Well it's time to start doing some lens shopping for my (new to me) Deardorff 8x10. The camera came with a 8.25" Red Dot in a Copal 1, but obviously that's not the best option for this camera.

Before I just break down and buy something online I thought that I should try to give our local camera shop some business. They have a few second hand LF lenses that have been sitting in the display case for quite a while so I suspect I can get a fairly good deal on them, and I try to support them when I can since they're the only "real" camera shop left down here.

Here's what they have:

1. Sinar Bron: Sinaron SE 240mm f5.6 in a Copal 3
2. Schneider-Kreuznech: Super Angulon 90mm f5.6 in a Compur
3. Rodenstock: Apo-Graphigon 240mm f11 no shutter
4. Fuji: Fujinon-W 180mm f5.8 in a Seiko Shutter (very interesting looking shutter)
5. Calumet: Caltar-S II 210mm f5.6 in a Copal 1

About 90% of my shooting is landscape. Since this is my first 8x10 I'm looking for a "normal" lens, although I'm sure I'll be adding more down the road so I'm not against starting with something wider than normal if it's a good deal.

It looks to me like the Sinaron SE is the only one of the lenses above which would qualify (I haven't been able to find any info on the Graphigon, however it seems a bit slower than I want to start out with). The lens reference that I have says the Sinaron SE has an image circle of 372mm which seems a bit small for an 8x10 and I'm worried that it would lead to a lot of vignetting when I was playing around with the movements, but as I said I'm new to 8x10 so maybe I'm wrong about that.

I would like to be able to use whatever 8x10 lenses I end up with on my 4x5, but I can't think of any reason that there would be any kind of issues with doing that.

Anyone have any thoughts on any of these lenses? I'd also be interested in hearing your thoughts on some of the smaller lenses for use on my 4x5 as the prices seemed to be fairly reasonable and I do need to pick up something wider than my current 210mm that I have for the 4x5 right now.

Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks,

John IV