Gifted Items: Education Please

[dodphotography]

113390

A neighbor who's father passed away dropped these off to me, along with his entire darkroom and enlarger. That now makes two Omega Type II's and Besseler 4x5 that I paid 0 dollars for.

Anyway, what's the best use for these shutters? What's an ideal lens to use with these models, I have two on hand.

Thanks everyone.

[Jim Noel]

I would love to buy one of these from you to front mount ona lens I have.
Any chance? If so please contact me off line.

Jim

[dodphotography]

They made need a cleaning Jim. I'll have to see how "accurate" they are

[djdister]

They made need a cleaning Jim. I'll have to see how "accurate" they are

As Jim mentioned, a common usage would be to try front mounting a barrel lens on the shutter. That particular shutter looks exactly like the one my Wollensak Verito 9" lens is mounted in. Whether the shutters are completely accurate may not matter as much if they are at least consistent and functional.

That said, I would also love to try front mounting a 19" Apo Artar lens on a shutter like this, if the size is compatible. Like Jim, let me know if you would sell the other shutter.

Thanks.

[dodphotography]

Pretty damn snappy boys, they work fine. One is just a TAD cleaner than the other but they work on all speeds. This whole LF matching lenses and diameters and crap is a PITA. Now, to find a barrel lens. I have one I use for wet plate but it's just mounted with a flange and no shutter

[djdister]

Pretty damn snappy boys, they work fine. One is just a TAD cleaner than the other but they work on all speeds. This whole LF matching lenses and diameters and crap is a PITA. Now, to find a barrel lens. I have one I use for wet plate but it's just mounted with a flange and no shutter

Well, even better than front mounting is to separate the lens cells from the barrel and machine a sleeve to fit them on both sides of the shutter. If you look at the S.K. Grimes website, they describe the process very nicely. The price to do that though, as you might imagine, is not cheap.

[Jim Andrada]

The advantage to front mounting though is that you can use the same shutter with more than one barrel lens without disassembling the lens.

[Keith Fleming]

I have two of those Alphax shutters. One holds a 210mm f6.8Wide Field Graphic Raptar. The other came with two Protar VII cells, a 29 cm and a 35 cm. These Protar cells can be used independently on the rear of the shutter, but I was not comfortable with the front shutter blades exposed to dust while shooting. The shutter's inside diameter is about 45 mm, so I tried using a 45 to 52 mm step-up ring. Either the threads on the shutter differ from the commercial step-up ring or the threads don't extend far enough into the shutter. In any event, the commercial step-up ring kept falling out. I then had S. K. Grimes make a custom step-up ring, and that allowed me to use 52 mm filters and a Nikon lens hood on the front of the shutter. Then it occurred to me that I could use the adapter to put a Nikon 52 mm close-up filter on the rear of the shutter where it would act as a meniscus lens. That gave me a soft focus lens that sharpened as I stopped the shutter down. That left the front of the shutter exposed to the elements, so I asked Adam at S. K. Grimes to make me a second, identical adapter. The additional advantage is that I can now also put 2 Nikon #2 close-up filters on the shutter--one front and one rear--and I have the rough equivalent of a soft-focus Periscope lens. It sharpens up a bit as I stop down the shutter, but it never gets really sharp. The single close-up filter on the rear does sharpen up nicely at smaller f-stops.

My point is that you can do a lot of things with those shutters if you experiment a bit. I wound up with a couple of lens combinations lenses for the cost of 2 adapters. I already had everything else.

Keith

Keith