Lens Recommendation for a Handheld 4x5 Camera

[Kirk Fry]

"I will use the camera mostly for portrait in natural light." Seems to me something a bit longer might be in order, say in the 200mm ish range. An old, fast tessar of some sort.
KFry

[Hugo Zhang]

JRFrench,

I think I will get a 135mm f4.7 Raptar as I have used a convertible Raptar for my 8x10 and was so impressed with the lens. It's cheap fun.

There are more pictures of this hand held camera from this link.

http://forum.xitek.com/showthread.ph...4&pagenumber=2

[JRFrench]

Sounds like a good plan Hugo, a 135 will be very nice for 'environmental portraits'.

Thats a very nice conversion of that camera, some nice milling on the aluminium holder. I am too using a polaroid folding camera as a doner for all the moving parts. I plan on using a Canon EOS lens mount on the front to allow me to bayonet mount all my lenses. Mounts will be 'borrowed' from extension tubes and adapters.

[joshdaskew]

Hi Hugo, Was wondering how much one of these might cost? I have been looking at a razzle but have been put off by the extremely long waiting times. As for the Littman, well fair to say his prices are ridiculous and he is definitely one beer short of a six pack! Cheers Josh

[eddie]

a 3.5 tessar or a 3.5 cooke.

the tessar may be a bit heavy so try the 4.5. i guess if you are going with 4.5 a heliar may be "better"

the cooke has no shutter.

[Mick Fagan]

I have a Razzle equipped with the little Fujinon - W f/6.3 150.

It's a superb lens, it will cover the format very well and with my particular camera, it allows me to accurately focus down to 1 metre for portraits.

I also have another one of these lenses on my Shen Hao.

These lenses are very cheap, very small and very good.

Mick.

[Hugo Zhang]

eddie,

I am not sure I can use barrel lenses on this little camera with a Packard or Galli shutter.

[Ralph Miyashiro]

To me , hand held portraits mean no GG or critical focus, so ultimate sharpness is not number one. Camera shake can still annoy, so long lenses are challenging. Speed is what I'd look for. Probably tessar design, pleasing wide open and inexpensive.
Ralph

[David de Gruyl]

To me , hand held portraits mean no GG or critical focus, so ultimate sharpness is not number one. Camera shake can still annoy, so long lenses are challenging. Speed is what I'd look for.

Speed leads to its own problems: you run out of depth of field in case you focus too quickly.

I prefer to shoot my crown at f/8.

What I would suggest is a grafmatic filmholder. Working ones are fantastic. Sublime, even. Of course, they are a bit temperamental and can stop working...especially if you are fairly violent with them (I am).

[Chris Dunham]

Performance in available light is the key to hand held 4x5. The best I've used so far is the Japan market Yashica-Yashinon 127mm 1:4.7 It is a fast enough lens and performs quite well wide open.

Chris.