Bellows and lensing question

[Keith C]

Hello all. Im a bit new so please forgive me if i use a few terms incorrectly.
I am in the planning phase of building a 8X10 wooden camera with a bellows. I own a brass petzval lens. Taking the recommendation from another post, i mounted the lens in a cardboard box, and using a sheet of paper to see focus i drew two lines. One when i was focusing on something very far off (infinity), and then when i was focusing on something close (2ft). For this lens, my lens board needs to be able to travel away from the film plane at a distance of 9 to 15 inches. It occurs to me that if i were to purchase a modern lens down the road, I would like to make sure that i can hit infinity focus with all or at least most lenses. I have not been able to find a chart that has that info. Or perhaps there is a general rule of thumb?
Thanks

[LabRat]

To keep it simple, you need the distance from film plane or gg to about lens iris to equal your focal length to focus to infinity...

To shoot close (1:1, the frame size and the size of your shooting area) requires double your focal length extension...

There are formulas to calculate different distances, but this would a nice range to work with if possible...

Steve K

[Keith C]

Thanks for the info. Now I think I can start cutting.

[Mark Sawyer]

To put it simpler, get a modern lens with the same focal length as your Petzval. It will focus in the same place. It's a focal length thing. Focal lengths just do that. You know, focus at a particular length. It's in their nature...

If I were a focal length, that's what I'd do...

[blue4130]

On this very site, there is a pretty decent resource. Check this link, and note the film to flange distance (for infinity)

https://www.largeformatphotography.info/lenseslist.html

[Keith C]

I like it. Nice and simple

[Ron (Netherlands)]

If you don't want to lose light when close focusing and thus preventing a lot of bellow stretch, one could make use of push-on close focus lenses.
In the old days for that reason many used Carl Zeiss Proxar and Distar lenses.
Btw these push-on lenses were not made to combine with the so-called convertible lenses like the Double Protars and other double anastigmats where each pair of lenses could be used separate to acquire a different focal length.