Barrel lens

[jtomasella]

Is there any advantage to taking photos with a barrel lens (no shutter)? What would be a good brand to keep an eye out for?

[Dan Fromm]

Well, if you want really long exposures. Or poorly-timed short ones.

Brand? Leiss or Zeica.

Remember, NJ is the state of exits and abrasion.

[jtomasella]

You forgot all our tolls. I guess I was wondering if they gave the photos a different look.

[John Kasaian]

Is there any advantage to taking photos with a barrel lens (no shutter)? What would be a good brand to keep an eye out for?

The advantage? They don't cost an arm and a leg.
Off beat ones can bring interesting bokeh to the party.
What format do you want to cover?
Brand? You don't need no stinkin' brands
https://youtu.be/VqomZQMZQCQ

[Tin Can]

Barrel lenses are just normal lenses without a working shutter

so we do something else

maybe a hat,

so any lens with a broken shutter is now a Barrel lens

[Oren Grad]

I guess I was wondering if they gave the photos a different look.

Many LF lenses, including some modern ones, have been sold in both barrel and shutter. Those pairs could render differently under some circumstances if the barrel and shutter mountings have different iris designs.

But there's no "barrel look" in general, just a lot of lens-specific looks.

[Vaughn]

Some barrel lenses were designed for process cameras and may be optimized for close-ups, rather than landscape work -- or will work for both. For long lenses, I have Red Dot Artars (19" and 24") -- the Red Dot , I believe means they are coated and not designed solely for close-up work. They come in a variety of focal length. Their relatively narrow angle of view means they will not cover as well as modern plasmats of the same focal length. I use the 19" and 24" on both 8x10 and 11x14. This link has some good info on them.

https://www.pacificrimcamera.com/rl/00268/00268.pdf

[LabRat]

The biggest advantage is (sometimes) cost, but other challenges if you desire a shutter, iris with correct markings, sometimes proper spacing, other costs etc...

If needed for long, slow exposure work (like table top sets) or other applications where exposures can run over 1 sec, they are ready... But I'm working on a few lenses now that need assembly & some engineering, and it's coming up in my head that it would have been easier to just buy the lenses factory assembled...

Can be a money pit if you have to send it out to a pro like SK Grimes and find a shutter etc for it...

Steve K

[Oren Grad]

Some barrel lenses were designed for process cameras and may be optimized for close-ups, rather than landscape work -- or will work for both....

Actually, that reminds me... I'd have to dig to find documentation, but I remember being told that some process lenses - G-Clarons, perhaps Apo-Ronars - had slightly different cell spacing when sold in barrel vs shutter, based on manufacturer assumptions about different intended uses.

[Two23]

Is there any advantage to taking photos with a barrel lens (no shutter)? What would be a good brand to keep an eye out for?


I own about a dozen, all from the 19th Century. About the only advantage I can think of is they are cheaper. I use them to shoot wet plate so lack of a shutter is not a big deal.


Kent in SD

[John Layton]

One hand on shutter bulb...index finger on the other goes into the light socket - and...voila! 1/60th of a second! (USA 60 cycles AC). Would say that this works every time...but probably only once...:rolleyes:

[Bernice Loui]

Majority of normal to longer than normal focal length lenses are in barrel, used on a Sinar camera with Sinar shutter. Exceptions are the modern wide angle lenses. There are good reasons for this.

~Sinar shutter in good operating condition is remarkably speed consistent and reliable. This goes a long way to helping to keep exposures consistent with different lenses used.

~There are vintage lenses that are available in barrel only. Sinar shutter allows using these vintage lenses with consistent and predictable shutter speeds.

~If there is a preference to using lenses such as Kodak Ektar, Schneider Xenar, Voigtländer Heilar and similar. These lenses in barrel have a nice round iris which goes a ways to aid in out of focus rendition when used near their full aperture. Iris shape is of much lesser importance as the lens is stopped down to achieve the everything in image in focus goal. The advantages of a nice round iris is lost once these lenses are re-mounted into a modern shutter such as a Copal. Using these lenses in their original barrel with a Sinar shutter preserves their near full aperture out of focus rendition.

