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View Full Version : Galli - itis-- or the colour of Brass



Shen45
6-Nov-2007, 00:57
In 2006, thanks to the Jeep Rubicon of my friend Kevin, and his skillful driving on the incorrect side of the road I journed to the Nevada lens mine. I met the curator and "think" I may have met some small green men but cannot really remember. I purchased 2 very nice classic early 1900's pieces of glass from Jim and returned to Australia.

Galli - itis is a very slow incubating affliction. It seems to control the area of the brain related to anything brass and the ability to say no even if you have one similar.

I thought I had 1 portrait lens and now find i have 4, I thought -- well it seems I didn't think as I just did a count just on brass lenses alone and found 12. I thought I had the affliction under control until I realised how easy it was to make a waterhouse stop. I now also have two new to me lenses that take waterhouse stops.

I dont't believe there is a cure for this "problem" but the colour of antique brass seems to relieve the symptoms.

After that long introduction my real question is --

Is one brass lens ever enough -- and how many do you have?

Ole Tjugen
6-Nov-2007, 01:24
I don't know how many brass lenses I have...

I do know that I have three casket sets though - or is it four???

MIke Sherck
6-Nov-2007, 07:10
I have one, a small Petzval. Mr. Galli listed one just like it a week or so ago. I remember looking at his add and thinking, "Oh, so that's what that thing is." My wife uses it as a loupe or magnifier in her office.

Mike

John Kasaian
6-Nov-2007, 08:22
I lost count! The little creatures breed like rabbits ;)

Michael Graves
6-Nov-2007, 08:29
It isn't my lenses that are brass.

Jim Galli
6-Nov-2007, 08:46
I've seen some of the pictured Steve has done with said brass lenses and am happy to be a contributor to hid addiction. Those of you that watched the ads this weekend saw a whole bunch of brass and glass come and go. The little green men are keeping me busy!

BTW Steve, I have a lovely 14" Darlot Petzval that is missing it's sleeve and focus rack. Just a tube with glass at both ends. Not worth very much that way and would work well on your 10X8! WHAT?? NO 10X8?? We can fix that too :D:D

Mark Sawyer
6-Nov-2007, 08:46
For images with real class,
You need some really ancient glass,
All mounted up in pretty brass,
I've got them coming out my... ears.

Gordon Moat
6-Nov-2007, 09:34
At this point four lenses with brass barrels. One is the same as recently sold by Jim Galli, originally a projection lens for a Simplex 35mm movie projector, yet oddly enough covers 4x5 used on a view camera, though currently not mounted. Another is a Bausch & Lomb magic lantern lens, though with the Petzval designed part removed from the rear lantern element will cover more than my 4x5 can move; currently not mounted due to a missing spacer between the two rear elements. The most modern brass I have is a Zeiss Tessar 21cm f4.5 barrel lens, currently mounted on a Linhof board. Last is an 1854 Holmes, Booth & Haydens Petzval design, also mounted in a Linhof board.

Seriously though, I hope to only keep the Zeiss and HB&H, because they are the most useful. I am currently working on a Packard shutter set-up for my Shen-Hao, which will allow me to use these two lenses more often. The odd part is that I have spent more on mounts, lensboards, and the shutter than what these lenses cost me.

Ciao!

Gordon Moat (http://www.gordonmoat.com)

Paul Metcalf
6-Nov-2007, 09:37
For images with real class,
You need some really ancient glass,
All mounted up in pretty brass,
I've got them coming out my... ears.
Now that's funnry right there:D

Peter K
6-Nov-2007, 10:26
I have no photographic brass lens but long time ago purchased two brass microscopes in bad condition. After polishing, finishing with "Zapon" laquer (gun-cotton in amylacetat) and more than thirty (!) years this special hue is nearly back.

Peter K

sparq
6-Nov-2007, 10:54
I am experiencing a mysterious invasion of brass lenses accompanied with a similarly mysterious exodus of ca$h. :D I suspect that the chief devil's advocate is J.G., but everyone who contributed to the recent picture threads is to blame, too. ;)

Vaughn
6-Nov-2007, 11:00
I have an Turner Reich 12-21-28 that must be brass...it is heavy enough! And a 19" RD Artar that might be brass, too.

vaughn

Brian Bullen
6-Nov-2007, 11:18
Jim if Steve doesn't want that 14" Darlot, I am interested in it:) My brass collection is small but I'd like to change that!

roteague
6-Nov-2007, 11:27
I've got to see the doctor ..... I don't have any of these symptoms. I prefer new Schneider glass (like my 80XL). Yes, must see doctor.... :p

Ole Tjugen
6-Nov-2007, 13:57
Robert, try seeing a Docter instead.

As in "Docter Germinar-W"! :p

Shen45
6-Nov-2007, 14:30
I've seen some of the pictured Steve has done with said brass lenses and am happy to be a contributor to hid addiction. Those of you that watched the ads this weekend saw a whole bunch of brass and glass come and go. The little green men are keeping me busy!

BTW Steve, I have a lovely 14" Darlot Petzval that is missing it's sleeve and focus rack. Just a tube with glass at both ends. Not worth very much that way and would work well on your 10X8! WHAT?? NO 10X8?? We can fix that too :D:D

Funny you should mention a 10x8 Jim. My wife asked me the other day was 5x4 the largest negative size. :)

For some odd reason a couple of my lenses will already cover 10x8 [even up to 11x14]

I think I see a habit developing here.

