Describe your lens journey?

[John Kasaian]

How did you end up with the lenses you shoot for your chosen format? Can you remember the chronological history?
For me & 8x10:
My first lens was a 14" APO Artar in a dial set Compur from Stephen Shuart, who ran ads in the back of Shutterbug.
Steve Simmons mentions Artars favorably in Using The View Camera and it was the cheapest lens I could then find in a shutter that would cover 8x10.
It is a marvelous lens and shortly after I also discovered a mentor, a long time commercial photographer is strongly recommended a Commercial Ektar, being not only faster but having a monstrous image circle, either a 12" or a 14" I ended up with a 14" and for a long time that was what I used with no desire for anything else---having two 14" lens was like wearing a belt AND suspenders but it was a comfort to know that if one of the lenses had to go in for a cla I'd still be able to shoot.
Eventually though I needed something wider for subjects where I couldn't back up far enough to capture the whole enchilada. By that time I had read the Ansel Adams trilogy and 40 Photographs which favorably mentions the 10"/250mm WF Ektar. About the same time Schneider pulled the plug on the G Claron line and 240mm G Clarons were going for very little $$ while 10" WF Ektars were, well, culti$h. I figured to get both, replicating the redundancy I enjoyedd with my 14" lenses. The G Claron was affordable but I had to wait a few years before a WF Ektar I could afford became available, oddly enough on eBay and from none other than Dagor 77.
So I was at approx two focal lengths (14" & 250/240mm) and four lenses. This was the status quo for several years before the GAS took the reins once more.
I could have stopped there, but my interest in mountain photography soon brought a desire for something longer. Back to Simmons' Using The View Camera I determined that a 19" APO Artar, like Morley Baer used would enhance my capabilities. A very nice RD showed up in Canada on eBay and I was extraordinarily fortunate to win without blowing my budget, which I'd set quite realistically set for an older uncoated APO Artar version. Shortly after that Butch Welch offered me a great deal on an even wider lens than the 240 G Claron---a 159mm Wollensak EWA "yellow dot."
I long admired the 165 Super Angulon but they were out of my league financially as well as very likely being a Fatal tax on my camera's front standard weight-wise. So here was an even wider lens, not much slower (f9.5 for the Wolly vs f/8 for the SA) so I added it it to the fleet thinking in terms of architecture. As it turned out, for me the 250mm lens served my architectural vision better than the EWA (why the 250 WF and not the 240 G Claron? Because of the more than generous image circle on the WF) But the 159mm EWA became my table top lens since it didn't require running my camera's bellows out all the way into the next county.
Eventualy a 12" Dagor in a Compound shutter showed up, well, because it is a 12" Dagor and I've always heard such good things about them and I got a great deal on it.
One more lens, a 300 Nikon M came to live aboard a Gowland 810 Aerial camera. This represents an accumulation of 18 years worth of shuttered 8x10 lenses. It doesn't include any barrel lenses which I've bought and sold, scavenged or traded.

[Heroique]

How did you end up with the lenses you shoot for your chosen format? Can you remember the chronological history?

Not necessarily in order of love and affection:

1) Schneider XL 110mm/5.6
2) Schneider 150mm/9 g-claron
3) Fuji A 240mm/9

Call me impatient – I purchased all 3 at the same time, rather than one-at-a-time.

I remember I did a lot of research on technical specs (Kerry Thalmann's site was helpful) + practitioner comments (this forum was the best place). I've been pleased w/ this kit choice, as the three lenses have taken care of 98.3% of all my desired 4x5 landscape shots.

But to be honest, it wasn't my diligent research that made this kit useful to me. It was hitting the field and learning how to see the world through these lenses, and how to make use of the specs they happened to have. Any other sensible 3-lens kit, I'm certain, would have made me just as happy.

As for the "lost" 1.7% of my landscape shots, they were wider than the 110mm could handle. (Well, maybe a handful of shots when a 180mm lens would have been ideal.) But these are losses due to vision, not to gear.

My "journeys" – on a more literal level – have been longer in mileage due to the relatively light weight of these lenses, especially the 150mm g-claron during one-lens outings into the steep mountains of my region. Ounces do make a difference, not just physically but for the oft-forgotten psychological reasons. (Hikers who cut-off the handles of their tooth brushes and trim-off the edges of their paper maps understand this!)

