ross wide angle xpres

[Marco Ferrarini]

Just picked up a 8-3/4 inch, f4 ross wide angle xpres - cheap - mounted in a massive Fairchild shutter from an aerial camera. Maybe WWII surplus? Uncoated glass is in great shape and unscrews easily from the shutter. I can't seem to find much info on this optic. Can anyone tell me something about this lens - coverage, image quality, etc? Would it be worth mounting in a shutter or even just a barrel? I'm into it for all of $25 at this point.

[Marco Ferrarini]

Sorry - the focal length is 8-1/4 inch.

[Oren Grad]

Marco, take a look here (http://www.cameraeccentric.com/html/info/rossa/p3.html), bottom of the page.

[Ernest Purdum]

In about 1927, when this lens was designed, f4 for a wide angle lens was outstanding. It is a Plasmat type, six elements in four groups. You are surely correct in thinking WW II. There were very large numbers of these lenses made in the 5" focal length for the British Air Ministry, and they show up on eBay quite often. They are in rather odd barrel mounts with the diaphragm going only from f4 to f8? (the latter aperture value from memory). You are fortunate that yours is properly identified. Most of the ex-military specimens are not.

It is still a pretty fast lens as LF lenses go. At 70 degrees, it's not all that wide by modern standards,. It would have to be a very large shutter, therefore expensive, and having adapters made to fit the cells into the shutter would probably be more expensive still. Maybe you can figure out some way of using it in the masssive Fairchild shutter.

[Dan Fromm]

Ernest, I'm sure they're not all identical, but my ex-Air Ministry 5"/4 WA Xpres stops to f/11. The VM says that it is a good lens and will cover nearly a full plate, i.e., its good for 5x7. I've hung mine in front of a Nikon and the results were very disappointing. Lotta flare, not a great surprise since the lens isn't coated, but not that sharp.

[Ernest Purdum]

Dan, f11 certainly might be the usual minimum for the AM lenses. My memory is not dependable within one stop.

[Marco Ferrarini]

Thank you all for your responses to my query. Dan's comment is somewhat discouraging. I was hoping to be able to achieve some interesting results on an 8x10 - at a bargain price to boot. It appears that this purchase was no bargain, given the expense needed to remount the elements into a usable configuration.

[Dan Fromm]

Marco, at the very least you should ask your lens how much it covers. Your lens' focal length is, you say, 8 3/4". Mine is 5". We don't have the same lens. And most of lenses I have that are praised in the Vade Mecum are pretty good.

As for expense, well that's a very different problem. The highest and best use of most large barrel lenses is, I think, as doorstops. Not because the lenses are bad, but because equivalent lenses in shutter cost less than buying a shutter and having the doorstop put in it. Aerial camera lenses are snares for the unwary; I have a couple that I'll never use or recover my money from.

Good luck, have fun,