Really wide lenses - examples?

[Ed Richards]

My "normal" lens for 4x5 is a 90mm, in that I use it about 80% of the time. When I shot 35mm, I really liked using a 17, which is about 55mm for 4x5. Can any post an image or two with a really wide lens - 47/55/58? Do these support any movements, or would they would as well on a Fotoman? If I get one, I will need a cheap camera to go with it, since I cannot use it on my Technika.

[Helen Bach]

I've just posted a picture taken with a 55 mm Apo-Grandagon with some rise in the 'how about a picture post?' thread, and here is a link to it.

Best,
Helen

[Jack Flesher]

Here is one I took about 6 years ago with a 58XL. I am about 14 inches from that rock and it is about 14 inches in diameter:

[Capocheny]

Jack,

What a great image!

Cheers

[Ron Marshall]

Do these support any movements, or would they would as well on a Fotoman? If I get one, I will need a cheap camera to go with it, since I cannot use it on my Technika.

Ed, Here are the movements possible with modern lenses:

http://www.largeformatphotography.in...s/LF4x5in.html

[David A. Goldfarb]

Here's one I've posted before, Berthiot 120mm/f:14 Perigraphe on 8x10"--



If you are an APUG subscriber (if not, I think you only can see a thumbnail), here's one with a 55mm/f:4.5 Apo-Grandagon on 4x5"--

http://www.apug.org/gallery/showphot...=500&ppuser=60

And here's another with an older 65mm/f:8 Super-Angulon--

http://www.apug.org/gallery/showphot...=500&ppuser=60

[Ed Richards]

Ron,

Thanks! I had missed that. I can visulize what 9mm of rise will do, but is 9 degrees of tilt useful? It is not a lot, but then I guess with a 58, it does not need to be a lot. Jack, did you use tilt? Bet these are REALLY sensitive to not having the camera aligned exactly.

David and others,

Are you using center filters?

[Jack Flesher]

Jack, did you use tilt? Bet these are REALLY sensitive to not having the camera aligned exactly.

My shot has a few degrees of both tilt and swing as well as a few mm of shift and rise. I was jammed in-between the black rock and the wall of rock and the only way to get the composition was using all of the movements. If you look closely, you can see the wall on the far left is a tad soft; impossible to get it all sharp in this kind of composition, so decisions about what el;ements stay sharp need to be made.

As for 9 degrees of tilt -- that is a HUGE amount of tilt on a short lens; the effects of tilt (and swing) on PoF are magnified as you go shorter in focal length.

Cheers,

[Henry Ambrose]

Excellent picture, Helen!

Ed, here is one with a 58 Schneider using about 3/4 inch of fall on the front and the center filter. I rarely use this lense without the CF. Here, I'm backed into the corner of an apartment bedroom. (Link)

I wouldn't worry about movements too much. Most cameras won't let you do much with a lens this short anyway and when stopped down it mostly does not matter. Exceptions might be Jack's picture with the rock at 14 inches from the camera.

[Jack Flesher]

I wouldn't worry about movements too much. Most cameras won't let you do much with a lens this short anyway and when stopped down it mostly does not matter. Exceptions might be Jack's picture with the rock at 14 inches from the camera.

Good point Henry and one that should be clarified. With these hyper wide lenses, there is very little additional image circele to play with -- usually only a few mm. In my black rock shot, since I was close to the main subject I had some additional bellows extension for the close focus on the rock. This in turn gave me some added image circle to work with (image circle is smallest at infinity focus) and allowed for more movement than normally available.

Here is a second example with the same lens from the same trip. In this one I did added a few degrees of tilt to span the log, but was further away and actually added some fall (rear rise) to "help" the image circle re-center on the frame. In this image I am about 4 feet above the base of the tree, the root ball is about 3 feet in diameter and I have the camera above and only slightly behind the roots, but angled down about 20 degrees (the tripod legs are just outside the frame):



Cheers,