Poll: How many lenses in your 4x5 field kit?

[Maretzo]

Modern: 75/4.5 Grandagon; 90/8.0 Nikkor SW; 150/5.6 Sironar-N; G-Claron 210/9; 240/5.6 Nikkor;
Old: 90/6.3 Angulon; Leitmeyer 90/6.8; Zeiss Tessar 13.5cm/4.5; B&L 165/4.5; Kodak Ektar 7.5in/4.5; Zeiss Tessar 210/4.5;

In my bag, I usually take 75, 150, 210 and 240.

[Bill_1856]

The Staeble Polyplast casket set yields a 105, 135, 165, 195, and 220mm according to the combination of elements (all in a single tiny little Compound shutter). With my Nagaoka it's still less than 3 pounds!

[mrladewig]

I answered 3. That is all I'll take with to go into the field even though I have more lenses.

[Laurent]

Five and counting... I definitely miss something on the long side.
At the moment it's 75 SA, 90 SA, 120 Angulon, 150 Apo Symmar and 210 Xenar.
The 120 gets little use but is light and folds inside the Tachihara.

[Louie Powell]

Like many here, I started out in the 35mm format. When my first SLR died, I looked into the bag and found that I had a bunch of lenses that had no value (all screw-mount), so I made a conscious intention to be more reasonable about accumulating lenses for the replacement SLR. And I'm proud to say that I think I did reasonably well. But even so, the bag containing my 35mm kit is still awfully heavy!

So when I made the move to 4x5, I vowed to be even more frugal. I started out with one lens - 210mm. The sage advice I read iin Popular Photography (Ralph Hattersley, I believe) was that sneakers were less expensive than lenses - if the focal length wasn't right, just alk closer to the subject, or further away.

That worked extremely well for a few years, but eventually I found that the appeal of architectural interiors was forcing me to think wider. Fortunately, I found a 90mm super angulon (with a Caltar label) on evil-bay that met that need.

And that's going to be it unless and until I move to a different format. There's no room in the backpack for another lens.

[Mattg]

I wish I could have voted but I don't have a 4x5 field kit

The number of lenses that a lot of people own is astounding to someone who has one lens and one camera (partly because that's all I want to have to carry and partly because a new lens comes a little way down my current photo priorities list). Obviously people have taken many years to accumulate them.

How long does it take to become comfortable with the field of view of different lenses when composing a photo in your head? How does having a range of lenses available change the way you compose and place the camera?

[Nick_3536]

3 or 4.

A wide,150,210 and maybe the 450. My 300s are heavier then am I so I'm not hauling them for the 4x5 -)

[Ron Marshall]

I wish I could have voted but I don't have a 4x5 field kit

The number of lenses that a lot of people own is astounding to someone who has one lens and one camera (partly because that's all I want to have to carry and partly because a new lens comes a little way down my current photo priorities list). Obviously people have taken many years to accumulate them.

How long does it take to become comfortable with the field of view of different lenses when composing a photo in your head? How does having a range of lenses available change the way you compose and place the camera?

It took me a good year after starting LF to get a feel for the three focal lengths I had at the time. Of course it depends on how much one shoots. After three years I decided I preferred other focal lengths and rearranged my kit.

Having a few focal lengths available gives you more flexibility when choosing subject matter and reduces the number of times you have to move your tripod when composing.

But I strongly advise buying a 135 or a 150, no matter how cheap; with a large neg you will get good results. Then get out and shoot lots of film to get a feel for it.

Good luck!

[Laszlo]

75 and 90 (Calumet / Rodenstock)
135 (Rod Apo Sir S)
240 (Docter)

[Don Boyd]

75 Nikkor, 90 Fuji F/8, 120 Nikkor Macro, 150 Rodenstock Sironar-S (my favorite for its sharpness), 200 M Nikkor, 300 M Nikkor, 450 Fuji C. I use them all from time to time but will be selling the 120 Nikkor soon as I will be using a dslr for macro work.