will my lens work or do I need another?

[jessicadittmer]

I've had an 8x10 camera a few years and I'm just now getting the courage to try it. It's old and wooden and unmarked (but there is a 25 on the bottom of it) Anyway, I had bought at one time an ilex shutter no. 5 for it and then a 480mm rodenstock lens (says 19in. apo-ronar on it as well). So this is the first time I've put it all together and tried to focus and I can only focus at quite a distance out. I'm more of a portrait girl but I do the occasional landscape type work. I'm wondering if I need another (wider?) lens for portrait work? I do work of hands, faces, full body type portrait. I'm very new to this so I'm researching things online as well - about focusing and things but I'm a bit lost still.
Thanks for any help you can offer.

[Kevin Crisp]

Extend the bellows all the way out, then measure from the back standard to the front and tell us the measurement.

[Louis Pacilla]

If your focusing at Portrait distance w/ a 19" lens you'll need somewhere between 25" to 30" of bellows draw. You'll need less for 3/4 portrait and more for a head and shoulder Portrait. There is a formula to figure this out but this is a approximation.

From the sounds of it your Bellows are to short for your 19" lens at Portrait distance. However It could be that you have a camera with ample bellows (like a Kodak 2d) but your missing the extension rail. This rail is critical if you wish to use all the bellows this type of camera has to offer.

[Mark Sawyer]

Better yet, put the lens on the camera, run the bellows all the way out, and see how close it focuses. It all depends on how far you can extend the bellows; the farther out they go, the closer you can focus.

And yes, you need more lenses. Lots and lots of them!

[Leigh]

Hi Jessica,

Some basic lens info...
To focus at infinity the distance from the front of the film to the front of the lensboard must equal the focal length of the lens (19" in this case).

As you focus on closer subjects, the lens moves away from the film, meaning that the camera bellows must get longer.

The maximum length of the bellows (the bellows "draw") determines the closest distance at which you can focus.

Your 19" (483mm) lens is probably too long for what you want to do.

A "normal" lens for an 8x10 camera would be around 300mm (roughly 12").
For portraiture you might want something slightly longer, but it's not terribly critical.

Regarding choice of focal length, using portraiture as an example...
Different focal lengths will make the face look different. Shorter focal lengths will make it look more three-dimensional,
with the nose appearing perhaps larger than life, and the skull receding. Longer focal lengths will flatten the entire visage.

Your APO-Ronar is a very high quality process lens.
That means it was designed for photographic reproduction work using a very large and precise camera.
It's a nice lens, but would not be my first choice for your type of work.

My 8x10 lens kit includes the following Nikkor W lenses:
240mm f/5.6
300mm f/5.6
360mm f/6.5 (yep, not 5.6)
and a Nikkor M 450 f/9.

Of those I would probably use the 360mm for portraiture (which I don't do).

The shortest lens in my database that works well with 8x10 is the Nikkor SW 150mm f/8. There may be shorter ones.

There are/were four major lens makes:
Fujinon (made by Fujifilm I think, no longer in production)
Nikkor (made by Nikon, no longer in production)
Rodenstock
Schneider
I don't think you'll find a "bad" lens from any of them, although some are better than others, and some are "classics".

If you change lenses you may need a new lens board. Your Ilex #5 uses a larger
mounting hole than modern 8x10 lenses in Copal #3 shutters, like those I listed.

Anyhow, you'll get lots of differing opinions on this subject. Hope you find the info you need.

Enjoy the camera.

- Leigh

[Mark Woods]

Hello Jessica, welcome to LF. I'm sure you'll have fun with it, as we all do. I use a 12" lens most of the time; for people and landscapes and still lifes. That is a 305mm lens. A lens around 300mm seems pretty ideal for me. When you work closer, on your hands for example, you won't have a bellows draw as large as you would with a longer lens. The lens I use most often is a Turner-Reich triple convertible: 12" 21" 28". I don't use the 21" if I can avoid it, but I use the 12" most of the time. I occasionally use the 28". Also, the lens is un-coated and I really like the look I get with it. Don't worry about the courage aspect, you can always expose another neg. ;-)

[jessicadittmer]

looks like it goes only to 18 1/2" max to the front from the very back.

[jessicadittmer]

Thanks for all this great information. I had no idea what I was doing when I bought the lens but I'll now look for a better one for what I need. This place is wonderful so far I'm learning a lot and look forward to updating as my journey continues LOL. Okay, now to search for a better lens..... and lens board? gosh....yikes! LOL

[benrains]

Given the 18.5" draw of your camera's bellows, my recommendation would be a to get a 300mm (12") focal length lens. You should be able to find a modern one in a good shutter for not too much money. The 300mm should be enough to get you started, and from there you can figure out whether you also need something wider or perhaps something longer. (My own favorite focal length lenses are 240mm for landscape work and 360mm for portraits, but that's my personal preference.)

[Tim Meisburger]

Yes, then your lens is too big. Your 19 inch lens focuses infinity (i.e. far away) at 19 inches. To focus closer than that you, counter-intuitively, need to extend the lens farther from the back. That is a pretty short bellows for an 8x10, so it is likely you are missing an extension rail, if the bellows at full extension look like they could expand further if the rail were longer.

Extension rails can be hard to find, but with the camera you have you can do a lot, you just need a lens with a shorter focal length; like 12" (300mm) or less. Someone here will sell you an appropriate lens (one that hass a big enough image circle to cover 8x10), I think, or at least point you in the right direction on ebay.

Cheers