No One Making New Lenses?

[Nodda Duma]

Shutters are probably a more pressing need than lenses.

Re leaf shutters, why not electronically timed ones? They need many fewer parts than clockwork shutters. These days timer chips and software for them seem to be stock items.

They are available and incredibly robust...but the shutter companies who make them do not cater to the large format photography market. There’s no money in it for them. So it would require some fool with an engineering degree whose income doesn’t rely on their sale to bring them to market.

I wouldn’t design a lens — some really special lens that could be tuned in some way —for large format. It wouldn’t be worth it. Now 4/3rds or mirrorless cameras...that could be a potential cash cow that would fund shutter development.

[Bob Salomon]

They are available and incredibly robust...but the shutter companies who make them do not cater to the large format photography market. There’s no money in it for them. So it would require some fool with an engineering degree whose income doesn’t rely on their sale to bring them to market.

I wouldn’t design a lens — some really special lens that could be tuned in some way —for large format. It wouldn’t be worth it. Now 4/3rds or mirrorless cameras...that could be a potential cash cow that would fund shutter development.

The E shutter is a currently made electronic shutter that accepts virtually any lens that fits a 0 shutter. Since it is made by Rodenstock and Sinar it takes lf lenses from 28 to 150mm.

[Drew Wiley]

State-of-the art new lenses are being made every day just up the road from me. But their definition of large format is quite different from ours; it's REALLY large. The prices are REALLY large too.

[John Kasaian]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Reinhold Schable and his new Wollaston!
https://www.re-inventedphotoequip.com/Home.html

[Bernice Loui]

Question would be why would any one try to produce a LF specific lens today? There have been SO many lenses designed and produced with nearly every possible variation tried over the many decades to century of photographic lenses designed and produced. LF is not like small roll film (35mm) or digital as the vast majority of LF lensed designed and produced were intended and sold to serious image makers often making their livelihood by producing the highest quality images. It is not like the "hobby" 35mm film market where trends, fashion and consumerism are the rule.

LF lenses in general are a beyond mature technology and market. IMO, there is no need to have any more LF lenses designed or produced as there are SO many out there.

Bernice

[LabRat]

I think (depending on trends) that film photography will be alive and well, or dead... Most tech needs a larger commercial market to sustain a smaller sub-market (like X-ray today) to support smaller production (like us)...

Yea, there's a lot of gear out here now, and that can sustain future (smaller) markets, but I suspect that much LF gear might end up as decoration or props (like I have seen in many non-photographers living rooms...

Well cared for gear can survive for a long time as it seems to have some apparent value to non-photographers as it looked expensive at one time... So probably not trashed...

If there was a big boom, I would expect someone would probably clone maybe a Copal overseas, as most of the parts can be broached and assembled without re-inventing the wheel (like China makes odd specialized LF stuff), but a matter of some demand...

And I'm sure there will be a few techs that can restore shutters etc if not too badly ruined (look at those old cars in Havana that are now supported by cottage industry)...

But expect a lot of new gear with unheard amounts of CAD + plastic, that might only last some years...

Steve K

[Per Madsen]

Imagine a new way of doing this (as a solution with no moving parts):

The shutter consist of an electronic shutter sandwiched between two coated glass plates.

The shutter are opague when closed and translucent when open.

Aperature consists of a number of concentric circles either opague or translucent.

The shutter are mounted in a standard Copal 0, 1 or 3 form factor, containing powersuply and control electronics.

The major problem would be production cost and time for switching between translucent and opague.


Regarding the old electronic shutters (compur ect.) the problem was, that only the shutter timing was electronicaly controlled, using discrete components with a limited lifetime.
The rest ot the shutter was still mecanical.

[Havoc]

Kerr cell shutters have been used but the light loss isn't negligible. Some kind of LCD tech might be usable but again lightloss and speed could be an issue and I'm not sure they are 100% opaque when closed.

[Bernice Loui]

Lots less to go wrong with lens in barrel. Another reason to consider one GOOD Sinar shutter, they plain work and negates the need for carrying several shutters.

That said, Copal, later Compur & Prontor Pro shutters are quite reliable, durable and last for an awful lot of open-close cycles. Keep in mind, back in the days when color transparency sheet film was the primary means for high quality color work it was common for a busy studio and film burner folks to burn a few thousand sheets of film per month.. month after month, year after year. Now ask, how many sheets of film can sheet film users burn today per month?

Regardless, modern Copal, Compur, Prontor Pro shutters are astoundingly durable and reliable for what they are.


Bernice

[Bob Salomon]

Lots less to go wrong with lens in barrel. Another reason to consider one GOOD Sinar shutter, they plain work and negates the need for carrying several shutters.

That said, Copal, later Compur & Prontor Pro shutters are quite reliable, durable and last for an awful lot of open-close cycles. Keep in mind, back in the days when color transparency sheet film was the primary means for high quality color work it was common for a busy studio and film burner folks to burn a few thousand sheets of film per month.. month after month, year after year. Now ask, how many sheets of film can sheet film users burn today per month?

Regardless, modern Copal, Compur, Prontor Pro shutters are astoundingly durable and reliable for what they are.


Bernice

Not really, if you are talking heavy duty cycles.
There was a company named American Traffic Systems in Phoenix. They were a pioneer in early traffic (red light) camera systems. They needed a reliable shutter system that could shoot at 1/500 with full flash synch in unmanned locations day in and day out.
They started out with Hasselblad ELX Camera bodies with a 150mm Sonnar with a spring tension in the shutter so the shutter could really fire at 1/500. They found that the shutter would fail after 100 or 150 exposures.

So they bought some Rollei 6008 camera bodies and the 150mm Zeiss Sonnar in Rollei PQS shutter. One installation was in the outback of Australia at a railroad crossing where they had over 100,000 shutter actuations at a true 1/500 with no failures on a single lens and camera.

We had high hopes for very large camera and lens sales after this but the company made their own camera body and we only got lens sales!