dazed and confuzed

[jj golden]

i bought a 127mm ektar lens, mounted in my board , installed on my camera omega 45d, ok now what? i cant see anything through the glass, (im sure i must be doing something really stupid here) i fully opend the shutter (that i made sure of) please help,

[Gene McCluney]

You should not only open up the shutter but open up the aperture to widest, in other words you should see light thru the lens, fully open, you should see no iris blades or shutter blades, just glass. If you then cannot see anything on the ground glass, you have one of two situations....One..your camera is not set near focus..that is your camera ground glass it too close or too far away from the lens by a lot shot, or Two..your lens is missing an element and not capable of focusing. Your Ektar should have glass elements on the back and front of the shutter.

For a 127 mm lens, you wil not need to use all the bellows you have, your front and rear standards should be about 127mm apart (a teensy bit over 5 inches)..in other words for focus at infinity the lens to ground glass distance should be near 5 inches.

I think this covers everything about as simply as possible.

[Jack Fisher]

One last guess: Is there anything between the ground glass and the lens? (a film holder?) With the lens and lens board removed, you should be able to look through the front of the camera and see the ground glass. If so, then what Gene said applies.

Jack

[GPS]

Com'on, take off that rear lenscap...

[Brian Ellis]

(1) Remove front and rear lens caps (one of my favorite tricks is removing the front cap but not the rear); (2) open lens to its widest aperture and keep it there using whatever mechanism the lens has to allow you do do that; (3) make sure you haven't inserted the film holder; (4) remove the ground glass protector if you have one; (5) drape dark cloth or whatever you're using over the camera, get under it, keeping your head about a foot away from the ground glass you should be able to see fine.

[Ed Richards]

> one of my favorite tricks is removing the front cap but not the rear

A killer on the Technika when you are using the rangefinder. I try to remember to look at the GG before I start shooting.:-)

[jj golden]

i had my bellows out to far, once i moved it in,,, poof, there it was, upside down but it was there lol, thanks guys for the replys

[SAShruby]

You know you've been ready for close-ups, betcha you looked very close before the lens and the picture on your GG was there, but you couln't see it.

[chris jordan]

If you want the image to appear right side up on the ground glass, you have to move to Australia.

[Ralph Barker]

LOL, Chris.