Toyon
6-Nov-2007, 14:56
So Steve, what is your method for making Waterhouse Stops?

Shen45
6-Nov-2007, 15:52
Toyon I made mine out of the hard black plastic cover of an A4 [or similar] loose leaf style folder.

Cut a piece to the width of the slot and round the base to the shape of the barrel. If you can remove the front or rear cells you should see the round maximum aperture of the lens in question. With the blank in place and seated in the slot correctly draw a circle with a pen [or whatever] following this maximum aperture and from this you will then have the position to centralise the hole you intend to make.

With a Ross 14" I recently got the internal max aperture gave an f stop of 10 so I then created a hole centrally in the circle I had made that gave very close to f32

I used a battery power drill with a bit as close as practical to the size hole I wanted for the estimated aperture then cleaned up the hole with a stanley knife. If it is not perfectly round don't stress. Just remove the roughness so that it slots into the correct position again.

Focal length / aperture size = fstop

355.6 / 11 = f32.32 [approx]

If you have two lenses of different focal lengths and the same slot fits both you can calculate an F stop for each lens and just use a single waterhouse.

Write on the slot the lens and the number it represents.

The folder cost about $2 and has front and back covers so I suppose I need to get more brass lenses now with slots so I don't waste the stiff black plastic I have :)

It took longer to type this than actually make one.

Steve

Jim Galli
6-Nov-2007, 16:30
A tip maybe. Since I almost never use my antiques at infinity, (they are usually approaching 1:1 for a portrait) I make my waterhouse stops to "known's" like 1 inch or 30mm. Then I measure the distance from stop to ground glass and divide a whole number. ie. a stop is a 1 inch hole. I measure the bellows at 22", I'm at f22. The bellows is stretched out to 32 inches, same lens same stop, f32. No other calcs needed. Reciprocity still needed sometimes of course, but none of the bellows factor gymnastics.

Shen45
6-Nov-2007, 16:35
A tip maybe. Since I almost never use my antiques at infinity, (they are usually approaching 1:1 for a portrait) I make my waterhouse stops to "known's" like 1 inch or 30mm. Then I measure the distance from stop to ground glass and divide a whole number. ie. a stop is a 1 inch hole. I measure the bellows at 22", I'm at f22. The bellows is stretched out to 32 inches, same lens same stop, f32. No other calcs needed. Reciprocity still needed sometimes of course, but none of the bellows factor gymnastics.

Experience -- now that is something you just cannot buy.

Thanks Jim -- I will make another stop for a strange SF brass lens based on your suggestion.

Steve

Jim Fitzgerald
9-Nov-2007, 07:49
Thirteen brass lenses! The last 8x10 shoot with the 11x14 and 10x12 versions of the portrait lenses I own gave me some of the best negative I've ever done. It becomes an addiction. Similar to building cameras but that is another story.


Jim

Nicolai Morrisson
9-Nov-2007, 12:35
Mine are threatening to sprawl out onto a third shelf. Help!

Jim, that is a flippin' SWEET way to go about it.

Ole Tjugen
9-Nov-2007, 12:58
Third shelf??

Mine are about to start on the third room...

Nicolai Morrisson
9-Nov-2007, 13:03
LOL, I've only been at it maybe a year... give me time. :)

venchka
11-Nov-2007, 19:02
I only have one. I made my first photograph with it yesterday. It's a keeper.

Shen45
11-Nov-2007, 19:12
I only have one. I made my first photograph with it yesterday. It's a keeper.

Wayne within 12 months [maybe less] you will have more. :) You may not remember getting them, you may believe they just multiplied of their own accord but you will have more.

I hope you have a wonderful time.

venchka
12-Nov-2007, 06:07
Thanks Steve! I got the lens in a box along with some holders and flash that came with a Speed Graphic. It was already mounted on a Speed Graphic board. I finally got up the nerve to use it with some Polaroid 667 material. While not the greatest photograph ever, none of mine are, it was good enough to encourage me to use the lens more. I do think the focal plane shutter in the Graphic needs an overhaul if I'm going to use this barrell lens.

Toyon
12-Nov-2007, 06:54
Use your brass or sell it. Non-using collectors will price most of us out of the market.

Ole Tjugen
12-Nov-2007, 07:55
Use your brass or sell it. Non-using collectors will price most of us out of the market.

I'll admit there are some I haven't used yet, but that time will come.


As soon as I find a camera strong enough to hold a 16" f:3.2 Petzval...

Brian Bullen
12-Nov-2007, 21:19
Ole, I'm sure you could make a tripod rig for the lens and just set-up the camera behind it, if you didn't mind staying close to car/home. Besides a petzval of that girth doesn't really make a good hiking lens.:)

Paul Fitzgerald
12-Nov-2007, 21:31
Ole,

"As soon as I find a camera strong enough to hold a 16" f:3.2 Petzval..."

That one is called 'Ansco 5A' and they do show up at ebay occasionally but I think the shipping would break the deal. Than again, the 9x9" lens board and 45" bellows draw might tip the scales.

Have fun with the hunt.

Ole Tjugen
13-Nov-2007, 01:43
Or I could make a new lens board for the 13x18cm tailboard plate camera, or the 24x30cm tailboard plate camera. But I use both these cameras with iris mounts, and that lens is just too heavy for that. I'll happily put the 640mm f:7.7 Aplanat in one, but the Petzval is a different matter. Both those cameras are original old German "Reisekameras", kind of like a precursor to the Ansco 5A!