bbqguy. Unlike rollfilm cameras where each camera has proprietary lenses, on LF cameras you can use lenses by a variety of makers, or from different eras of lens design. Google is your friend. Here's a piece by my friend & pro photographer Todd Korol, on choosing LF lenses... it's a good primer. & your observation is correct, package deal LF kits are the exception rather than the rule.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU5EpJB56tE&t=52s
Read post# 33 in this thread about print image goals defining what lenses are required.
What needs to be well understood and accepted, view camera is essentially nothing more than a box that is precisely supported on the ends and flexi in the middle. This is why there are no brand defined lenses for a view camera, the lens mounting restrictions baked into the majority of roll film cameras do not apply to a view camera. This is often due to roll film cameras being a fixed box between lens mount to film plane which imposes stiff restrictions and requirements on the lenses (back focal length, lens mount, data interchange between camera body to lens) that can work for a given fixed box camera. None of which really applies to a view camera.
So, pick the lenses of your choice that has the best possibility of meeting your print image goals, then figure out the camera that works best with that given lens set choice. That said, there are view camera system that do appear on the used market. Not sure how often this happens any more, but there was a time when complete view camera systems were available used at very modest cost in the local ads and similar.
Bernice
Originally Posted by thebbqguy
If they fit on the lens board and aren't heavy, it matches up. Buying package deal with lens is generally not a good idea because you aren't customizing to your needs. For my Chamonix 4x5 I have three sets of lenses. One is of lenses vintage 1850-1870 that I use for shooting wet plate. The second set is of lenses vintage 1900-1930 I like to use when shooting dry plate (or just want a softer look on film.) The third set is modern lenses (Nikon, Fuji, Rodenstock) in Copal shutters. I use these when I need a big image circle for architecture or want a more modern look to my images. This is what I love about large format--I can use lenses from any era since 1840. Some people even take lenses from telescopes made in the 1700s and can use those to make photos with.
Kent in SD
In contento ed allegria
Notte e di vogliam passar!
Large-format lenses mount on lensboards, which in turn, mount to your camera. Most lenses will fit on most cameras. Only lenses that are extremely large are sometimes a problems, since they end up being too heavy or bulky to fit some smaller cameras.
Any lens you buy needs to be mounted to the right-size board for the camera you have. Usually the lens and the lensboard are a package and stay together as a unit (i.e., we mount each lens on its own dedicated board and leave it there).
Those of us that have cameras that take different size boards usually find a way to adapt the smaller boards to the larger by means of an adapter board.
In your case, the camera you end up with will determine what boards you need. Get one, with the right size hole, for each lens.
Hope this helps,
Doremus
While most, or many, lenses will mount to virtually any lens board that is larger then the shutter and/or lens physically not all will mount onto the camera if the rear barrel is larger in diameter then the opening in the front standard for the lens to protrude through.
For instance, virtually all 45 cameras that use a Linhof Technika 45 lens board have an 80mm diameter opening in the front standard that the rear barrel will have to fit through. If that rear barrel is larger then 80mm the lens won’t mount.
Also, some lenses have a rear barrel to large to allow the board to lock onto the front standard.
Oren, I used to buy, part out, and flip camera kits. I once sold an entry level Calumet 4x5 monorail that only weighed about 6 pounds. That's about the same as a Wista or Toyo 4x5 metal field camera. Take it off the rail and it is portable.
Calumet also made an even lighter model named the Cadet but it looked kind of flimsy.
Once you have to futz with taking it off the rail, it's a different game. OK, once I have to futz with taking it off the rail... YMMV.
I remember it well, fiddled with one at the local Calumet store long, long ago. No, I wouldn't want one now.
In that vein, I've owned various Gowlands. Peter made a 5x7 for me that was quite lightweight, but it was a nuisance to transport and to use in the field; all too easy to knock the standards out of alignment after painstakingly setting it up. Light weight is very important to me, but not if it comes at the expense of having the camera be a continual headache in use.
The Cadet was the worst LF camera I ever used.
“You often feel tired, not because you've done too much, but because you've done too little of what sparks a light in you.”
― Alexander Den Heijer, Nothing You Don't Already Know
Think tolerance of a camera's abilities depends on it's user.
At the beginning of the LF learning curve where all things are new and uncertain of how all this LF stuff works. This allows a lot of tolerance for lesser abilities of camera, lens, and virtually all items related to image making with a view camera. As the artist-photographer-practitioner goes up the learning curve, develops more skills , knowledge, abilities and at some point their very own style of print images made, understanding and demands on the hardware (camera-lens-film-processing-print making and all) grows and develops too...
That is when tolerance for lesser hardware (camera-lens-film-processing-print making and all) becomes greatly reduced. Some are perfectly good what what every tools are in hand, others aspire and dream of their idealized widget that might not make one bit of difference in the prints they are producing..
Bernice
At last I got to the point where I realised that. Whatever camera, film, lens, process I use, I'll never be able to make good enough use of it to make a difference.
Somehow at the back of my head it still nibbles at the edge...
Expert in non-working solutions.
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