DIY Camera Suggestion for Ysarex 127mm Polaroid 110a lens

Mustafa Umut Sarac · Oct 6, 2013

I bought a Polaroid 110a lens - nothing else- Rodenstock Ysarex 127 mm from ebay. I think it covers 4x5 but I dont have any tool to build a bellow camera. I saw some tank like box cameras but I dont know they can control focus. I love to take concrete , rust , writing on the wall , portrait , ship parts and close range Leica style 50s style photography. I will like to take many pictures in one bosphorus visit and I am thinking loud may be 220 bw film and
2 1/4 x 5 inches photography is the best. How can I control focus like an old Leica with rotating the lens may be or is there a easy way to do without bellows. Ground glass and 220 film would be great , may be removing the film compartment is necessary. How this would be done ?

Umut

Dan Fromm · Oct 6, 2013

Google "sliding box camera"

Why aren't you out taking thousands of pictures with your Leicina?

Mustafa Umut Sarac · Oct 6, 2013

I cancelled my order at last minute because shipper had no guarantee Leicina was working. I will order a mechaniccal bolex at my next birthday Dan.

jbrubaker · Oct 6, 2013

The Polaroid lens is very nice and it will cover 4x5. I mounted this lens to a Crown Graphic camera I used to own and it performed very well. ---john.

LJH · Oct 6, 2013

eBay has both 4x5 bellows and helical lens mounts.

Bill Burk · Oct 6, 2013

Hi Umut,

I think you will find this lens is not the same as Leica, it is after all, a Tessar design, which has soft corners. I like the look, so it is a lens I use quite frequently.

You would have fun, I think, making a box paper camera. Set the focus to be something real close, for example 3 feet. Tie a string to the camera at the focus distance and hand it to your subjects. They would hold the string to their nose, you would prepare the camera for shooting, then they drop the string. You would have, a perfectly focused shot - and without any complicated mechanism.

Mustafa Umut Sarac · Oct 7, 2013

Hi Bill,

I saw some portraits at polaroid gallery may be 5 or 6 years ago and damm , they were damm sharp on pn 55. I never saw sharper images in my life , they were african people on black ground and these images inscribed to my mind. I printed and developed 100 000 negatives with rodenstock when I was young and helping to fund my university expenses. It depends on all you do about printing. Rodenstock enlarger lennses are for blacks , I did not see better black than them.

Your suggestion is excellent , I have to figure out what is my best distance to image.

Thanks all ,
Umut

Bill Burk · Oct 7, 2013

I don't mean to criticize the lens - by saying it is soft at the edges, it's not a Petzval. There is just a very slight softening and distortion at the periphery. You can look in my gallery uploads, most everything that is 4x5 was taken using that lens. You might be able to see what I mean.

It's funny that when I used a community darkroom, I enjoyed a Nikon enlarging lens, so when I went on my own I selected one to buy brand new. It never met my expectations. But a Rodenstock Omegaron, which was a good bargain, proved to be my first usefully sharp 50mm enlarging lens.

NedL · Oct 7, 2013

Bill Burk said:
...It's funny that when I used a community darkroom, I enjoyed a Nikon enlarging lens, so when I went on my own I selected one to buy brand new. It never met my expectations. But a Rodenstock Omegaron, which was a good bargain, proved to be my first usefully sharp 50mm enlarging lens.

I find reading this a little discouraging, since I don't have anything to compare w/ my el nikkor so I wouldn't know. Do you notice this using the lens as well as in the finished prints?

I think the idea of a fixed focal length box camera is great, and Umut I hope you enjoy using it on the bosphorus!

Bill Burk · Oct 8, 2013

NedL said:
I find reading this a little discouraging, since I don't have anything to compare w/ my el nikkor so I wouldn't know. Do you notice this using the lens as well as in the finished prints?

NedL, I'm sorry I criticized a lens that might be the one you use and rely on. The older-style lens in the community darkroom pleased me quite a bit. The one I bought that disappointed me was the "newer-style" 50mm f/2.8 El-Nikkor N.

I was young and inexperienced.

I just checked my vintage 8x10 prints that I know were made using that lens.

The issues I see (grain blur on corners) could very well be attributed to enlarger misalignment.

Don't be discouraged. I am sure your lens is fine.

Fixcinater · Oct 8, 2013

Mustafa, check out the Polaroid 900 or 800 or 150 roll film cameras. Fairly easy to convert to 4x5 back like a Graflok, fairly easy to adjust the rangefinder for focusing a lens and the one you mentioned would be perfect. Basically building a 110a/b from the two cameras.

You can also do simpler roll film conversions with less hacking and fabrication.

DIY Camera Suggestion for Ysarex 127mm Polaroid 110a lens

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