Adapting 35mm lens.

[pigpen]

I bought a Crown Graphic instead of a Speed Graphic because it didn't have a focal plane shutter. I've heard some stories about people needing to remove the focal plane shutter (or just keep it open) because it had deteriorated to the point of it not working. Since this was my first LF camera, I wanted to keep it as simple and affordable as I could. If I get another one it will have the rear shutter.

[Dan Fromm]

pigpen, in post #3 above I asked you what you wanted to accomplish by mounting a "35mm lens" on a larger format camera. Please answer my question.

Your post #11 above on why you have a Crown Graphic was very illuminating.

There are many ways to get timed exposures with lenses in barrel. A camera like the Speed Graphic, which has a focal plane shutter, is one way. Some of us have hung -- many are the ways -- barrel lenses in front of leaf shutters. You'd do well to educate yourself, and about shopping as well as technology, before spending more money.

[pigpen]

pigpen, in post #3 above I asked you what you wanted to accomplish by mounting a "35mm lens" on a larger format camera. Please answer my question.

Your post #11 above on why you have a Crown Graphic was very illuminating.

There are many ways to get timed exposures with lenses in barrel. A camera like the Speed Graphic, which has a focal plane shutter, is one way. Some of us have hung -- many are the ways -- barrel lenses in front of leaf shutters. You'd do well to educate yourself, and about shopping as well as technology, before spending more money.

I have 2 sharp LF lenses and was looking for an affordable way to get soft focus. I have many M42/L39 lenses, the lens board would cost $20. Yes, I purposely bought the Crown as to keep my first step into LF as simple as possible. I thought asking questions here was "educating myself", maybe not. I mentioned in my second post that I was posting this question "before spending any money".

[Dan Fromm]

Thanks for explaining what you're trying to accomplish. Using a small format lens on a larger format isn't a good approach to getting "soft focus." Nearly all small format taking lenses are designed to give good image quality -- sharpness, if you will. And few of them will cover larger formats.

If you want a smallish circular image on a large piece of film, a small format lens may be just what you want. And if you want to use a shortish lens, your Crown Graphic is a much better camera for the purpose than a Speed Graphic. The 4x5 Crown's minimum flange-to-film distance is 52.4 mm. It varies a little with the version, but Speeds' f-to-f distances are around 67 mm. Neither will focus a 35 mm (that's a focal length, not a format) lens for 35 mm (film size) to infinity. I may have missed one, but I think that no 35 mm (film size) SLR's f-to-f distance is as large as 52.4 mm.

The inexpensive way to get soft focus is to use a pinhole. There's a literature on pinhole photography, there are sites dedicated to it, ... And there's software for designing the best (sharphest) pinhole for a focal length (= pinhole to film distance). I'm aware of all these resources but since I'm not much interested in fuzzy photos I can't give directions to them. If you look you'll find more than you need.

Pinholes in holders that screw into standard shutters are commercially available. Getting timed short exposures with pinholes, if needed, is very possible.

[Alan Townsend]

Thanks all. This is why I wanted to ask here before I spent $$. My original idea, before I found the seller on Etsy, was a step-up ring on the back of a DIY lens board. I had given up on the idea until I saw the guy making the boards. I thought, if he's making the boards people must be doing it. I give up again, I'm good at that.

As someone else mentioned, these may be intended for using enlarging lenses on view cameras. There may be some 135-150mm enlarging lenses for 4x5 that will fit these threads. I have a 135mm Rodenstock Rogonar-s mounted on my 4x5 speed graphic with a custom made lens board that I made. These are not 35mm lenses.

To actually mount 35mm lenses on 4x5 view cameras would require an adapter with approximately a 4x magnification, which would take a negative focal length lens element that would be difficult to design. There are adapters similar to this for digital cameras to use longer or shorter lenses on different sensor sizes. There used to be a really weird gadget called the speed-magney that did something like this, to adapt Nikon cameras to take 4x5 film. A simple achromatic negative lens, like a "barlow lens" for telescopes might work sort of for this with the camera lens stopped all the way down if you don't mind fuzzy and distorted photographs, which seem to be all the rage today.

Looks like a job for a lens tinkerer to me.

Have fun,

Alan Townsend

[Tin Can]

I bought a stack of Pinhole books for almost nothing

1970s 's was a peak

One book shows incidental Pinhole

Meaning we may find them produced anywhere

One was a huge hole in a bridge casting an image

[xkaes]

I'm aware of all these resources but since I'm not much interested in fuzzy photos I can't give directions to them. If you look you'll find more than you need.

Here are several links -- and more:

http://www.subclub.org/fujinon/pinhole.htm

[r_a_feldman]

I may have missed one, but I think that no 35 mm (film size) SLR's f-to-f distance is as large as 52.4 mm.

The T2 mount (M42×0.75) is 55mm.

https://www.graphics.cornell.edu/~we...-register.html

[Dan Fromm]

The T2 mount (M42×0.75) is 55mm.

https://www.graphics.cornell.edu/~we...-register.html

Is there a T-mount SLR?

[r_a_feldman]

Is there a T-mount SLR?

Not natively, but many SLR’s had T-mound adapters that were made for them, e.g., https://www.ebay.com/itm/283911351011