (portrait format) a little of the bed shows. Since I use it mostly for landscapes, this is not a problem.

[fishfool]

're having a discussion on our board (http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/f75/camera-poll-102370-2.html) about what wide angle lenses are best to use for underwater photography with compacts, with regular cameras, doesn't matter. A lot of users there are you know, neophyte kind of photographers, most of the people using Canon and Nikon. Are there any products you think offer something to the aquarium enthusiast that maybe we just haven't had the exposure to? Does anyone have any specific experience? Of course, we have to take the lighting and water refraction into consideration, as well as the desire to capture the color in as most vivid a way as possible. Thanks.

[fishfool]

yknow what, i think i just better make a new thread, sorry about that