These "journeys" would have been even longer had it not been for my beloved Ries tripod...

[Kirk Gittings]

I went by Fred Picker's recommendations if I remember right. In 4x5 bought a 210 then a 120, which served me well. When I got into commercial architectural photography I added a first a 90 then a 305, then a 150 and then a 65. When I changed over to shooting a lot of 6x9 I got a 47xl. Ultimately adding a 450 also. When I switched to digital for the commercial work and only my personal work was with film and VCs I got rid of the 47, 65, and 450. So now I just have the 90, 120, 150, 210, and 305.

[Luis-F-S]

Yup, My first two in 1985 were Fred Picker's recommendations of a 210 Symmar & a 120 SA to use with a 4x5 Wista. Used them for a few years then started replacing them with classic lenses. Replaced the Wista with a Zone VI/Wisner, then Deardorffs:

For 8x10/5x7 for personal work in modern shutters:
14" MC Schneider Kern Gold Dot Dagor in Compur in 1987 then
9.5" Golden Dagor in 1988 then
19" RD Artar in 1988 then
6.5" WA Dagor in 1988 then
24" RD Artar in 1988 then
3 5/8" WA Dagor in 1988 (gift) then
90 mm Angulon in 1989 then
6" Golden Dagor, in 1992 then
8 1/4" Dagor in 1992


For 4x5 all bought within a 2 year span around 1990 when I did architecture photography:
47 mm SA
58 mm XL SA
65 mm Grandagon
75 mm SW Nikkor
90 mm XL SA
115 mm Grandagon
180 mm Apo-Symar

More recently, replacing lenses I'd sold in the past, or came along as a good deal:
300 Sironar N
240 Sironar N
210 G Claron
150 Geronar (bought for the shutter)
4 3/8 WA Dagor
8 1/4 Golden Dagor
12" Dagor & 12" Golden Dagor

Probably forgot one or two, but this list is already embarassingly long. Bought and sold a few along the way, but this is what I currently have (I think).

[Nigel Smith]

I bought mine all (2nd hand) at once (90/135/210) with the camera (Zone VI 4x5). I use the 210 the most, then the 135 and rarely the 90. I bought a 90/8 (Fujinon) in anticipation of my Travelwide arriving, but looking at the size of it, might have got the wrong lens for that... I will see. I would like to add a (little) 300-360mm, probably prefer 360 rather than 300.

[Jason Greenberg Motamedi]

Each format and subject has its own story. For 5x7 landscapes...

I started with two G-Clarons in the 1980s, sold them and
I bought a four lens Goerz kit in the 1990s, sold them and
I bought a four lens Rodenstock kit in the 2000s, which I still have.

The Rodenstock lenses are excellent, but I shouldn't have sold the Goerz lenses.

Portrait lenses and speed lenses for alt processes are a much more complicated story.

[Jim Galli]

I could write a coffee table book. For me the lens journey is the journey. Most of the usual's have come and gone. In fact I'm down a bit of cash and was looking for something to sell, and there's nothing very replaceable left to sell these days.

[jnantz]

hi john

i got thr trifeckta early on (150/90/210 ) then its exwa cousin ,
but since i have a speedy i began early on finding oddball and useful
barrels ( tele ottar 15+10", enlarger lenses, old forgotten
and then worthless now with worth brassies, home made,
stuff harvested off junk cameras ( folders, boxes &c )
and then cheap pre-digi-days now well known ( then obscure )
portrait lenses since the fp shutter was willing to play.
like jim, its been a fun time ...

[Michael R]

My lens journey is pretty boring. The focal lengths are simply based on the way I shot with 35mm (which I used, and still use like a mini view camera) before I started 4x5. Initially, given budget limitations I bought a 150mm. I would have liked something wider for my first lens but couldn't afford one. Later on I added a 90mm. At some point after that I added a 72mm. Then a 110mm and eventually a 300mm. I still use them all and don't need anything else.

[Ken Lee]

How did you end up with the lenses you shoot for your chosen format?

Not exactly a chronology since the dimension of time is absent, but a description nevertheless: http://www.kenleegallery.com/html/lenses/