Hi Everyone,
I've been lurking for a while, absorbing information and enjoying reading discussions. I am a professional photographer who has recently rediscovered B&W 4x5 and have been happily cruising along until this weekend when I happened upon a jaw dropingly beautiful lens - a 100 year old "Taylor Hobson Cooke 15inch Portrait Series II 4.5 knuckler" . This was the first time I have handled this type of lens and to say I was taken with it would be the understatement of the year.
This lens has my wheels turning and if anyones is up for helping a guy out I'd love to dip into your collective pool of knowledge.
The craftmanship of this thing blows me away. It all functions flawlessly I really want to start using this lens and am putting my mind towards building a system for it. I wish to shoot film over plate. It is an very heavy (1o pound) 8x10 lens that was made to go on the old style studio wetplate cameras.
I have two lines of thought for film use.
My preferance would be to put it on a modern 8x1o monorail with a packard shutter and use nd filters and slow film when required. The current lens board is a whopping 9 inches(could probably squeeze into a 6 inch lens board. This thing is really heavy but I'd love to get it out in the field.
Have any of you guys or girls adapted this big brass type of vintage barrel lens for film use out of the studio with a more modern camera. Used two rear standards with custom bellows for a sinar or something like that.
Or would it be easier to get a wetplate 8x10 made with an optional film back.
Stability, ease of use and "relative" portability are my priorities.
Any thoughts would be welcome.
Thanks Lee
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