I'm after a source for various diameter lens mount flanges. I've a bunch of barrel lenses and no way of attaching them to the Cambo monorail nor to the kodak (4x5/halfplate) field cam.
Does anyone have a link to a company that can provide, or else does anyone here produce them for their own purposes and have access to machines needed to make me a couple?
Any help would be great, I'm dying to use these lenses!
Thanks!!
After having accumulated lenses in every known age, diameter and thread possible (and then some), I have learned that there just aren't enough lens flanges to go around. If you happen to find one in the right diameter it's bound to be the wrong thread. The problem is that there was no standard sizes when these things were made - or maybe there were, but if so there must have been hundreds of different standards!
A caliper and a thread gauge will sometimes help in specifying what flange you want, but that doesn't mean you'll find one or even that it will fit if you do find one!
SK Grimes can make them, but unfortunaltely the cost will be higher than the lens in most cases.
The solution is to get a Universal Iris Lens Mount. These ingenious thingys mount on a lensboard like an ordinary (though big and bulky) flange, and allows you to mount any lens up to the mount's maximum size. unfortunately this is becoming well known, and the prices have recently gone through the roof. But it's still cheaper than 20 custom flanges...
Ole, looks like you have all the answers anyway!!
Any links to universal iris manufacturers?
Not all the answers, but I do have some experience with old barrel lenses...Originally Posted by Ash
I don't believe they're made any longer. And that leaves ebay and other second-hand sources. At least you won't be bidding against me; I have enough for now!
There used to be such modern "putty" material hardening in hot water - it was available in DIY shops and advertised exactly for this purpose - making nuts around threads... Hard enough to hold a lens.
I was thinking along those lines, but it will probably look a little nasty. I'll be looking out for clamps I think - place the lens in a correct diameter lensboard, and clamp the reverse to hold it securely. Less permanent than putty, but hopefully as secure
I had a flange made by SK Grimes about 3 or 4 years ago. The cost was surprisingly low, only around $25 US.
Not necessarily nasty - once hardened it can be filed to whatever nice shape you like! Even black painted. Clamps take too much space and they like getting loose. You could also try a thicker isolated wire - two coils around the lens and tightened with turning the loose ends to the desired pressure on the body. The lens threads will cut their own shape to it and the whole thing will serve as a flange.
Multiply those $25 by 20, add 20 lensboards (those are custom-fit too - or three custom-fit adapters to some kind of standard, and 20 of those lens boards), and a couple of iris mounts turn out to be cheaper.
Admittedly I paid about $300 for one of them, but that one came attached to a nice camera.
13x18cm plate camera, ca. 1900, with iris mount and a Goerz Doppel-Anastigmat Serie III "Dagor" 180mm f:6.3.
Man... all I want is one or two of those iris mounts!!
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks