One more reason to love the 240 G Claron!

OK. I'm not the sharpest tool on the bench, but I was fooling around with the 8x10 'dorff just now, trying to wind down after a long drive home from San Rafael. I've been trying to see how basic I can get my 8x10 kit for a hike I'm planning thats going to be tight. Literally tight---a very narrow and rocky trail overgrown with brush. I've got to fit my kit into the smallest, lightest package possible. Now I've heard of people reversing lensboards to carry thier lens/shutter inside a field camera, but I never tried to do that with my big Ektars---I'm pretty sure that would be courting disaster---but like I said, this mission demands small and light and my two smallest and lightest 8x10 lenses are the 159mm Wolly and the 240 G Claron. Since I expect that I'll need a good image circle for movements the 240 will be my weapon of choice. As an experiment, I fitted the lensboard in reversed and gently closed the ol' Gal up. Gadzooks! It fits!

Hey, The 240 G Claron works on the 4x5, the 5x7, the 8x10 as a taking lens. I can use it as an 8x10 enlarging lens and now I learned that it will ride around nicely in the bowels of the 'dorff rather than taking up space in the pack.

Isn't that a kick? I've had this lens for well over two years and didn't know it could be carried this way!

Many of you probably already knew this, but I wanted to share my personal discovery with the rest of you, especially those looking for a first lens that they can get a lot of mileage out of. Jim Galli deserves a special thanks for getting me interested in G-Clarons through his many comments about what 'sleepers' they are (even thought this particular example came from Dagor 77)

Cheers!

Hi John,

You are right about the G-Clarons. I have the 270 and use it often on my 4x5. Hope your hike is a grand success!

i have the 305 and love it in 4x5... so much so that it replaced my fuji 300-C.

Actually, this will work with any lens that has a fairly thin rear element that doesn't protrude much beyond the back of the lensboard. Like the Dagors and Artars and other similar process lens. To me, it's one more reason to love the Deardorff!

It's my main lens for 4x5. It fits inside my Wehman 8x10 folded up (reverse the lens board). It's the cheapest new lens I've bought. AND it doubles as a macro.

I'm so happy with it that I bought the 355mm, which is way too big, in a Copal #3, I rarely use it since I figured out how to over-extend the Walker to accommodate the Fuji 450mm.

G-Clarons are really great. I used to have the 270, and currently I have the 240 and 305.