where do you purchase very small screws????

[Frank_E]

Today I received my $29 large format lens and was pleasantly surprised.

Backing up a little. I am new to LF photography (as you can see from my post count). Have acquired a Nagaoka 4x5 field camera which was fitted with a 135mm Graflex Optar lens. I read that the coverage of this lens doesn’t leave much room for movements. Also thought it would be interesting to see if I can acquire another reasonably priced LF lens to experiment with and was successful with this ebay bid:

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...#ht_607wt_1167

It is an ILEX Paragon Anstigmat f4.5 165mm/6.5” in an ILEX no.3 Universal shutter.

The lens looks nice and clean and the shutter and iris work well.

My challenge is that the lens does not have the traditional “retaining ring” mounting arrangement. There are 3 very small threaded holes in the back of the lens which appear to be the mechanism used for mounting the lens. The holes are about 1mm in diameter. I have no idea what the thread would be.

Where does one find small screws like this. It is definitely not a Home Deport purchase….

Thanks

[Robert Hughes]

Check with jewelry suppliers, watch shops, scientific instrumentation suppliers... or maybe a camera shop. Who knows, you might even find someone there who remembers what a film camera is!

[Jim Rice]

Hardware store.

[Len Middleton]

Frank,

Are you saying there is no threaded section on the back of the shutter barrel for a retaining ring? I expect that your Optar would have a retaining ring that you could see as an example.

If would expect to hold that sort of weight mounted on the front of the lensboard, you would either need a retaining ring or some sort of clamping arrangement that would hold onto the shutter barrel.

Mounting it with small 1mm diameter screws would certainly leave me feeling a little anxious.

But to answer your question, I have got some small screws from Brofasco.

Good luck,

Len

[Frank_E]

Len,
I have compared the rear of the two lenses and they are quite different.
The Optar has the retaining ring traditional mounting arrangment.

The ILEX has no such retaining ring. The real element screws into the shutter like other lenses but the only evidence there is as to how the lens might have been attached to whatever it came off of (I doubt it was an LF camera) are those three small screw holes. I think it should be somewhat (but not very) strong if mounted this way. The lens is heavy so you wouldn't want to go backpacking with that setup.

There is one other possible way the lens might have been mounted. In the location where you normally find the threaded barrel on which the retaining ring would go, there is a 6mm high collar. The rear element is threaded into this collar. It is possible there was another collar which could be tightened around this first collar that was used for mounting the lens. If worst comes to worst, one could make a lensboard with an appropriately sized hole that this collar would fit through and then epoxy the shutter into this arrangement. Obviously removing it would be a challenge....

[Gem Singer]

Sounds like you are missing the mounting flange.

[Frank_E]

It was an "as is" purchase, and for $29 I don't have much to complain about.

Let me ask the obvious question, where might one acquire the flange (I know that is a stretch).

[Jim Noel]

Sounds like you are missing the mounting flange.

I agree.
You can make a lens board from modelers plywood and drill a hole in it which will just allow the shutter barrel to screw into it. This is faster and cheaper than looking for a retaining ring. If you are afraid hte lens will fal lout of the board, tack it ina couple of places with Super Glue.

Jim

[rfesk]

Look up SMALL PARTS, INC. on a search engine. They have the largest variety of screws anywhere I have found.

[Len Middleton]

Frank,

I have seen some shutters used on oscilloscope cameras that did not have a threaded section on the shutter barrel, and I believed they were clamped in place.

You might be able to fabricate something with a couple of right angle brackets mounted onto the back of the lensboard and use a hose clamp around the rear shutter barrel (where it typically is threaded) to hold it there. If you are particularly clever you might even bend the right angle brackets over into a "U" section to ensure the hose clamp does not slide off. Oh, and paint it all flat black.

Sorry but given I am heading out the door, it is the most creative thing I can think of at this time.

Good luck,

Len