Wide angle lenses for 8x10

[Ron in Arcata California]

Here is my set up with the 75mm Hypergon and spinning star filter. The air is regulated by an original style bulb with air reservoir. The bag protected by mesh keeps the air flow constant and the small valve near the lens regulates the spin speed. It still takes practice to get even exposures without camera shake or enough edge light.


Ron Klein

[Kiwi7475]

Here is my set up with the 75mm Hypergon and spinning star filter. The air is regulated by an original style bulb with air reservoir. The bag protected by mesh keeps the air flow constant and the small valve near the lens regulates the spin speed. It still takes practice to get even exposures without camera shake or enough edge light.


Ron Klein

Thanks — quite a setup!

[Mark Sampson]

It's a welcome surprise to find a Hypergon actually in use by a current practitioner. Hypergons are legendary, like the ivory-Billed Woodpecker; not seen in the wild since 1948, yet not officially extinct. Fascinating to see a working setup, and a photo made with it. A challenging but rewarding device... thanks for sharing the pictures and story with us Ron!

[Jody_S]

It's a welcome surprise to find a Hypergon actually in use by a current practitioner. Hypergons are legendary, like the ivory-Billed Woodpecker; not seen in the wild since 1948, yet not officially extinct. Fascinating to see a working setup, and a photo made with it. A challenging but rewarding device... thanks for sharing the pictures and story with us Ron!

I'm still waiting to see someone using a Hill's Sky Camera. But also very pleased to see that ultrawide 8x10 in action.

[Tin Can]

90mm Hypergon image and data

http://www.glennview.com/index.htm

[neil poulsen]

I like the balance that I've struck between 4x5 and 8x10. (Or course, I would.)

I like 8x10 for their contact prints, and for the quality in images I can achieve with a modestly enlarged 8x10 negative. (Two decades ago, I picked up a Zone VI VC 8x10 enlarger for a very reasonable price.) I do fine with 8x10 using a 610mm Repro Claron, a Nikon 450mm Q, the 355mm G-Claron, a 300mm Fuji f5.6 (w/inside lettering), and for moderate wide-angle, a 250mm Fuji f6.7.

Outside this core of what an 8x10 can do well, I stick to 4x5.

Lenses of focal length smaller than 250mm focal lengths become exotic and expensive. So, I stay away from them. Moreover, the idea of photographing images with exotic 8x10, super-wide lenses and still have front to back sharp focus, etc., etc., (like with 4x5) is kind of a myth.

8x10 cameras themselves can have their own attendant problems. They can be prone to vibrations, heavy, and difficult to backpack. Used with sub-250mm focal length lenses , one will need a bag bellows. Problems, Problems, Problems. Why bother?

Fortunately, I don't have any of these problems using my 8x10 Bender kit camera that I customized, and that I picked up for practically nothing. It's a very solid camera that has usable bellows up to about 28", and it weighs less than 10 lbs.

[Corran]

Nice Hypergon setup. Always have wanted one. Guess I should've bought the one I was offered many years ago for $1500, though it was "just" a 90mm. Now all the ones I see on eBay are at ridiculous prices, like $5000 and up. Whether or not they sell ever is of course a different question.

[John Kasaian]

The widest I have is a 159mm Wollensak Yellow Dot. A 10" WA Ektar and 240mm G Claron see more use however.

[Ari]

Sticking with the holy triumvirate of 150, 210 and 300.
In my wilder days, I used the SA121 and the Nikon 120, both of which covered 8x10 dead-on, and provided a very slight vignette.
I wonder if Roberto likes his 180mm Boyer.

[Kiwi7475]

I like the balance that I've struck between 4x5 and 8x10. (Or course, I would.)

I like 8x10 for their contact prints, and for the quality in images I can achieve with a modestly enlarged 8x10 negative. (Two decades ago, I picked up a Zone VI VC 8x10 enlarger for a very reasonable price.) I do fine with 8x10 using a 610mm Repro Claron, a Nikon 450mm Q, the 355mm G-Claron, a 300mm Fuji f5.6 (w/inside lettering), and for moderate wide-angle, a 250mm Fuji f6.7.

Outside this core of what an 8x10 can do well, I stick to 4x5.

Lenses of focal length smaller than 250mm focal lengths become exotic and expensive. So, I stay away from them. Moreover, the idea of photographing images with exotic 8x10, super-wide lenses and still have front to back sharp focus, etc., etc., (like with 4x5) is kind of a myth.

8x10 cameras themselves can have their own attendant problems. They can be prone to vibrations, heavy, and difficult to backpack. Used with sub-250mm focal length lenses , one will need a bag bellows. Problems, Problems, Problems. Why bother?

Fortunately, I don't have any of these problems using my 8x10 Bender kit camera that I customized, and that I picked up for practically nothing. It's a very solid camera that has usable bellows up to about 28", and it weighs less than 10 lbs.

I don’t know about a myth. I use 180mm and 150mm on 8x10 a lot with great results. It’s hard for me to conceive of it as super-wide given that 150mm is just like ~23mm in 35mm equivalent (I think of the equivalent of 14 or 15mm in 35mm format as super wide), it’s just at the limit of what’s available/common.

A lot of cameras are able to handle 15cm without having to change bellows.

Yes a 150mm lens for 8x10 has become expensive to buy now— it didn’t use to be the case years ago, although if you look and are patient sometimes you find good deals. Everything with film cameras has shoot up in price I’m afraid…