any ul shooters out there have any experience using dagors? Iwould like to purchase one for my 11x14 but am confused as to which size will offer me good coverage with room for movements.Ido lots of closeups of old wooden buildings and some landscape. thanks
Robert:
I used a 9 1/2" Gold Dot Dagor regularly on 11x14 with generous movements. I also used an 8 1/4 Gold Dot on it, but it was pretty tight. Older, non-Gold Dots may give a bit more room to move, but you'll have no problem with using 9 1/2" or longer Dagors of any vintage.
If you want to move a little away from a Dagor, you can use a 210mm Angulon on 11x14 quite nicely. Good luck.
Mike
“You can’t have everything. Where would you put it?”
My 9 1/2" Dagor did not cover 1114. It was in the 250,xxx number range as I recall, so early. Burke & James catalog ads said they will but I couldn't make it happen. It gave a slight vignette. I have a 12" Dagor that can squeak around 8X20 so it would cover 1114 handsomely and I suspect the 10 3/4" would work well. Schneider G-Claron f9 305 is cheaper and better though IMHO.
A 12" Dagor should work quite well. If you want wider, consider the 10" Wide Field Ektar or the already mentioned 210mm Angulon.
For what it's worth, Goerz listed the 9 1/2" as covering 11 X 14 at f45. The 10 3/4" and the 12" also were shown as requiring apertures smaller than f16 to cover 11 X 14. It appears, though that there are individual variations which perhaps isn't too surprising for a lens made in different countries over such a long period of time. I think the brochure I am looking at is from 1954.
A 14-inch lens on 11x14 is a handsome perspective. If you can find one of the f/7.7 14" Dagors, it will have a ton of coverage for that format. Others have mentioned the 12-inch Dagor and I'll add my vote to that one as well. Mine is quite old (I believe it even still has the old US aperture) and in a brass barrel that looks like it resided for several years in the NYC sewer system. But it works great and has very generous coverage.
You mentioned "close-ups". Not sure how close you mean, but don't forget that with closer lens-subject distances coverage increases. In fact, if bellows length is a problem a shorter lens might be desirable for some circumstances. For general landscape use, a 12" or 14" will work very well.
Good luck!
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