Hello, I'm Louis, an amateur photographer based in Paris, France. I'm new to the forum because I'm embarking on a rather crazy project: I want to shoot very large-format studio portraits on wet plates using the wet collodion process.
I've just completed a training course and I'm now looking to buy the best equipment to achieve my goals. For the camera, I'm aiming to buy the Chamonix 14X17, but it's the lens that complicates things. During my research I found a good number of lenses that can cover the 14X17 format, but the problem is that these numerous references have apertures that don't go below f9 and that in the perspective of making wet plates with collodion it would be relevant to have the brightest lens possible. What's more, I've also seen that coated lenses should be avoided when shooting wet plates, as they produce too much contrast. Is this really the case?
To sum up, in view of my research, it seems more appropriate to turn to older, uncoated lenses, which could possibly have a wider aperture than more recent lenses. If any experienced people on this forum could help me in this direction, it would be a great help, as it's more difficult to find references for old lenses and to find ways of acquiring them.
Thanks in advance
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