~Most excellent APO process lenses (APO artar, APO ronar, APO nikkor, APO skopar, Apo Saphir and...) work very, very good for longer than normal focal length lenses. The nice round iris used in these lenses with barrel are a bonus.

~If a modern plasmat or similar high contrast rendering lens is needed to meet print image goals, they can be had in Sinar DB or Sinar DBM mount.


This approach to using barrel lenses on a Sinar camera with Sinar shutter is likely not a good idea or suitable for those who hike and do LOTs of outdoor image making due to it's bulk, weigh, size and...

Much a matter of the print image goals... again.



Bernice

[Daniel Unkefer]

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50189329028_191eb124a8_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2jt4qX7)8x10 to 5x7 Norma Special Bellows 1 (https://flic.kr/p/2jt4qX7) by Nokton48 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/18134483@N04/), on Flickr

Large barrel lenses cannot be fit into integral shutters. This is my 8x10 Norma nearly completed with 360mm chrome Schneider Componon lens. I used a Durst enlarging cone that came with the lens (this was obtained at a low price) then neatly fitted to a flat Norma board in my workshop. By the way compared with my Norma 360mm Plasmat Symmar this is a flat field lens, whilst the Symmar appears to me more curved field. Nearly identical in use.

Final step is second Norma Tripod Block and second identical tripod.

Assistants can help out in the field :)

[jp]

The early 1900s and onward normal to slightly long barrel lenses may have been used with a graflex SLR which were very popular (such as RB series, home portrait, auto graflex).e.g. https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/llimagevaultraw/raw_15001_15500/15497.jpg

You can use them with one today so long as it has clearance to not hit the moving mirror.

I use many barrel lenses on a speed graphic. The benefits to me are lighter weight, more shutter speed options (1/10 to 1/1000 sec) with the focal plane shutter), and the ones I use generally have nice round irises which imparts a certain look you may or may not get if you use a shutter provided aperture. Downside of a speed graphic is less movements.

If you want slowish shutter speeds, a pneumatic packard shutter is a good option.

[Jody_S]

There is no advantage I'm aware of to using barrel lenses. We use barrel lenses because a lot of very interesting lenses don't come in shutters, particularly the larger ones, and for the other reasons stated, barrel lenses are typically cheaper, shutters break and lenses become barrel lenses.

[Dan Fromm]

There is no advantage I'm aware of to using barrel lenses. We use barrel lenses because a lot of very interesting lenses don't come in shutters, particularly the larger ones, and for the other reasons stated, barrel lenses are typically cheaper, shutters break and lenses become barrel lenses.

Jody, it depends. I have a couple of drawers of barrel lenses that I hang in front of a #1 shutter. I also have the adapters needed. The economics work well for me because most of my adapters accept several lenses. And of course there's just one shutter for all of them.

The economics generally favor one lens already in shutter over the equivalent lens in barrel plus an adapter plus a shutter. But that's not my situation.

I also have an industrial (no diaphragm) Compound #5 that I hang in front of a 900 Apo Saphir. For a monster like that, the only alternative is a different large shutter.

[Daniel Unkefer]

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50690367978_d880b498b8_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kekonG)520mm Apo Ronar 2 (https://flic.kr/p/2kekonG) by Nokton48 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/18134483@N04/), on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50690365558_cf863bf2fb_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2keknDY)520mm Apo Ronar 1 (https://flic.kr/p/2keknDY) by Nokton48 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/18134483@N04/), on Flickr

Barrel lenses come along at good prices. This is one I have never seen before; a twenty inch Apo Ronar. I've had the 19 inch for a long time and it's very useful. Slowly I acquired at good prices the other Apo Ronars and they get a fair amount of use. This one does not need to be forward mounted to work with the Norma shutter.

This recently arrived from a local source and I cut the board and mounted the lens in my workshop. All painted up and ready to use.