Vitax#5 Rear Element/Collodion Forum

[Tio Mateo]

I am very new to this forum as well as wet plate.
I recently acquired a Wollensak #5 f3.8 for my 8x10. I see the rear element screws off and when I reattach it to the camera without the element in place, the bellows doesn't have to be extended as much as when the element is in place. I'm wondering if anyone shoots without the element in place and whether or not they might have feedback regarding their results. Also, I see the "Collodion Forum" referred to on various posts. I don't see that forum here on the LF Forum and am wondering where I may find it.
Thank you in advance for any guidance you may be able to send my way.

[Mark Sawyer]

Welcome! The rear cell of the Vitax (a Petzval) has two elements. If you remove them and shoot with just the front element, a cemented plano-convex doublet, you'll get an image, but it will almost certainly be even less corrected than from a decent landscape meniscus doublet. Soft, and the outside of the image circle rapidly falls apart. You may or may not like the effect.

There are several collodion forums, but the most popular around this crowd is Quinn Jacobson's at: http://www.collodion.com/

[Tio Mateo]

Thank you very much for the information. Prior to posting here, I unscrewed the rear- most glass and saw the second you refered to- I didn't realize it was removable- I'm glad it didn't just fall out on me ;-)

Boy.....between this forum & the Collodion forum....What an enormous wealth of information!!! Thank you so much!