Newbie to LF photography looking for lenses

[oldmans]

Thanks for the advice Vaughn, appreciate your reply.

[oldmans]

Many thanks Michael, appreciate your reply. I had considered getting a shuttered lens to provide flexibility for future purposes so that's good to know.

[oldmans]

Thanks again Vaughn, much appreciated.

[B.S.Kumar]

First, let me say that I'm biased towards Shanel 5A shutters because a wide range of barrel lenses can be used with suitable adapters. Full disclosure: I have, or get made adapters for some of them including Fujinar 180, 210, 250 and 300mm lenses. Incidentally, Tessar and Xenar lenses share the same mounting threads as the Fujinars in the corresponding focal lengths. I also have an adapter for the Fujinon SF 420mm f/5.6 lens. The 300mm adapter can also be used for the Heliar 30cm f/4.5 and Apo-Nikkor 480mm f/9 and 600mm f/9 lenses.

If you intend using the camera for wetplate portraits, an f/4.5 lens is likely to serve your purpose better than an f/9 due to the slow speed of the emulsion.

Kumar

[paulbarden]

If you intend using the camera for wetplate portraits, an f/4.5 lens is likely to serve your purpose better than an f/9 due to the slow speed of the emulsion.

Kumar

I cannot emphasize this enough: any lens with a maximum aperture of f9 (or even f6.8) will quickly reveal itself to be a significant obstacle in the making of wet plate collodion work - even if you are working with studio strobes. Most people who do portraiture using strobes are using 2 or more 4800WS packs at full power. It takes a LOT of light from strobes to properly expose collodion, which has an effective ISO of about 0.5 in studio with strobes.

I've known a lot of people who announce "I'm going to make tintypes in-studio using strobes!" and discover very soon thereafter just how significant the obstacles are - and how much strobe power it takes to illuminate a person for making tintypes. Most people underestimate the requirements for the job. All I want to say is: don't make assumptions about the equipment you need - research it thoroughly, ask other practitioners about their experience with strobes, and heed their recommendations.

[fj55mike]

I can recommend the Kodak 21 1/4" f/11 Copying Ektanon. Stops down to f/128, super creamy bokeh, and usually can be had for less than $100.

[kilimanjaro1996]

Since OP you are into portraits, 250-300mm will be good for half body or full body while longer lenses (360-450) might be good for head and shoulder portraits. Since you have a Intrepid 8x10, the lens cannot be too heavy. And you want to use strobe sometimes, then the shutter has to be relatively modern and have x-sync. And you have a limited budget ($300-400).

After trying many different types of lenses for portraits, I myself like the older lenses (Petzval, Triplet) much more. They seem to have character that is missing from modern film/digital era. But unfortunately they are often without shutter, and you have to either use a hat, strobe in the dark, or Packard shutter. The modern plasmats (Symmar, Sironar, Fujinon, Nikkor) are perfect, but they tend to be a bit too surgical and sterile for portraits.

A Commercial Ektar 12-14" in shutter could be a good compromise: modern enough for really sharp results while still have a slight vintage look to it. There are many other brands that are very similar optical formula from similar era, such as Wollensak Raptar, Hugo Meyer, Orbit, Ilex, Fujinar, Osaka, etc.

[paulbarden]

I can recommend the Kodak 21 1/4" f/11 Copying Ektanon. Stops down to f/128, super creamy bokeh, and usually can be had for less than $100.

Stopping down to f128 won't be feasible when working with Collodion. In fact, with strobes as a light source, anything more than about f8 is going to be a serious technical challenge. An f11 lens poses too great an obstacle to working with collodion + strobes.

[oldmans]

Appreciate your advice Kumar.

[oldmans]

Thanks again Paul, clearly I have lots to learn and will try to research the equipment as much as I can!