large format lens coverage.

[calbee]

question.

I'm interested in building a 5x7 foot camera. (not inches, I know it's crazy.) I know this can be done, I'm not saying it will be cheap or easy to build or shoot with. I have all the room and WS power I need and then some. (GO Speedotron!!!) Now all I need is a lens… I know pinhole would work for most applications, but I would like something a "little" faster. If anyone knows of a 3000mm lens with a 5x7 foot coverage let me know, some were built to shoot from B52's I believe, or maybe an email of a good lens builder who might be crazy enough to take me on as a client.

[Bill_1856]

Talk is cheap. Come back when you've successfully built an 8x10".

[calbee]

I have made 8x10's before, and an 11x14. I also assisted on building a really great 16x20 while in school. I was also a professional assistant for 10 years so photography is not a new hobby for me. Besides this monster will be more like a fixed focus closet with a lens on the end so construction will be about as hard as a closet, which I've done before and might add is quite easy. The lens on the other hand is the trouble. And your right talk is cheap so enless you know anything about lens design or construction why talk shit?

[Ralph Barker]

I guess the big question (in keeping with the camera) would be what do you intend to photograph, and at what distance? Although not an expert in the area, I suspect that most of the long focal-length lenses made for the military were of telephoto design, and covered much smaller formats - i.e. typical aerial camera sizes. In contrast, for your purposes a conventional lens design might be better, allowing you to take advantage of the relatively extreme extension. There are, for example, 24" and 36" Artars floating around occasionally that might work for you. Assuming, that is, you want to do extreme macro work.

[Tracy Storer]

Melles Griot has some long focal length meniscus lenses in the 2000mm and 4000mm range if I recall correctly, which might serve you well(and cheaply). I'm on the road right now and don't have their website bookmarked on my laptop. Keep us posted on your progress. Tracy

[calbee]

I had planned to do full lenght portraits at 1:1 hopefully.

[calbee]

Thanks Tracy, any help would be amazing.

[Bill Laidley]

Science World in Vancouver BC has (had? It has been a while since I last visited...) a view camera that must measure at least 8 foot by 10 foot. You walk inside to focus on an image projected onto a screen. I never looked, but I don't think it was designed for film holders... so presumably if one had wanted to actually take a picture on film or paper you would have to tape or pin it into place while standing in the dark.

There was a lens - really big - of less than stellar quality. Images would have been similar to some of Sally Mann's moody landscapes from the last ten years.

By the way, kids thought it was really, really cool to be inside a camera and look at the image on the back screen.

[John Kasaian]

There was an article awhile back in View Camera Magazine on Douglas Busch in the July/August 1990 issue that might help you out. Good Luck!

[John D Gerndt]

If you parameters allow perhaps you could have one made. A four element Guass wide angle or even a Protar (f18) might be possible. I see people make their own lenses for telescopes - there are sites on the web. A prototype machine shop could probably mount the glass if you could find someone to grind it and the specs to do it. I am guessing the Protar design might only be 6 inches across...that seems doable.

Cheers,