Aviogon 15cm for 8x10?

[Jonthan Borden]

Has anyone been able to mount a Wild/Leica Aviogon 15cm/5.6 lens in a shutter fo r use in an 8x10 camera? Is this lens just too large to contemplate this?

[Chad Jarvis]

Maybe I'm missing something... wouldn't a 150mm f/5.6 lens only be about an inch or so in diameter?

[Jonthan Borden]

This lens is a Super Angulon type, designed in the 1960s for the Wild/Leica RC8 9x9" Aerial camera. It is linear to 10 microns across the field and resolution is in the range of 100 lpm at the edges. This sort of resolution is not easily obtained in 8x10, and needless to say this lens is not small nor lightweight. The front element is about 6" in diameter and the back about 4" though the center is much narrower (as one expects in this design). The RC8 metal lens cone is massive and very heavy (>100 lbs). If it is not possible to mount this lens in shutter for an 8x10 camera, I would like to avoid wrecking the lens cone mounting as this is valuable and useable for an aerial camera. The film cannister is itself interesting, having a vacuum back, but again not practicle for view camera use due to its weight.

[Chad Jarvis]

Pardon the pun, but that truly is a WILD lens. I don't know of any 8x10 camera with front standards strong enough to hold that lens. And I thought my four pound 300mm lens was heavy!