Questions about DB-mount lenses included wth a Sinar P2?

[Magne G.]

I'm looking to buy my first LF camera and stumbled upon a Sinar P2 with a bunch of lenses. Of course this is a lot more than I need, but this offer includes a lot of other equipment I do need for a reasonable price so I'm considering it anyway. The seller has never used the equipment, so I have to piece the information together myself before I inspect it in person (if I'm still interested). The lenses included are:

60mm/4 Sinaron digital High Resolution
80mm/4 Sinaron digital High Resolution
Sinaron SE 75 Deg 135/5,6 DB
Sinaron SE 180/5,6 DB
Symmar S 210/5,6 DB
Symmar S 150/5,6 DB
Super Angulon 90/8 DB
Super Angulon 65/8 DB
Apo Nikkor 240/9
Apo Nikkor 600/9
Zeiss Planitar 150/4,5

A Sinarcam is also included, but I'm primarily interested in using the camera with 4x5" film.

My questions:

Is this a useful collection of lenses for starting out? What would you say characterize these lenses? What are they good for and what not? What do I get with these lenses and what not?

I plan to primarily shoot outdoors and with natural light. How much of a problem is it that the Sinar Auto Aperture Shutter has a minimal exposure time of 1/60? Considering that almost all lenses depend on it. With DB-mount lenses, is there any other shutter available than the Sinar Expolux?

Is a Sinarcam good for anything nowadays?

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The original post:

If I'm correct, what I'm looking at should be a Sinar P2 camera, a Sinar shutter and the lenses mentioned. The Sinar shutter would be mounted behind any DB lens and removed when using any of the non-DB lenses, is that correct? My initial thought about the Sinar shutter, which I assume is a S

(There are the related threads I found: 1,
2, 3.)

Is there any reason to avoid DB-mount lenses? (Or is there any other reason to steer clear of the lenses listed?) What kind of photography does such a collection of lenses indicate?

Finally, can anyone tell me what I'm looking at in this photo?

[Peter De Smidt]

Sinar made a couple of behind the lens shutters. The Sinar Copal shutter is purely mechanical. They also made an Epolux...and I think one other electronic shutter. I don't know anything about them. The Sinar Copal shutter is mounted behind the front frame. You undo the bellows on the front. Put the Sinar shutter where the bellows would normally go. Lock in place. Now attach the bellows to the shutter. Lenses mount like normal on the front of the standard. I would remove the Sinar shutter if using lenses with their own shutters.

[Bernice Loui]

That is quite a lens collection.

Advantage to Sinar DB lenses is ease of use due to coupling of the camera to lens to shutter. The lens goes to wide open aperture for ease of focus then stops the lens down to the set aperture once the film holder is loaded into the camera... when the entire system is properly set up. This is a HUGE time and error saver when used for mass film burning in studio. For outdoor work, this is one heavy rig to lug around and not really easy to deal with due to items involved and complexity of setting the whole thing up.

DB lenses can be transferred out of their DB lens board into a industry standard shutter with the proper aperture scale applied to the shutter for the specific lens.

Sinar made four variations of manual-self winding shutters. The two early Sinar Norma shutters came in two versions, one had the 1/32 second setting before the 8 second shutter time setting. Idea was in the case of sunny f16 or typical outdoor exposure at f22 setting on the lens or indoor with strobe, 1/32 would be the most often used shutter time setting. later Sinar Norma shutters have the 1/32 second setting moved to it's normal sequential location. These were not made by Copal.

Then came the Sinar-Copal shutters in two basic variations. Side aperture setting scale came in f4 and the more common f5.6. Shutter opening size is identical, difference is the setting scale of f4 which allowed larger aperture lenses to be made compatible with the Sinar shutter in DB mount. Early Sinai-Copal shutters have the flash sync connectors on a very short cable, later ones have a connector flash sync connector on the shutter body, these are often black shutter speed scale and later towards end of production versions.

The shutter in your image is a Sinar digital shutter, had one, use one.


They work well with the highest shutter speed of 1/500 second. They do not work at all without the electronic control box and NiCad battery pack and battery charger as needed. When combined with the Sinar light meter probe system and meter back on the Sinar camera makes a complete image exposure control system. Sinar systems like this were only found in high $ studios due to their cost and complexity of use.

Later on, Sinar went on to digital with a LCD based shutter and digital image backs on their Sinar P standards aka Sinar P3 with "Digital" lenses.


Bernice

[Magne G.]

Thanks for your helpful and informed reply, Bernice!

I actually went and bought the equipment. While most of it seems to be in good condition, it is incomplete. So I have this Sinar digital shutter (du you happen to know this model's name or number? I can only find a serial number on it, no other name or number), a box (523.31.100, see the photo) and a cable that fits the sinarcam port and an identical port in the shutter.



I connected the shutter to the box and powered the box on. The shutter made some noises and replaced that thing you see in the opening in the picture in my previous post with a transparent filter of some sort. And with the available equipment that was about all I could do.

What additional equipment is needed to make this setup workable? I don't know the name of the shutter and searching for the number on the box did not return any results, so I have not been able to successfully research this myself.

And what does it have to do with the sinarcam (this being written below the port)? My equipment includes two digital sinaron lenses, but no sinarcam. Go figure ...

(I also wonder what the 12V DC port on the box is for. It came with a power adapter, but I was only able to power on the device when connecting the power cable directly to the box (bypassing the power adapter and the 12V DC.)

[Bernice Loui]

Box is part of much more complex Sinar system with a PC and more. The rest of that system must be in place for the whole thing to work.

Do contact the folks at Sinar to figure out how this particular system was configured.


Bernice

[Magne G.]

I'm afraid the folks at Sinar wouldn't be particularly glad to help someone with little additional money to spend who bought some stuff from a photographer who years ago bought it from a studio (presumably).

I still hope the photographer I bought this from is able (and willing) to dig up the rest of the equipment somewhere, but things are moving slowly at that front.

[Magne G.]

Can you tell me where you got this information from?

I doubt this is the gear I have. I don't think It's an Expolux shutter (it looks somewhat different; Bernice called it "Sinar digital shutter"). And the model number of my control box is 523.XX, whereas the equipment in the text you quote belong to the 522.XX series.