Cheap lens for Intrepid 4x5?

[jusxusfanatic]

Cheap lens for Intrepid 4x5?

Hi there, I'm about to buy my first 4x5 field after some research that the Intrepid would be the best for me. Now I'm thinking of the lens. It supports Linhof/Technika style boards. I was looking at the 90mm f8 Nikkor SW and the 90mm f/8 Fujinon SW on Michael Strickland's website. Are there any other choices that are around that price range? My budget for the whole system is around 600 - 700 US. Thanks

[Dan Fromm]

Go look on eBay.

90/6.8: Angulon, Raptar/Optar

90/8: Fujinon SW, Ilex (if you can find one), Super Angulon

Michael Strickland may be a good photographer but he's not a diligent shopper and his judgement about what works well seems a little off.

[Doremus Scudder]

If this is your first (and, for a while, only) lens, then you may want to look at a more "normal" focal length. 90mm is a standard wide angle of view lens for 4x5 (roughly 28mm on 35mm film). "Normal" for 4x5 is somewhere around 150mm. There are many of those as well as many of my favorite focal length, 135mm for relatively inexpensive used. A newer 150mm or 135mm Plasmat from any of the major lens makers (Schneider, Rodenstock, Fujinon and Nikon) will be a superb performer and not too expensive.

If, indeed, you are looking for a wide angle, then keep in mind that the Angulon lenses (not Super Angulon) than Dan suggests, while being good performers, have less coverage than the Super Angulon/Grandagon/SW types of lenses in that focal length.

Best,

Doremus

[jusxusfanatic]

Thanks for the info Yea it's gonna be my first field camera. 90mm is equivalent to 28mm if I'm right? The 90/8 is cheaper, so I might have a look at that

[Tobias Key]

If are looking at older 90mm f8's beware that some of them come in the long obsolete #00 shutter. These are not so nice to use as a #0 shutter and finding a lens board will be much harder, and you may even have to go to the expense of having someone drill a board for you. That will more than wipe out any price advantage you gain over a newer lens in a #0 shutter.

[jusxusfanatic]

Thanks for the reminder, the intrepid supprts linhof and technika boards, so I think they are not that hard to find

[jusxusfanatic]

Oo the 210mm f5.6 looks pretty good, not sure about it fro landscapes tho, any suggestions?

[gnuyork]

I have a 90 and a 210. I use both for landscapes.

[jusxusfanatic]

Sounds good, but actually, I decided to buy a wista 45n with a rodenstock 150/4.5. I heard you can do forward tilt using that lens right? And you can only do backward tilts

[Doremus Scudder]

Sounds good, but actually, I decided to buy a wista 45n with a rodenstock 150/4.5. I heard you can do forward tilt using that lens right? And you can only do backward tilts

Sounds like you need a primer in View Camera Theory and Operation. There are lots of good sources on the web, but I'll recommend "The Camera" by Ansel Adams. You can find a downloadable pdf on the web if you search.

As for tilts: Back tilts, i.e., tilting the camera back, require the least lens coverage and are the safest in that regard. However, tilting the back changes the image perspective (back movements generally change the shape of the image, since it is the position of the back in relation to the subject that determines how the image appears). Front tilts move the image circle of the lens around at the film plane, so you need enough coverage for the displacement of the image circle you are introducing when tilting the front. This should be no problem for most shots with a 150mm Plasmat. These, however, usually have apertures of f/5.6 I'm not sure that Rodenstock even made a taking lens with 150mm focal length... Are you sure you've not made a mistake here?

Best,

Doremus