Wide angle lens for Crown Graphic

[Sean Galbraith]

I have a 90mm/f8 for my Crown Graphic at the moment, but would like to get something brighter as I shoot dimly lit interiors frequently. Which 75mm or 90mm lenses in the f4.5 or 5.6 range would work with the CG?

Thanks!

[Jan Normandale]

Get back to work!

[Sean Galbraith]

This is important!

[Jan Normandale]

check out a 90 F5.6 Super Angulon it's a good lens and has the aperture you are looking for. Also Fujinon has a similar lens. I like German glass character a bit better than Japanese

[Sean Galbraith]

(I should note that I'd like a lens that should have enough coverage to get full front rise on my little Crown Graphic if possible)

[IanG]

I have an f5.6 90mm SA that gets occasional use on a Crown graphic, I've also used my 75mm SA.

However the screens on Graphics are dim unless you have a fresnel, and a decent screen.

Ian

[Dan Fromm]

If you've got the money, honey ...

Since you regard a 90 as wide, I take it that you have a 4x5 Crown. The 4x5 Crown's limiting dimension for w/a lenses is its minimum flange-to-film distance. 52.4 mm, according to the bible (Graphic Graflex Photography), 10th edition.

I've been contemplating going 6x12 using a 4x5 Crown, have looked into my own lenses' suitability to task. Not all will do, so I've started thinking about possible replacements. At the short end, the 47 SA XL covers 4x5 and will focus to infinity on a 4x5 Crown with millimeters to spare.

Everything modern and longer that covers 4x5 will work. If the lens' rear cell won't pass through the Crown's lens throat it can be detached and reattached from the rear. I have to do this with several of the lenses I use on my 2x3 Graphics.

[Sean Galbraith]

Yes, I have a 4x5 Crown. I didn't know there was a non-4x5 version.

You can use a 47mm on a Crown?

[Dan Fromm]

Yes, but it has to be the right 47. Few 47s cover 4x5, and few have flange-to-film at infinity > 52.4 mm.

The 47/5.6 SA XL does both. Expensive lens, though. That's why I wrote "If you have the money, honey ..."

[Frank Petronio]

Before I'd get an expensive wide angle for a 4x5 I'd just get a Noblex rotating lens camera, they make better wide pictures.

I used a Rodenstock 75/6.8 on my Crown, I can't remember if I could close it with the lens attached but I do know the bellows is so compressed that make much of a move is impossible, instead you just rely on the wide-ness and crop.

While you always need to go wide with interiors, IMHO there have only been a handful of successful ultra-wide shots, ever, in the entire history of photography, (and most of those are pictures of clouds!).... Most of the time they are done because someone wants to "get it all in" without concern for how good the results are.

What works nicer, I think, is to stitch 2-3 normal focal-length images into a panorama.

I think a 90mm is a nice wide for a 4x5, do a stitch of two overlapping 90mm shots and you've got everything that's important.

[Ivan J. Eberle]

Even a faster 90mm is unlikely to permit much rise on a standard bellows, due to both bellows compression and mechanical interference with the rear element (especially with a ginormous lens like a Super Angulon XL).

Have you considered a monorail with a bag bellows and a better Fresnel? I have a Nikon 90mm f/8 SW that can be frustrating in low light on a GG... so I bought a Sinar Norma w/bag bellows for this use. It's really a pleasure to use with this lens.

[Robert Budding]

I have a 90mm/f8 for my Crown Graphic at the moment, but would like to get something brighter as I shoot dimly lit interiors frequently. Which 75mm or 90mm lenses in the f4.5 or 5.6 range would work with the CG?

Thanks!

Is your 90mm/f8 a Nikkor? I'm looking for one . . .

[Sean Galbraith]

No, it is a Linhof Angulon.