It should be solid gold for the price ;~')) Look for a 300mm Symmar on Ebay and wait for a bargain. Not much demand for them any more. Then simply unscrew the front and rear Symmar elements and install the Cooke elements exactly the same. If Cooke didn't supply an aperture scale for Copal 3 with the lens, the Symmar one will be close enough to use. You could open a fifth of a stop to compensate, but with black and white it's a negligible difference.
But don't wait. Mount it in the barrel, get some slow - ish film. Stop down to 1/2 second, get a hat, or a "galli shutter" and go make pictures. Shutter's are over-rated comfort devices.
No, you should look far a later, all black copal 3. The earlier ones with chrome rings can have differences. I just did a search and oddly, the cheapest black ones are with Rodenstock Imagon which might be fun to play with in it's own right. A twofer. But those have no aperture scale at all which means you'd have to pay someone like Steve Grimes for a proper scale with all three possibilities that the Cooke provides. I wonder if someone already has those made.
Got a black Copal-3 shutter from a Nikkor W 240mm F5.6 lens today. Put Cooke XVa lens and dynamic ring on the shutter, very easy. Need use lens board locator ring and lens board lock ring came with the lens from Cooke. Images from all 3 focal lengths looked good on GG. Will take some shots before Hurricane Dorian arrives. How do I use this lens? Wide open?
Lens comes with a dynamic ring (aperture ring) with 3 aperture scales, which is placed between rear part of shutter and iris actuating plate. You rotate the dynamic ring to select the aperture scale you use according to which lens element you use. You cannot put the lens elements directly on Capal-3 shutter. The rear chamber for rear lens element is too shallow. You must use the lens board locator and lens board lock ring from Cooke which come with the lens you purchase.
Cool. All you need to do then is stop down appropriately for the scene you're photographing and 'let er rip, taterchip' The 26" will be sort of hard to use unless you've got a good foothold on the edge of the grand canyon. But the 19 is very useful as is the 12+
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