105mm / 270mm lens recommendations for Busch Pressman D

[pixelatedscraps]

Please bear with me, my LF knowledge could still be rated as 'mildly stupid' despite my best efforts to read through as many posts and tutorials as I could find.

As my first LF camera, I managed to snag a Busch Pressman D in very good condition for $165 off a kind member on RFF. It comes with a 135mm f/4.5 Steinheil-Munchen Culminar but I am looking for a 105mm and a 270mm to cover my two favorite focal lengths for landscape and portrait work.

I am still a bit unsure about what lens boards I need, along with which kind of shutters would work on the Pressman (Copal #0?). I do know that due to the length of the bellows, I would be hard pressed to use anything wider than a 90mm or anything longer than a 270mm.

If you could recommend a 105mm and a 270mm for roughly $200-$300 each, what would you recommend? (along with any other advice to correct what I might have misunderstood above)

Thanks!

[Jim Galli]

Both of your desired focals are uncommon in 4X5. So even though there are some lenses in those lengths, there aren't very many options.

105mm will have to be a Wide Angle type. Fuji made a good one. All the other mfr's congregated around 90mm lenses and there are tons of those to choose from.

270 is also a bit of an oddball. I can't think of a single one that would have qualities I would look for in a portrait lens. Also, anything with a nice wide aperture conducive to portraits will be pushing the max for your lens board size. A 210mm f4.5 Xenar in Compound shutter might please you. You're probably extrapolating these numbers from favorite sized in other formats, and may find the 4X5 more forgiving to portraits with shorter focals. For a head and bust the 210 will be near 270mm on the bellows in any case.

[Oren Grad]

105mm will have to be a Wide Angle type. Fuji made a good one.

FWIW, Fuji has offered both a wide angle (SW) and a wide-field plasmat (NW(S), CMW) in the 105mm focal length. The former is a big lens that may be a difficult fit to a Pressman. The latter should work, though its coverage doesn't leave much room for movement.

[pixelatedscraps]

I suppose with 4x5 cropping doesn't suffer as much of a degradation as it does on smaller formats. If 90 / 300mm lenses are more common, perhaps the wisest thing to do would be alter my expectations and look there.

Jim, not sure what you meant by this comment though: For a head and bust the 210 will be near 270mm on the bellows in any case.

If I was looking at 90mm / 300mm lenses, what would a good place to start on a budget? I will be shooting solely in B&W, if that makes a difference in LF.

[Chauncey Walden]

Although I had many lenses to choose from, my final kit for the Pressman I had consisted of a 90mm Angulon, a 135mm Culminar (or a 150mm Symmar-S, depending on how light I wanted to travel), and a 210mm Geronar. I was always quite comfortable with this assortment. An Angulon and a Geronar would both be within your stated budget. If you really think you need a longer lens, one of the 240mm teles might fit on the board and through the front standard and be reasonably priced.

[Jim Galli]

I suppose with 4x5 cropping doesn't suffer as much of a degradation as it does on smaller formats. If 90 / 300mm lenses are more common, perhaps the wisest thing to do would be alter my expectations and look there.

Jim, not sure what you meant by this comment though: For a head and bust the 210 will be near 270mm on the bellows in any case.

If I was looking at 90mm / 300mm lenses, what would a good place to start on a budget? I will be shooting solely in B&W, if that makes a difference in LF.

Look for a Caltar f6.8 90mm. They were made by Rodenstock and are superb. The 125mm Fujinon is also superb. My favorite in fact.

The closer you move to your subject with a bellows camera, the more bellows you need. It would be common to have moved the 210 out to 270 if you were a few feet away from your subject. I advise against a 300. You'll be forced to stay at infinity which won't get the job done for portraits. I'm sticking with my original 210 Xenar f4.5. Superb Bokeh and inexpensive. An older 4.5 wide open is what you want for portraits on 4X5. IMHO of course. Check out my web pages and you'll be thinking (dreaming) about petzval's.

