Lens shades on field cameras

[William Marderness]

I use my dark cloth to shade the lens.

[Stephen Vaughan]

Hi Paul, Robert White's in the UK sell a gadget called a 'Wiggly Worm' - a flexible 'arm' that can be attached to the front standard. A piece of card can then be attached at the other end. This allows you to flex the shade into the optimum position, without any danger of vignetting. Lee system is good, but in my case (86mm filter thread on a 240mm lens) no wide angle filter ring is available, and the standard ring causes vignetting minimum movements.

[paul owen]

Paul, Re: the "wiggly worm", I've got one but don't use it - nice idea but the weight of the "flag" pulls the arm down! A good idea would be similar to the flarebuster (Gran View I think) but instead of attaching the arm to a cold shoe or to the front standard, with the arm attached to a thin plate that sits between the camera bed and tripod head - nice and sturdy and would allow you to position the flag anywhere! Regards Paul

[scambug]

I use only wide-angle lenses on my Ebony SW45. I'm considering the Lee holder and screw-in adapter rings with the wide-angle compendium shade. If anyone uses this system I'd like to hear about it.

[Paul Coppin]

First off, thank you all for the many and varied responses - I see that one really is only limited by one's creativity here. To the last response ,Michael, the 35mm reference was to so-called wideangle screw-in shades offered for 35mm camera systems. I don't think I could get a 35mm LF lens in the Tachi (or be able to hold it up!). No, I have a variety of lenses from 90-240mm. The Tachihara does not have any attachment points (at least so defined) on the front standard. I did notice that Adorama has advertized(magazine)a compendium as an accessory, but its not on their web site. I have the Cokin system in A and P, but have found vignetting on my MF system to be problem at times and so assumed it would likely be worse on the LF. The Cokin X-pro might be better, if there is something in that kit. At any rate, you all have given me lots of alternatives, so thank you for that!

[Brian Ellis]

There is a common misconception about lens shades, which is why some people think that your hand or a dark slide or a hat or something else like that will work just as well. The time when you need a lens shade is not just when direct sun light is striking the lens (which is when your hand or a dark slide will work fine). When you really need a lens shade is when you're photographing in bright but diffused light. In that situation extraneous light is striking the lens from all sides and your hand or a dark slide or something like that won't work very well. You need a lens shade. I used the Lee system with a Tachihara and it worked well. The only thing I didn't like was the cost of the Lee polarizer - $150 or so.