Kodak Ektar 127mm f/4.7 on 4x5 Prinzdorff

[rtsizemore]

I recently acquired a Kodak Ektar 127mm f/4.7 lens made in the USA. The lens is mounted in a No2 Kodak Supermatic shutter made by Kodak. The shutter is black in color and came off a old World War 2 Military Graphic Graflex camera.

I have a Prinzdorff 4x5. Before I go having a lensboard made/drilled, I'd appreciate any advice on either the lens or what I can expect from the photos. And yes, I've read about my camera being a 'knock off' of the Deardorff - but it's a great camera and takes great pictures with the 210mm lens I have .

Thanks

Tom

[Gene McCluney]

The 127mm Ektar is a fine lens, as are all the Ektar lenses. You can expect nice sharp photos. The 127mm doesn't give you much room for movements on 4x5 though, a little, but not extensive. The main thing to look for is sluggish shutter speeds on the old shutter, but the shutters can be cleaned and will normally work just fine. You may experience a bit less contrast with the old Ektar, if your normal taking lens is a modern multi-coated optic, but nothing you can't handle when making prints, or scanning. Just a little bit less contrast.

[Vick Vickery]

Tom, the 127mm Ektar was favored by press photographers using handheld 4x5 press cameras for fast shooting at intermediate to close distances; they typically did not object to a little softness or fall-off at the corners as they placed their newsworthy subjects in the center of the field and cropped as needed later. These lenses were originally designed as normal lenses on 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 cameras and just barely cover the 4x5 format, so you can expect little coverage with which to utilize your camera's movements.

[Vick Vickery]

Oh, by the way...welcome to group therepy!

[Andrew]

I have a 127 ektar and I like it a lot

I haven't used much movement on the shots i've done with it; but then again I'm very tollerant of a bit of corner softness or vignetting compared to most people here and I probably wouldn't notice.

it's not a perfect test, but, you can always mount your lens on a piece of cardboard cut to lens board dimensions and see what kind of image you're getting on the ground glass as you introduce some movement...

[rtsizemore]

I very much appreciate the comments! I think I'll spring for the lensboard

[Mark Sampson]

When I started in 4x5, I took a 127 Ektar off a 3x4 Speed Graphic and used it as my primary lens for 5 or 6 years. Eventually I replaced it with a 135/6.3 Wide Field Ektar but that 127 was the all-time bargain. Search around for the Kodak press-on filter adapter so you can use Series 6 filters and a lens hood.

[rtsizemore]

Excellent advice, Mark - Thanks!! The lens I'm using now is a Compur3 Voighlander Braunschweig F/4.5 21cm. The lens is like new and works very, very nicely. I picked up the Ektar 127/4.7 in an effort to get a wider landscape view (and the lens was relatively inexpensive).

Tom

[monkeymon]

I actually really like to corner softness, i would like to know if there is alternative lenses that would give me the kind of softness ektar 127mm gives.. but more of it.

Here is a image i made with 127mm ektar, used movements and it resulted in really soft corners on the left side of the image. This was shot at f8.



So, i'm thinking would something like 120mm tessar formula lens give me more of this? Still keeping the center part really sharp. So i could get image like this, with both sides equally soft. It would really be a nice "alice in wonderland" kind of a lens

This is truly a great lens, if you don't use much movements. But compared to older symmar/componon it's not as sharp.

[John Kasaian]

Old Wollensak Velostigmats, 162 mm-ish, when shot at wider apertures will give you nice soft photos.