Two23
25-Apr-2019, 15:11
I have a nicely restored Gundlach Korona 5x7. I've been shooting it with vintage 1910 lenses and sometimes medium sized Petzvals (FL= 6-8 inch.) This works well. I also have some bigger early lenses I've had mounted on Korona boards such as a FL= 12 in. Voigtlander Petzval. The thing looks huge on this camera! I'm itching to use it. :) With the smaller barrel lenses i've been placing an ND filter over the front element to slow exposure time down to 1s and this works great. The big Petzval has a front element about 3.5 to 4 inches in diameter, so my 62mm ND aren't going to work. I also have a Packard shutter that I can install inside the front standard to give me 1/30s (using Lane plates ISO 2), but I got to looking at it and the opening on that is only 2 inches! Rear element of the Petzval is about 3.75 inches, so I'm losing a lot of light here. My other lenses have smaller diameter rear elements--close enough I think.
So, what advice can you give? I might find a 10 stop ND big enough to cover the front element and small enough to fit inside the hood, and I could keep using the black t-shutter over the lens as a shutter. Or I could install the Packard and see how it does (although I think I'll lose that wide open softness.) Or, I could maybe only shoot wet plate with that big Petzval, although that will dramatically increase the involvement per outing! (And I haven't started wet plate yet.) I'm not aware of any T-P rollerblinds that would work here. I did have a thought of getting some resin ND filters and cutting them to fit into the Waterhouse slot, but I'm not sure what effect that would have on the image. (I do have an f8 and f16 stop for the lens.) Eventually I'd like to move to something like a Kodak 2D with 8x10 & 5x7 back which would allow for a bigger Packard (I would think.) Not in a hurry to do that within the next six months though. Any thoughts from those of you who've been using bigger lenses? I'm leaning towards a solution using ND filters. The camera and big pre-Civil War lenses I have are too cool to not be using.:)
Kent in SD
So, what advice can you give? I might find a 10 stop ND big enough to cover the front element and small enough to fit inside the hood, and I could keep using the black t-shutter over the lens as a shutter. Or I could install the Packard and see how it does (although I think I'll lose that wide open softness.) Or, I could maybe only shoot wet plate with that big Petzval, although that will dramatically increase the involvement per outing! (And I haven't started wet plate yet.) I'm not aware of any T-P rollerblinds that would work here. I did have a thought of getting some resin ND filters and cutting them to fit into the Waterhouse slot, but I'm not sure what effect that would have on the image. (I do have an f8 and f16 stop for the lens.) Eventually I'd like to move to something like a Kodak 2D with 8x10 & 5x7 back which would allow for a bigger Packard (I would think.) Not in a hurry to do that within the next six months though. Any thoughts from those of you who've been using bigger lenses? I'm leaning towards a solution using ND filters. The camera and big pre-Civil War lenses I have are too cool to not be using.:)
Kent in SD