I'm a lens designer

[Dan Fromm]

Well then get crackin, as every art student photographer wants to shoot huge wet plate.

Dreamers all. Penniless dreamers.

Whether the market is there is an empirical question. Teasing Randy aside, I don't know whether there's enough demand to support production.

[Jac@stafford.net]

Dreamers all. Penniless dreamers.

Whether the market is there is an empirical question. Teasing Randy aside, I don't know whether there's enough demand to support production.

If at first you do not succeed then just lower expectations.

[Tin Can]

Dreamers all. Penniless dreamers.

Whether the market is there is an empirical question. Teasing Randy aside, I don't know whether there's enough demand to support production.

It is hard to say. Seems all the younger guys want it all for free.

I would buy a new huge Petzval say, 18" f3 for $1500, but not for $3000. and I would prefer it to be in PVC pipe, not some retro brass. Paint it DayGlo, make the flange non-removable, include a plastic hood. Heck make the lens plastic. Waterhouse stops and it's done.

But I'm retired, my daughter is doing fine, my grand kids are healthy teenagers and I bought another used camera kit 2 minutes ago. What do I know...

[adelorenzo]

Just give us the SWIRLY BOKEH!!!

[Nodda Duma]

Dreamers all. Penniless dreamers.

Whether the market is there is an empirical question. Teasing Randy aside, I don't know whether there's enough demand to support production.

Yeah that's kind of what I'm wondering, too. The higher the demand, the cheaper the lens of course. On the flip side, the lower the demand the more expensive the per unit cost. The higher the per unit cost, the less people are interested. It's a downward spiral. But.. there's certainly some lower limit (not everyone is penniless). But they are paying prototype prices at that point. I can design one-off lenses all day every day for individuals who want something special and can cover the cost, but only a few benefit.

So you ask "Why not build them all first?" Simply put, I'm not rich and money isn't free. It'd be nice...a lot of problems can be solved by throwing money at it. But I'm just a working man who has to support a family.

What I do have is sweat equity: I can do the designs, generate the interest, and perhaps put them up on Kickstarter (which, if I can make a snazzy video, short-circuits the problem), then when the parts are fabricated assemble them and send them out. Right now we're at what engineers call the "requirements stage": What design will generate the most interest? I'll do that with a poll (and I'll be testing the waters so-to-speak with the 165mm f/6.3 for 8"x10" format that I've posted about on APUG). Just have to find the time. It's been real busy here lately, not just at work but also with other side projects. But that's ok I think. Rome wasn't built in a day, you know.

BTW, if you want to talk about crazy big for wet plate... I do have a design for a 2000mm f/5.6 Cooke Triplet that will image onto a 2m x 2m plate. The glass weighs ~64kg and it'd cost a heck of a lot but it can be made It'd be like the biggest Cooke Triplet the world has ever seen.


-Jason

[Tin Can]

Go big or go home. Just kidding, but I see a better market for I describe than the APUG plan.

Big is it. Wet Plate is popular.

I recently bought a 10 lb 900 mm f9 and it is more than I need. It a process lens obviously, without swirls and sharp wide open.

Now I need to build a camera for it. That's my plan. And it has plenty of image circle, camera obscura is first.

[cyrus]

The fact that there is a market is proven by the outrageous prices for existing wet plate lenses.
I think you shouldn't so cavalierly dismiss the potential market for some wet plate lenses, not necessarily large ones either. A piece of brass tubing, a couple of elements, and threading for a flange... How much investment would that take?

Heck I would start out refurbishing all those existing brass lenses that have issues like major fungus damage to an element etc. then sell them

[cyrus]

Just give us the SWIRLY BOKEH!!!

Vaseline

[Nodda Duma]

Cyrus I haven't dismissed anything. Not sure where you got that impression? I take lens work and honest end user input very seriously. I'm serious about the Cooke... Someone asked and I designed it. But the price was astronomical. So it sits filed away as a set of lens drawings.

Give me some specifics on what type of lens. What focal length (or field of view)? What size format? F/#? Those I cannot guess...that would be a foolish guessing game. So you have to do your part in giving me specifics. Once you've done that I can do my part. It's not enough to say "lens for wet plate".

And yes, it's easy to slap random lenses in a brass tube (assuming you have random lenses to tinker with and a brass tube). But what lenses? In what order? And to do what? Putting a gorgeous imaging optic together that wet plate users would be proud to own... That's something that takes care and thought. I'm a professional. I don't have to hack a lens together. Would Goerz Dagor Gold Ring lenses be so desired if they performed like they were put together in a garage? Or looked like they were assembled in someone's basement? Like Goerz, I won't put my name on a subpar lens.

As for repairing lenses... Yes I could repair lenses but recall what I stated in my first post: I'm doing this to design lenses for large format folks, not to earn a living (I already have a day job). I'm not too interested in spending the wee hours of the night as a repairman.

[Nodda Duma]

For wet plate a variation on the casket set suggested before might make sense.

This would provide a range of focal lengths to cover a range of wet plate sizes with one set, as opposed to a new design for every wet plate size that people use.