Will an old chrome Symmar 5.6/150 cover 5x7?

[Struan Gray]

KEH has a 120 Angulon for a couple of hundred dollars. That's a pretty good price/performance ratio (assuming it's not out of wack). Even a G-claron and a shutter won't be much less than that.

I would say play about with jury-rigging what you have and seeing what the results look like. I found that - contrary to expectations and conventional wisdom - I gravitated to longer and longer lenses as I went up in format. Bodging about with a range of sub-optimal lenses helped me decide what I actually wanted (and confirmed that I wasn't interested enough in the flarey olde worlde aesthetic to have brassies as my only options).

[Ian Greenhalgh]

I'll definitely do some playing around before I buy anything else. I picked up a beautiful Lancaster Instantograph in half plate with 4 book type double film holders, a quarterplate reducing back and a few other bits for less than half of what I;ve seen them go for on ebay, the lens with it is a primitive brass one, it all needs a thoroughly cleaning as it'sbeen sat in a local antiques shop for a long time and is a mass of dust, but it all works, bellows look rough but are free of holes.

I can definitely shoot with it with my Ilex Acuton 4.8/215, I'll have to make some lensboards for it and try the Symmar 5.6/150, all my other suitable lenses are in barrel, so unless I get a Sinar shutter or more likely a T-P roller shutter, I'll be stuck with the lens cap shutter idea. That might work to try a few barrel lenses out as I have 300 sheets of Agfa Brovira Speed in 5x7 and given the late 80s vintage of the paper, I reckon I'll get no more than ISO 1 out of it. I also have 250 sheets of Agfa graphics arts film in 5x7 and that is slow, ISO 3-6 so even that could work with a lens cap I suppose.

[Kevin Crisp]

Scanning negatives is not my strong suit but....

this is a scan of a 5X7 Negative, using 2" of rise on a 150 G claron. This is the most rise I've used. It is sharp to the corners at f:32. Given that I was down a bluff and across a dirt road there was just no option other than pressing the lens to this extreme.
.

[Ian Greenhalgh]

Cheers Kevin, that's very useful to see. I'll have to see if front mounting my APO-Gerogon 9/150 on a Copal press #1 without aperture will work or if it vignettes. If that doesn't work, I'll have to find a G-Claron 9/150.

[Kevin Crisp]

Generally speaking, front mounting anything doesn't help coverage.

Kind of like hoping for great peripheral vision when looking at the world through a toilet paper tube.

[Ian Greenhalgh]

Yeah, that's my concern, I doubt it will work, but I can only try as I have all the necessary bits to try.

[Larry H-L]

For small and light and semi-wide on 5x7, I've had good luck with: 120mm Angulon, 135mm WF Ektar, 150mm G-Claron, 150mm Computar/Kowa/Kyvytar, 165mm Angulon, 180mm Fuji-A.

[Struan Gray]

Ian, before you start manufacturing hardware it will be worth trying your shutter in front of and behind each lens. Even if the lens design is symmetrical, the barrel design and positioning of field stops and filter rings often is not. It is possible that even if you get vignetting with the shutter on the back, it will work well enough at taking apertures on the front.

[Ian Greenhalgh]

Cheers Larry, exactly the sort of recommendations I need.

Hi Struan. I'm not going to do any metal bashing, just some playing around with tape and hot melt glue, purely temporary solutions, just to try things out. If I really like the APO-Gerogon I can have it properly mounted to the front or in a #1, I have a friend who can do such work for a mere fraction of the cost of most repair shops, he's retired but happy to take on some small jobs for me.

[Carsten Wolff]

I settled on a nice copy of the Wollensak 108mm f6.8 W.A. Raptar (vs f9.5 vs f12.5 ExWA , W.A. Velostigmats and respective WA Raptars), after owning a fair bit of other vintage glass in that FL over the years. I found that quality varies greatly between copies of lenses and making a recommendation of one model over another is pretty futile. At one stage had e.g. a half-decent Goerz W.A. Dagor and two tiny Cooke VIIb, but sold them all on, since people like paying silly money for the Dagor and Cooke names. Very happy with the Wolly though for what it is (IC about 235mm); At f22 its great. Comes generally in Betax shutters, or barrels; I changed mine over into an Alphax Synchro. As with much other vintage glass, filter sizes can be push-on annoyances, but I standardised it to 52mm via a machined adapter. It is perhaps my 2nd favourite travel lens up to 5x7". Although not quite as nice as e.g. my 135mm Fujinon-W, the 108, 159, 254 (and 380)mm line-up suits me in 5x7" (I do color and b/w). Happy hunting.