portrait lens that will fold inside crown graphic

[Pedro_fiz]

I have a Rodenstock 200 Imagon. It Is not for everybody but this lens is different...

[Ben Haning]

Thanks for the suggestions for lenses. I think a 203mm Kodak would be nice if I can find one that is in good shape. I appreciate all your advice.
Ben

[EdSawyer]

240mm f/9 Fuji will certainly fold up inside, easily.

[Louis Pacilla]

240mm f/9 Fuji will certainly fold up inside, easily.

Yes Ed but HOW will he get the 240(f9-Portrait?) to do head/head & shoulders with the limited bellows? He WANTS to do tight portraits with this not landscape.

[Bernice Loui]

This would imply a focal length about 200mm or so. Given the limited bellows on a CG, achieving head/shoulder could be challenging to no-go. Using an extension lens board would work, but that will not fold up in the CG as numerous others have already replied.

Know CG are a press camera which is why the about 135mm focal length standard lens. When these cameras are pressed into making images they were never designed for that is when the difficulties appear. Best to use the CG for it's designed intended images. This is why deciding on the images to be made should be the first choice, second lens types that fit the needs of the images to be made, third the camera.


Bernice

I guess by "portrait" I mean a lens that would work well for close up head/head and shoulder views with little distortion of facial features. In my 35mm experience I like the 70mm look for most subjects.

[Ben Haning]

Thanks for the great advice. I was given the Crown Graphic by a cousin that is a retired newspaper photographer. So I was trying to use it for portraits of relatives during the holidays. My cousin also gave me a Mamiya c330 with several lenses. I may just use the crown graphic for group photos and the Mamiya c330 with 180mm lens for individual portraits. I have a whole plate camera with about 450mm of extension that has a whole plate back, 5x7 back and a 4x5 back. It will be better suited to the types of close up portraits I want to make. The whole plate camera is just larger, heavier, and slower to set up, needs a tripod etc.

[Peter Collins]

Note from a non-purist: Cropping is not forbidden, nor is it a sin. With lenses that are suggested in this forum for your CG you may well have unwanted image area on the negative. Thus you might print just a part of the negative, the portrait you want. If so, that leads to two additional considerations: 1. Final size of the print and its sharpness acceptable to you, and 2. Grain of the film you use (or will use).

Keep drilling down! You will figure it out!

[Bob Salomon]

Note from a non-purist: Cropping is not forbidden, nor is it a sin. With lenses that are suggested in this forum for your CG you may well have unwanted image area on the negative. Thus you might print just a part of the negative, the portrait you want. If so, that leads to two additional considerations: 1. Final size of the print and its sharpness acceptable to you, and 2. Grain of the film you use (or will use).

Keep drilling down! You will figure it out!

And using that short of a lens will foreshortening with large noses, foreheads, etc.

[John Kasaian]

Hmmm....how about reversing the lens board? Is it possible? I haven't looked at a Crown Graphic in quite awhile.

[MAubrey]

One thing to keep in mind is that magnification at portrait distances is greater for large format, so you benefit in getting a tighter AoV with less perspective distortion at shorter focal infinity focal lengths once you focus closer.

I tweeted about the difference a while back...
https://twitter.com/michaelgaubrey/s...96293320183808