Ah, so it is a conversion back from Wisner.......not to start beating the dead horse again, but there are plenty of stories about the lack of quality control from Wisner's made to order cameras and conversions.
So I dont know what to tell you, I have the same lens and it covers 12x20 with 2 inches of rise and fall wide open. at f/32 it is sharp corner to corner. I dont care what Wisner says, the lens does cover 12x20 and it should cover 8x20 with plenty of rise and fall.
The only other thing I can think about, given that this is a Wisner conversion back is that the ground glass is seated incorrectly or the back where the GG rests was not build to specs, which would not surprise me about Wisner, or you have not installed the back correctly, either way I am leaning more towards a camera problem than a lens problem, if your lens has all the spacing rings inside the shutter then it should not be the problem unless someone took apart the cells and messed with the elements, which I highly doubt. As the sayign goes, when you hear hoves thinks horses not zebras.
Do this, just to test the lens. In a dark or semi dark room hang a piece 20x24 white mat board on the wall facing a window. Remove the back and the bellows from the camera and with the lens mounted on the front standard focus the image from the window on the white board. Examine the image, you should be able to tell without a loupe if the image is soft at the corners. If it is not, then the problems is with the camera back, if it is then the problem is with the lens. Other than mounting the lens on another camera of the same size, this is the only way I can think of testing your lens on your own.
Good luck ......
Bookmarks