I'm looking at getting into 5x4 (I've currently delved no further than a Harman Titan, which is great and I'm happy processing 5x4 film at home using my Mod54) and am very interested in using vintage lenses in this format - ie Victorian or Edwardian lenses, Petzvals etc.
I realise many of these do not have their own shutters - ie barrel lenses. Are there ways of using such lenses on a modern 5x4 field camera (I'm considering a Chamonix)?
Yes. Some people fit shutters to the front and others use a hat as a "shutter" for longer exposures.
Another alternative is to use a Thornton Pickard shutter, whcih is somewhat contenporary to the lenses you are considering.
The other part is mounting the lenses on a board that will fit your camera; the older lenses usually require a non-standard-sized hole to be drilled in the lens board.
Often a lens will come with a flange (to secure the lens to the board), but just as often, the flange is missing, so you'll have to have one made, or improvise.
This is a lot easier if you have basic woodworking skills. Choose a camera that uses a plain wooden lensboard, and whatever lens you wish to use can be mounted in a new piece of wood (plywood, pre-finish, whatever fits). Small-ish lenses without a flange can be mounted using a variety of methods discussed elsewhere on this forum; my personal preference is to make a hole slightly smaller than the largest point of the threading on the lens barrel, and screw it into the hole.
If you really want to use old lenses exclusively, you may want to look into a camera with a larger lensboard than the Chamonix, which will enable the use of larger lenses, and a packard shutter mounted behind the lens board. The Chamonix uses a linhof-type board that is small, and suited mainly to modern lenses in shutter.
I use an old speed graphic because it's got 1/10 - 1/1000 shutter speeds built into the body. Lacking that, I'd probably mount the lens to a big used shutter like an ilex5, copal3, compound 4/5 shutter. If the light is consistent and controlled such as for indoor portraits, a darkslide or hat would be sufficient shutter. Packard is very reliable too, but you only get one shutter speed and bulb.
That's a good point - what size of board should I be looking for? Any thoughts on candidate cameras?Originally Posted by Tim Meisburger
Sinar size is about right.
The most professional solution is a sinar board fitting on any 4x5 lens board. This will allow you to mount a Sinar/Copal shutter which will give you (reliable) speeds up to 1/60. Mounting this shutter between the back of the front standard and the bellows is the best option.
Shen Hao makes the XPO model which already has this facility built-in. You will have to find a Copal/Sinar shutter separately!
I use Cambo for this purpose and old Compound 5 shutter, but they (big shutters, not cameras) are quite rare.
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