4x5 field camera with good movement/coverage

[dan otranto]

Does anyone have a recomendation for a 4x5 field camera that has good coverage when using a wide angle (90mm-105mm) lenses? I use front and rear tilt quite a bit, and after using a shen hao with a 90mm, I realized that this field camera has almost no coverage when using anything other than miniscule movement because it vignettes. I assume the tachihara is quite similar? does something like a wisner have some better design for this combonation or am I going to be stuck lugging around a monorail if I want this?

thanks

[Steve Hamley]

Dan,

Which lens are you talking about?

Steve

[Alan Davenport]

Is the vignetting you get coming from the camera or from the lens? You don't say what lens you're using, and there are a lot of 90mm lenses out there that barely cover 4x5 even when stopped down. I use a Tachihara with a SA90/8 and I can use tons of movements.

[steve simmons]

Cameras don't have coverage, lenses do. Are you sure the problem is the camera?

Which 90mm lens are you using? How much are you tilting? Generally with wide lenses the ecessary amout of tilt is quite small - certainly les than 10 degrees and much of the time less than 5. One of the mistakes beginners make is using too much tilt.

steve simmons

www.viewcamera.com

[Steve Hamley]

Let's put this another way: if the vignetting is worse in the corners and is curved on the "inside" surfaces, you're looking at vignetting from a lack of lens coverage. Not camera/bellows vignetting.

Steve

[Gem Singer]

Hi Dan,

Cameras don't vignette, lenses do. Perhaps you are referring to your 90mm lens including the front edge of the focusing rack in the picture. If so, merely slide the back of the Shen Hao all the way forward, then focus with the front focusing knob.

If you are finding that the bellows is too stiff because it is tightly compressed, and it is limiting the movement of the lens, use the the interchangeable bag (wide angle) bellows with that focal length lens.

Other than those suggestions, it's difficult to figure out where your problem lies. I had no problem using an f8 90 on the 4X5 Shen Hao.

[dan otranto]

hmm, i dont know what kind of lens it is besides it being a 90mm. I dont know anything about 4x5 lenses really. Im looking to get probably a tachihara and would like to use a 90- whats a good (very sharp) lens that will cover well?

thanks

[dan otranto]

oh yeah, id like something kinda fast (like an 5.6, 9 is a bit slow ive found out)
i use the rear tilt for making stuff like table legs and buildings parallel, it seems easier than using rise/fall to do this

[Donald Hutton]

A Nikkor 90mm SW f1:8 will have more movement available than most field cameras provide and is a relatively cheap quality 90mm lens. However, for landscape photography (and I'm guessing thats where you are at, given your choice of camera is a wooden field camera) you could do just as well with a lens which offers less coverage - a Caltar 90mm f6.8 is a re-badged Rodenstock Grandagon and is excellent quality at a very good price point. It offers slightly less coverage than the Nikkor but is half a stop faster.

[MacGregor Anderson]

Just an aside. I managed to vignette with my camera just the other day. 300mm Nikon lens, vertical back orientation, lots of front fall. A straight line cut off the bottom 1/8 or so of three negatives.

I checked later by recreating the setup and by removing the ground glass plate. Sure enough, with that much fall (camera bed tilted down, base tilts and axis tilts getting the standards perpendicular to the ground) the bellows near the rear standard got in the way.

Why didn't I spot this on the ground glass? It was pretty darn dark out, EVs in the 3 to 6 range. Plus, I'm an idiot.

But it is possible. Harder to picture with wide angle though.

Mac