Wider than 90mm w/ movements for 4x5, low light.

[Kodachrome25]

Ah, right, I had it reversed. There are a couple of 67mm .6 filters out there but that is 2 stops vs 1.5 so that would have me likely doing the same thing, correcting for reverse fall off.

We'll see if this is all moot anyway, I might be shooting my Hasselblad system for all I know due to the environment / hustle factor. I meet the quarry GM for a drink and game plan in a couple hours.

Burn the center. It would be a progressive burn toward the center, so basically you'd do it with a hole in a burning card which you'd raise/lower gradually during the exposure.

Another option (more work up front but easier later) is to make mask negatives that do the progressive burn for you when printed together with the image negative. Basically the mask negatives look like reverse center filters (ie less density toward the center).

In either case all you're doing is the same thing the center filter does, but during printing instead of during negative exposure. Not as simple as a center filter, but it works - as long as you give the original negative enough exposure (ie essentially the exposure you'd have given with a center filter on).

Just throwing out some B&W options as work-arounds for short focal length falloff in the event you can't get the right center filter, or don't want to spend the $.

[Richard Wasserman]

You have your equipment choices well in hand, I have nothing to offer there. I just want to say that this sounds like a very fun assignment. I hope we'll be able to see some of the photos when you're done.

[Michael R]

Ah, right, I had it reversed. There are a couple of 67mm .6 filters out there but that is 2 stops vs 1.5 so that would have me likely doing the same thing, correcting for reverse fall off.

We'll see if this is all moot anyway, I might be shooting my Hasselblad system for all I know due to the environment / hustle factor. I meet the quarry GM for a drink and game plan in a couple hours.

I should just clarify my previous post a little. Note that the graduated burn is obviously not necessarily toward the center of the image, but toward the image area that corresponds to wherever the center of the image circle was when taking the photo. It's the center of the image if there were no movements used. If movements were used, the center of the lens image circle is displaced from the center of the film. In that case, the masks I mentioned are of less use (or are more complicated to make).

Just wanted to fix that omission in my previous post. Apologies for the confusion.

[Kodachrome25]

You have your equipment choices well in hand, I have nothing to offer there. I just want to say that this sounds like a very fun assignment. I hope we'll be able to see some of the photos when you're done.

Well I just ran some test film from the 75 Nikkor and some 35mm and 120 from the first day at the Quarry, all looks good. I take the 4x5 into action on Saturday, should be a good time!

[Richard Wasserman]

Sounds good Daniel—I hope you have a great time on Saturday!

[senderoaburrido]

For focusing issues, even in pitch black, I always use this trick:
Bring a good bike light, or flashlight (something that packs serious lumens), shine it against whatever is your principal focus. This should give you enough illumination through the ground glass.

[tgtaylor]

The Rodenstock 75mm f4.5 Grandagon is a good lens with a 105° field of view and IC of 190mm @ f22. Very small and highly compact. I used it to shoot the interior of a mausalium (sp) in ambient lighting and did not notice any fall off without a center filtethomad