New to 8x10 and need advice on shutters

So I just purchased my first 8x10 camera after shooting 4x5 for the last few years. I got a Burke and James 8x10 with a 14inch Dallmeyer Anastigmat f5.6 lens. The person who owned the camera was using it for wet plate photography so they had no use for a shutter. I am going to use it for studio portraits using flash and thus need to add a shutter. I'm not entirely sure where to start.

I've looked at the Packard No. 6 Syncro shutter, but I don't know what size to get or if there are better options. My 4x5 lens is mounted to a COPAL-No. 1 shutter and I really like that shutter, but I don't know if they even make one that would fit this new Dallmeyer lens.

I'm just looking for some direction on where to go with this. I've attached some images of the Dallmeyer lens. Thanks!

Hmm. Its hard to be sure, but your lens looks much like a post-WW II version of a 14"/5.6 tessar type aerial camera lens that was made by several makers during the war. Its serial number suggests strongly that it should be coated. Does it had DC engraved on the barrel? That's Dallmeyer-speak for coated.

I've never owned one, have hefted a few. There are few good shutter options, a Packard behind or in front of the lens might be a good choice. To avoid mechanical vignetting the shutter's opening should be no smaller than the lens' exit or entrance pupil appears, depending on whether the shutter is behind or in front of the lens, with the lens wide open.

If you want to shutter the lens, your options are packard shutter, or a Copal 3 or Ilex 5 depending on the cell diameter. You'd have to have the lens mounted by a machinist. I'd contact SK Grimes and ask him what shutter is needed and costs. Unless you're thrilled with this lens, it's probably going to be cheaper to buy a different lens in shutter.

L

If you are just going to do studio work as described, for that I much prefer my Packard to normal shutters. I mounted the Packard on the back of a large lens board with a hole for a small board, and put all of my non-shuttered lenses on small boards, so I can use them with that one Packard. The Packard is functionally much faster to use than a between-lens shutter in this situation.

Another option is adapting a Sinar shutter.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/97pl3dbvgk...r_45.jpg?raw=1

My two cents in the blog post below. But I agree with the earlier post: cheaper to buy a lens already with a shutter like a modern Copal 3 rather than retrofit a relatively ho-hum lens.

https://www.angusparkerphoto.com/blo...s-in-a-shutter


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I know a guy who shoots barrel mounted lenses the old fashioned way. He sets everything up, flips the lights off, pulls the dark slide, and trips the flash manually, then reinserts the dark slide before turning the lights back on. This requires a model who can remain really still and a dark studio. It’s not completely black, like a darkroom, but pretty close. Dark enough that it won’t make any noticeable exposure in the 5 seconds or so it takes to complete this process with a slow film.

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Originally Posted by jim10219

I know a guy who shoots barrel mounted lenses the old fashioned way. He sets everything up, flips the lights off, pulls the dark slide, and trips the flash manually, then reinserts the dark slide before turning the lights back on. This requires a model who can remain really still and a dark studio. It’s not completely black, like a darkroom, but pretty close. Dark enough that it won’t make any noticeable exposure in the 5 seconds or so it takes to complete this process with a slow film.

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A 5-15 watt bulb several feet behind the camera works well. Enough light to see, but not enough to make a significant exposure on the film.