Sharing lenses between lf and alpa, silvestri, etc?

[Former Member 8144]

Out of interest, whist thinking about some future possibilities, does anyone know how easy it is to share one's large format lenses between a standard lf camera and the various more compact shift option cameras such as alpas, fotoman dmax, or upcoming arca r which all use a helical focussing system?

I'm wondering as there are various occassions when you need / want to have shift and rise movements but need a hand holdable camera such as the ones above..and of course don't want to invest in 2 sets of lenses.

I am not talking about changing lenses between the cameras in the field or on location but in the studio.

Cheers,

Marc

[Justin Cormack]

The lens fixing is the same on a helical mount or a lensboard, so its not too hard.

[Doug Dolde]

I don't think you are going to get a reliable answer here on this forum. There aren't enough people with expericence in these kind of cameras much less several of them.

[Larry Menzin]

It's a workable proposition, with some trade-offs. It is possible to mount lenses with helical focus and bayonets to a lens board. In my case, I had the Silvestri rep mount a female Silvestri bayonet mount to a recessed Arca Swiss 6x9 lens board.

I can thus use the same lenses on both systems. However, the helical mount gobbles up about 30mm in focal length, i.e. a 75mm lens acts like a 105mm lens in terms of focal distance. Since Silvestri and Alpa-type cameras were designed with wide-angle in mind, using a helical mount on a view camera kind of defeats the purpose.

With my Arca Swiss 4x5 with shortest bag belows, a 75mm Silvestri lens is workable. The 55mm lens will just focus at infinity, but shift is impossible. Anything shorter is out. On my 6x9 Arca Swiss, I can get the 45mm to barely work, with 55mm decent, and 75mm great.

Since much of my work is digital, the 35mm, 45mm, and 55mm APO Grandagons for film do not yield good results on a view camera with a Phase digital back. The 75mm seems fine. I may just sell the Silvestri lenses and get a 55mm APO Sironar digital for my Phase back. It also covers 6x9 film nicely.

Out of interest, whist thinking about some future possibilities, does anyone know how easy it is to share one's large format lenses between a standard lf camera and the various more compact shift option cameras such as alpas, fotoman dmax, or upcoming arca r which all use a helical focussing system?

I'm wondering as there are various occassions when you need / want to have shift and rise movements but need a hand holdable camera such as the ones above..and of course don't want to invest in 2 sets of lenses.

I am not talking about changing lenses between the cameras in the field or on location but in the studio.

Cheers,

Marc

[Former Member 8144]

yes I would not be looking to use the helical focussing mounts on the view camera..just on the alpas etc and then removing the lenses from these mounts for normal use on a view camera.

[Larry Menzin]

I'm not sure that removing the lenses from their helical mounts is a good idea. If Alpa is like Silvestri, these lenses undergo collimation at the factory to ensure proper focus in the helical mounts. Taking them out of the mounts and later installing them again is likely to affect collimation. IMHO, the only way to get dual use is to mount an appropriate female bayonet ring to a lens board and use the helical mount as-is.

yes I would not be looking to use the helical focussing mounts on the view camera..just on the alpas etc and then removing the lenses from these mounts for normal use on a view camera.