I was wondering if there was a way to pre-determine the amount of bellows draw that a particular lens would need to focus on infinity. I currently have two lenses for my 4x5 camera. One is a Nikkor 210mm f5.6, and the other is an older 135mm f4.7 Wollensak from a Graflex camera.
I know that the 210mm lens can also be looked at as a 8-1/4 inch lens (210mm = 8-1/4 inches). I have found that from lens board to film plane, the distance appears to be 8 inches, for infinity focus. But, for my older Wollensak 135mm lens I measure it to be 4-7/8 inches, instead of the 5-1/3 inches that I would expect it to be.
So, I assume that this distance is more a factor of lens design, than it is about the focal length of the lens? Is that correct? If that is the case, for purposes of building your own camera, you would have to measure this distance for each lens that you have, to allow for the correct range of bellows draw. Or, is there some sort of math that can be used to calculate this, or a lookup table?
Thanks,
Jon Oman
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