Lens Choice

[seabee1999]

In a few weeks, I'll be getting an LF camera (Calumet). Now that I have the camera coming, what lens should I start out with? I initially posted that I was looking at a 135. Is this a good place to start or should I go larger? Thank you for the help.

God Bless,
David

[smokinjay]

135 or 210 is a good start. depends on what your subject matter is going to be. give me a little more info and i can help you more.

[seabee1999]

I like to shoot landscapes and general nature stuff. Eventually, I'll get into architecture shots and macros. I do have a home page in my profile and in there shows a lot of what I enjoy shooting.

God Bless,
David

[Capocheny]

David,

If you're just starting out in LF... I'd recommend either a 180 or 210 from any of the major manufacturers. These include Rodenstock, Fujinon, Scheider, Nikon, etc.

Secondly, over a cup of great coffee or wine, pick up some books and do some reading. I'd suggest the following:

1. Using the Large Format Camera - Steve Simmons

2. Large Format and Landscape Photography - Jack Dykinga

3. User's Guide The The View Camera - Jim Stone

All of these books are very good... written by people actually using Large Format Cameras.

Cheers

[seabee1999]

David,

If you're just starting out in LF... I'd recommend either a 180 or 210 from any of the major manufacturers. These include Rodenstock, Fujinon, Scheider, Nikon, etc.

Secondly, over a cup of great coffee or wine, pick up some books and do some reading. I'd suggest the following:

1. Using the Large Format Camera - Steve Simmons

2. Large Format and Landscape Photography - Jack Dykinga

3. User's Guide The The View Camera - Jim Stone

All of these books are very good... written by people actually using Large Format Cameras.

Cheers

Thank you for the insight and advice. I do have Steve Simmons' book on the way from Amazon. It should be here next week sometime. Trust me, I'll be reading that book intently.

God Bless,
David

[IanG]

Think about which lenses you prefer using with other formats. There's nothing wrong with a 150mm, it's a good all round lens to start with, room for more movements compared to a 135mm, and not as restrictive as a 210mm.

Ian

[timparkin]

David,

If you're just starting out in LF... I'd recommend either a 180 or 210 from any of the major manufacturers. These include Rodenstock, Fujinon, Scheider, Nikon, etc.

Cheers

If you want to do macro photography at close range, a 210 will need very long belows (half a meter?) to do so. Also, a lot of your shots are in the medium to wide range and as such you probably want to be looking at 110-150 range of lenses.. If you want to do a lot of macro, the Schneider 120 HM is good but expensive. The Rodenstock Sironar N 150 is well recommended and not so expensive. The Rodenstock 135 Sironar S is probably a very good single lens choice (although still expensive - try the Sironar N for a cheaper one).

I found these pages as a very good starting point

http://www.hevanet.com/cperez/kit.html
http://www.thalmann.com/largeformat/future.htm
http://www.thalmann.com/largeformat/wide.htm

Tim

[Chuck Pere]

210 is a good lens to start with. It has plenty of coverage so you can play around with the movements and see what they do. It's also a common size and you can get a very good modern lens pretty cheap.

[steve simmons]

Take your favorite 35mm lens and multiply its focal length by 3 to get an approximate 4x5 equivilent. There is a lens comparison chart from format to format in the Free Articles section of the View Camera web site


www.viewcamera.com

There are several other articles there as well that might be helpful to you.

good luck and have fun


steve simmons


PS
Since you live close you might want to go to the Shooting the West festival in Winnemucca March 6-9

www.shootthewest.com

I don't know how much lf will be there but it sounds like fun

[seabee1999]

Thank you all for your help. It means a lot to me. I think I found the lens I'd like at the price I can currently afford. I saw a 150 Fujinon at KEH that is within my price range. I will not be able to get it on this paycheck but I will be able to on the next one. Hopefully by the end of March, I'll have a few prints developed.

God Bless,
David

[Bill_1856]

David, your idea of a 135mm is an excellent starting lens. It's wide enough that you can take in a large field of view (such as a landscape), and being 4x5 you can easily crop some in printing and still maintain a really sharp image.

[climbabout]

I shoot 8x10, mainly landscapes and such, but the principles are the same - I find that I do the majority of my shooting with a slightly wide angle lens(240mm) and a 1-1/2 times normal(450mm) - for 4x5 that would be something in the order of 120mm - for slightly wide and 210mm-240mm for 1-1/2 time normal. A 135mm and a 210mm would be 2 good all around lenses to start with.
Tim