[aduncanson]

The Busch is a great camera, beautifully made, but it comes with certain limitations that are a challenge when you try to make it perform much more than the press camera role it was designed for. These include limited bellows, non-removable back and a very small lens board and opening behind it where the bellows is attached to the front standard.

Busch Pressman lens boards are unique and a bit uncommon. They are not interchangeable with any other camera's boards (other than the re-branded Sears Tower camera.) You will have to be sharp-eyed to find them on ebay, but they do come up and I have heard of facsimiles sold there as well. You may find it easiest to find a machinist to make you a few.

The rear element of the Fuji SW 105mm will definitely not fit through the hole in the Busch front standard. I tried. Since the Busch back is not easily removable you don't have the option of installing the rear cell through the back either. As noted earlier, the Fuji 105mm W will fit but provides almost no movements on 4x5.

You might consider a 100mm Kodak Wide Field Ektar or a 105/6.3 Leitmeyr Weitwinkel or similar smaller wide angles from other defunct manufacturers.

The Busch only provides about 12 inches of bellows draw so you might look for a true telephoto design for any lens longer than about 240mm. True telephoto lenses will focus to infinity with bellows extension substantially less than their focal length. A Schneider 270mm Tele-Arton may fit on the Busch lens board. There is also a 270mm Rodenstock Rotelar. These tele designs may be just the lenses that Jim Galli described as unsuitable for portraits. However, what is suitable for portraiture is subjective. Jim holds a very distinctive ideal of portraiture, that, while broadly popular, is not an absolute. You may find a tele design fully satisfactory for portraiture. See this sample (http://www.flickr.com/photos/solo_wing_pixy/4991371033/in/photostream/) (not mine) for what a Tele-Arton can do.

Unfortunately I am afraid that you would be unable to fit the 210/4.5 Xenar's rear cell through the opening in the Busch without some fancy custom lens board or risky modification to the camera.

Look for lenses in no larger than a #1 shutter. Among non-telephoto designs, you may find a 210mm/6.1 Xenar or a 240/6.8 Rodenstock Ysarex or the same lens branded as a Caltar Type Y. (With the 240 you would be able to focus no closer than about 3 or 4 feet due to the limited bellows.)

Buy with care. Buy locally if you can so you might try, (or at least handle), before you buy, and insist on a right to return a lens if it does not work out for you.


Best of Luck - Alan

[E. von Hoegh]

I'll second the Tele Arton, provided it fits the lensboard. Portraits have been about 95% of the use of mine.

[Jim Galli]

Two exquisite portraits done with a 270mm Rotelar on this page here (http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?t=74425&page=12).

You might send that fellow an message and ask him what his lensboard to ground glass distance was at that distance from the subject.

Oops, only one done with the Rotelar, but it's the better one.

[pixelatedscraps]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, it's been really helpful. I think this has narrowed down my choices a lot. Most likely I'll be looking at one of the 210mm or the 270 tele-arton / rotelar.

I'll post again once I've found one on the cheap!

Thanks again :)

[aduncanson]

The 270mm/5.5 Schneider Tele-Xenar is another telephoto design, a little simpler and less expensive than the Tele-Arton.

[Bill_1856]

The 10' (250mm) Tele-Raptar is often on ebay, and is quite inexpensive. Mine perforns better than the 270mm Tele-Xenar. It works really well with the Pressman D.

[Christof]

The Fujinon L 5.6/210 is another option. Tessar type and one of the few 210 lenses, that fit on a Busch Pressman D.

[Steve Hamley]

Might look for a 250mm Fuji Soft focus if you can do a Copal #3 shutter. You might even get one in your price range.

Cheers, Steve

[Ari]

Keeping with the Fuji theme, an older Fujinon 210 W, with the lettering on the inside of the barrel will do great portrait duty.
Sharp, great at wide open apertures, and a Copal 1.
They are great lenses.