F M L I S

[Curt]

That is Front Mounted Lens in Shutter. Is anyone out there doing this? What if anything do you put on the back of the shutter to protect the shutters internals. I was thinking of putting a filter there to keep things clean and I could use the filter in the way a person would use a filter. In LF photography the extra surfaces would not be a problem in contact prints.
Any idea, experiences, or adaptations?

Curt

 

[bobfowler]

I wouldn't put a filter back there, but a well fitted lens cap should provide plenty of protection.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

I only put a filter behind the lens when it isn't practical or possible to put one in front of the lens.

I use this arrangement for a trio of three lenses--a Kodak 10" Wide-Field Ektar in its native Ilex #5 shutter and a 12" Gold Dot Dagor and 19" Apo Artar that screw into the front of the shutter with an adapter ring.

 

[Curt]

I have only one lens in this predictiment a Goerz Artar 10 3/4 that just happens to fit in an Alphax that I just happened to have. I bought the shutter for something else and when I got the Goerz I found that it screwed into the front and it found a home. Who makes adapters? SK Grimes? I have a Packard that's nearly new. bulb and all, but I have not used it.

 

[Dan Fromm]

I don't see the problem.

I shoot a variety of lenses, mainly for larger formats, front-mounted on a Copal 1 on my 2x3 Graphics. While the shutter is on the camera, its rear is protected. For transport, I put a 100/6.3 Neupolar in its adapter on the front of the shutter, a cover on the rear, and put the assembly in a food storage container. With, of course, padding. Just in case, I try to make sure that when the shutter/Neupolar are packed the shutter is open.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

My adapter (fortunately both the 12" and the 19" have the same flange thread) is made by S. K. Grimes.

 

[Curt]

Having the shutter open, now I had not thought of that. I am going to check with Grimes about an adapter. Shutters are expensive enough and there is the mounting and the engraving of the iris. Multiply that by a half dozen lenses or more and outch, expensive. I got lucky with the Alphax and Goerz 10 3/4 in. My other two without shutters might both work in one shutter with adapters... Could be expensive anyway.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

If you are front-mounting, you don't need to engrave the iris scale, because you'll be using the iris on the lens barrel and leaving the iris on the shutter wide open (except for those times when you get confused and accidentally adjust the wrong iris, which would be friendly LF suggestion #135).

 

[Struan Gray]

I use a Sinar shutter. Traditionally expensive, but the green Norma-era ones seem very cheap on eBay these days. Supposedly delicate, but mine has been backpacked on long hikes and used in light rain with no ill effects. I worry more about the sticking-out levers and flash-sync stub than the shutter blades.

There seems to be a steady supply of DB boards and the old green coned boards if you want to re-mount your lenses. I use my shutter most with process lenses, which project so little behind the flange that they can be used on a flat lensboard. With really big lenses (a 36" Aero monster, a 14" Verito) or those I usually use in shutter and don't want to re-mount (90 and 121 Super Angulons) I put the shutter on an intermediate standard and use a second bellows between it and the lens.

 

[Struan Gray]

PS: you can protect the blades on the Sinar shutter with blank lensboards.