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tonkhang
29-Jul-2011, 16:33
My new Chamonix 16x20 with hypergon 150mm
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6030/5989125378_5643792260.jpg

cosmicexplosion
30-Jul-2011, 03:08
hi, tonk, can you tell me about the lens?

Tri Tran
30-Jul-2011, 10:42
hi, tonk, can you tell me about the lens?

It's a very special lens and the camera was custom designed by Chamonix for its use. I will test this baby out in 2 week and let you know how it goes.Congrats Tonkhang and thanks to Hugo and Hass to put this outfit together.

cosmicexplosion
30-Jul-2011, 16:40
I did a bit of reasearch, and oh boy, is it fun.

at this stage, in my not-knowingness, its like discovering janis joplin for the first time, or who ever, the fasination kicks in and your off!, hours and hours later, i have learned that wisner tried and failed to make one of these because even though the glass is the size of a marble, it must be ground by hand.

i didnt even know how a lens was made. but ground by hand.

it reminds me of a story i heard about the most perfect sphere in the world, a metal sphere. it was in the end made by hand as no laser could get it right, only the hand with its godly touch, and millions of nerve andings could get it right!

i tried to find a modern version of the above lens and as many of you might allready know, as i am sure its a well beaten path of knowledge for some, like those of you who saw janis live, ( i saw bb.king, and that was as good as seeing hendrix, well it felt as legendary, it was huge!)

so the only current lens i could find is the.....you guessed it: SUPER-SYMMAR XL 150/5.6 CPL #1

"This is a 150mm lens for use with film formats up to 8x10 inch. The lens has a 105 degree field angle at f22, producing an image circle of 386mm at f22. This allows 52mm of shift vertically and 44mm of shift horizontally with 8x10 inch film. Therefore this is a very useful, lightweight and relatively inexpensive super wide angle lens for the 8x10inch film format. It is very useful for landscape, architecture and even table top photography. The Super Symmar XL Aspheric lenses can be used for close up photography . . . up to 1/3 life size, with no visible loss in image quality."

so it has 35 degrees less image circle. if the above is a dagor of 140 degrees.

thats a fair bit, also costs $3,376.00 EA

so any way, tri and tonk, cant wait to see the shots.

for those not wanting to go further, this is the pitch from one sold from web.

"Now this is a rare lens. I have never seen another one. A 150 mm lens is about normal for 4 x 5 and very wide for 8 x 10 ( like Grandagon ), extremely wide for 11 x14, and now we are talking, this covers 16 x 20 inches. This is good for the Wisner 16 x 20 or the Polaroid. I used it on 11x14 with maximum rise. It is currently set into a Deardorff 6" lens board. If you stand in front of the camera with the cable release, you can photograph from your toes to your nose.

The "propellor" center filter is working fine. Exposures are made by making part of the exposure with the wheel in front of the lens, and with a light puff of air from a rubber bulb at the end of a tube conected to the lens, like a barbers bulb, the wheel turns, just enough to move the fins a few degrees. Then the rest of the exposure is made with the wheel swung away from the ray path. Variations work too. All the exposure can be made with the wheel in the ray path, with the puff of air to move the fins, or the exposure can be made without the use of the wheel and that would make an image with greater exposure in the center than the edge by about three stops. That can be OK if using black and white film, and then you don't have to burn the edges down!

The important advantage with this lens is that the image is very wide angle, and big enough to hold the details, so for contact printing, silver, platinum or alternative, there is nothing like this. There is no other way to make this quality of image. An enlarged digital negative just does not make the rich smooth image that an original silver negative can produce.

Some sites to look at.

http://www.cameraquest.com/hyper.htm

This one is in great shape with clean, clear glass, no scratches or nasties. There is nothing not to like about it ( well, except for the price, but I do not give this up lightly )!"