Wanderlust 4x5 P&S

[Corran]

Yeah I saw that, but I don't need another ~90mm lens!!
The Angulon I have is acceptable, as I've mentioned, at smaller stops. The SA would only be for shooting wider. We'll see, I'll try them both.

[Tin Can]

no comment

[Drew Bedo]

Capture the images you can with the equipment you have, wish for the "best there is", upgrade to what is available at the proce you can afford.

The whole point of the TravelWide is simplicity and light weight. I have rat-holed a compact 90mm from a press camera. There must be other 90mmlenses of better optical quality but . . .this one has been on my little Zone VI because the camera will fold up with the lense mounted. Whenever I can get a TW (new or slightly used) that lens will go on it, and I'll take what pictures can be made with that set-up.The TW with one Grafmatic will go into a small SLR bag and my back will thank me.

[Corran]

I like that I can change the lens for the situation at hand (not in the field, I mean before going out to shoot).

I will be trying out a 65/8 SA on it as well.

[plywood]

I tested my ratty Angulon f6.8 on a home built 4X5 and it is about what I expected, OK for the snapshot, small 2X enlargement I intend to use it for. I'm keeping an eye out for a super but not seriously. I'll probably be just as happy to stop the lens I already have down to f22 and use the TW on a tripod. For my other 4X5 the next lens I want is a Wollaston lens. They are available from Rinehold Schable, a APUG member. I think the 190mm f3.2 will be about right on 4X5 for portraiture and general not wide angle landscape.

[Ben Syverson]

One thing to note is that the Angulon ƒ/6.8 varied… a lot. It was manufactured over a very long time period. The "bad" ones should be good for contact prints and small enlargements. The "good" ones can stand up to 5x or 10x enlargement. Though they all have slightly weak corners wide open. The ƒ/8 and ƒ/6.8 symmetrical-ish designs are of course incredible across the field.

PS, we have a significant chunk of cameras assembled... We may ship these in smaller (250-500) batches just to clear room in the studio. It feels really great to look at a giant stack of cameras. At points, it felt like we'd never get here.

[Larry Kellogg]

To me, it's all about the lens in enabling this little plastic camera to punch far above its weight class.

So, I bought a Super and can't wait to see what kind of negatives it can produce. I'm ecstatic that they added the flocking to improve contrast, that might not have occurred to me.

I also have a fine 65mm lens, and with a dedicated TravelWide for each lens, I'll be all set to have fun.

[plywood]

PS, we have a significant chunk of cameras assembled... We may ship these in smaller (250-500) batches just to clear room in the studio. It feels really great to look at a giant stack of cameras. At points, it felt like we'd never get here.

That's great news. Will you be able to use tracking numbers so that we could be notified when shipped. In my neighborhood I'd like to be home when it arrives since a stolen TW would be irreplaceable.

[Brian Bullen]

Will any copal 0 90mm lens fit into the Travelwide. I have a fuji f8 and want to make sure it fits in case I ever get my hands on one of these. Thank you!

[Steve Goldstein]

Pretty much any Copal 0 90mm should fit, the question is the back-focus distance and whether you can achieve infinity focus. The camera was nominally designed for the f/6.8 Angulon, with 89.8mm flange focal length per some old Schneider spec I found. If the FFL is longer (e.g. Nikkor SW around 97mm) you'll have to use some of the helical's travel just to get to infinity, then whatever's left of the helical range will focus you closer. If your lens' FFL is shorter the you might not be able to focus at infinity.

The good news is that, of the ten 90mm lenses for which I was able to find a spec for flange focal length, the plain-old Angulon was the shortest. This means that all should be able to focus at infinity, with close focus will be limited by the remaining helical travel from there. I don't know what the total travel is, I don't recall if Ben and Justin ever published a spec for that. Here's my list:

Angulon f/6.8 89.8mm (in Copal 0, different in Copal 00)
Fujunon-SWDS f/5.6 102.5mm
Fujinon-SW f/8 99.2mm
Grandagon-N f/4.5 98.0mm
Grandagon-N f/6.8 94.0mm
Nikkor-SW f/4.5 97.4mm
Nikkor-SW f/8 97.0mm
Super-Angulon f/5.6 102.7mm
Super-Angulon f/8 98.8mm
Super-Angulon-XL f/5.6 103.5mm
Osaka f/6.3 ??
Wollensak WA Raptar f/12.5 ??

There are slight differences in the Schneider lenses depending on whether they're in Copal, Compur, or Prontor shutters, I've quote the Copal.