How do people shoot these anyway? Packard shutters or something like that? Stop down or shoot in low light with the lens cap as a shutter?
How do people shoot these anyway? Packard shutters or something like that? Stop down or shoot in low light with the lens cap as a shutter?
This week I was able to try out my 1935 Zeiss Tessar 21cm f4.5 with colour transparency films. I used the cap for a fast speed of two seconds, or longer for easier to do time exposures. To use it in daylight, I machined down an adapter (58mm to 52mm) to a tolerance fit, which now allows me to place 52mm filters in front of the lens. After getting the adapter on the lens, I can use ND filters to allow longer exposures in daylight conditions. While not as nice as having a shutter, it makes the lens more usable.
I would like to eventually have some sort of shutter solution, ideally with a sync post for flash. The downside of this is the high cost of old shutters that would actually fit the lens. I have trouble spending much on a barrel lens and shutter solution when the cost of everything combined is near the price of a much newer lens of similar focal length in a much newer (and smaller) Copal shutter. If you have several barrel lenses that can share a shutter, then it might make more sense.
A Packard shutter in front of the lens is one option. Another is a roller blind shutter, which will offer more shutter speeds. Then there are leaf shutters such as Ilex, Rapax, Alpha, or a few others that might be possible to mount to the front of the barrel. Then another issue is the weight on the front standard with all that.
Very old Compound shutters that can fit behind the lens barrel are another choice. The downside here is cost, since these are very desirable for people shooting 8x10 or larger formats. They do not come up for sale often, and can sometimes run more than a newer lens/shutter combination just by themselves. if you are patient and search carefully to find a better deal, these might be the best choice for barrel lenses.
Ciao!
Gordon Moat
A G Studio
The answer is yes. All of those things are options. Some barrel lenses can be front mounted on a shutter, but this often limits their coverage or maximum aperture. Another option is to use ND to lengthen exposure times.
Jim Galli figured out a way to use two 5x7 darkslides as a shutter. He holds them both with one hand so they form a plane with a wedge cut out of it. Moving this past the lens at different speeds and/or with a different cutout angle will change shutter speed. I can do it fairly accurate to about an 8th of a second. Jim is better practiced and I think he mentioned having it down to about a 20th or so. I'm sure he'll be attracted here and correct me if that's wrong.
Another way is to mount these lenses to cameras with focal plane shutters, such as a Speed Graphic or a Graflex SLR.
Walter, I shoot an absurd number of lenses in barrel. Some of the lenses are absurd too. Mainly process lenses, usually f/9 or f/11; some aerial camera lenses, one of them f/2; and a variety of more or less normal lenses for formats larger than 2x3.
Two ways. I use a 2x3 Speed Graphic, which has a focal plane shutter. If you shoot 4x5 (your screen name suggests otherwise), there are 4x5 Speeds.
Front mounted on a #1 shutter. Chris' concern about the risks of vignetting is well taken, but I haven't found it to be a problem with my lenses, my adapters for hanging them in front of the shutter, and 2x3. For larger formats, it would probably be best to use a #5. #5 Betaxes aren't that expensive.
The logical way to use a barrel lens is to mount a Packard shutter on the back side of your lens board. They are still made, but you can find used ones in all sizes. If your barrel lens is big, and you have a small lensboard, you can still use a small packard shutter, but it will restrict the maximum aperture of the lens. It will still work though. A packard shutter will have two operating options, both using a bulb and airhose. One option is open and close. The other option is an instantaneous speed of about 1/20 sec., depending on the size of the shutter. If you are the least bit mechanically inclined, you can mount a micro-switch on the back of the shutter such that when the air cylinder reaches the top of its travel (shutter fully open) it will push on the micro-switch, closing its contacts and acting as a flash-trigger.
Speed Graphic, or slow film and a big hat.
I've got a packard shutter somewhere, but can't make up my mind which camera to mount it on/in - the 24x30cm plate camera is a good candidate, but the thickness would actually limit the possible focal lengths I can use on it!
Hah, I hadn't noticed that (for medium format, as with most other things except large format, I think in centimeters). I shoot 4x5 (at least, in the hypothetical context of barrel lenses, of which I own none yet).Originally Posted by Dan Fromm
Neutral density filters or a pair of stacked/rotating polarizers let you get longer shutter speeds if you want to work wide open and still use a simple lens cap.
I prefer to think of mine as "kegs" rather than "barrels"...
check out my thread here for how I managed it http://www.largeformatphotography.in...ad.php?t=23098
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