If u could have one lens for 4x5

[Jim Noel]

I used a 150 Dagor on my field camera and nothing else for several years. Since the 150 is you r first thought, go for it.

 

[Old-N-Feeble]

I can't imagine limiting a kit to one lens. However, I do have a terribly perverse lens fetish.

 

[BrianShaw]

I can't imagine having a terribly perverse lens fetish.

 

[Old-N-Feeble]

I can't imagine having a terribly perverse lens fetish.

It's terrible. I'm ashamed to admit that I just focus around all day.

 

[palewin]

Of course the answer depends largely on how you "see." I tend towards wider rather than longer lenses. What I own: 80, 120, 150, 180, 210. What do I use probably 3/4s of the time, and would be my "gun to the head" choice: the Rodenstock 150, just as suggested in the original post.

 

[heespharm]

It's terrible. I'm ashamed to admit that I just focus around all day.

I guess you'll just hafta barrel right through it har har


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Dr Croubie]

I seem to be the only person advocating a wide, and really, 90mm isn't even that wide. I've seen maybe a few saying 135 and 150mm, and everyone else is at 200-210mm.
I know I said in (there was a url link here which no longer exists) that I'm going to try out some narrower-fov landscapes next time, but I just don't see good narrow shots very often.
Is it really not that limiting sticking always with 210mm?

 

[Old-N-Feeble]

I guess you'll just hafta barrel right through it har har

As I get older I just don't want to be married to one lens... I've completely lost my desire to be monogamous.

 

[Dan Fromm]

I seem to be the only person advocating a wide, and really, 90mm isn't even that wide. I've seen maybe a few saying 135 and 150mm, and everyone else is at 200-210mm.
I know I said in (there was a url link here which no longer exists) that I'm going to try out some narrower-fov landscapes next time, but I just don't see good narrow shots very often.
Is it really not that limiting sticking always with 210mm?

Croubie, the OP's question is too broad and so are the answers. Not that the OP and the responders are frivolous or that the OP's goal -- carry fewer lenses, concentrate on art -- is a bad one.

Rather that which focal length is best for a situation -- scene in front of the photographer, photographer's desired rendition of it -- depends on the scene. Where I live and often shoot lenses much longer than normal can't capture the scenes I see as I want to capture them because I can't get far enough back from the, um, horizon. I tend to use lenses shorter than normal, sometimes half normal. That's more or less your situation, I think. These focal lengths are, though, terribly wrong for much of the American west. There short lenses capture vistas that are all foreground and longer lenses work better.

 

[Alan Gales]

Croubie, the OP's question is too broad and so are the answers. Not that the OP and the responders are frivolous or that the OP's goal -- carry fewer lenses, concentrate on art -- is a bad one.

Rather that which focal length is best for a situation -- scene in front of the photographer, photographer's desired rendition of it -- depends on the scene. Where I live and often shoot lenses much longer than normal can't capture the scenes I see as I want to capture them because I can't get far enough back from the, um, horizon. I tend to use lenses shorter than normal, sometimes half normal. That's more or less your situation, I think. These focal lengths are, though, terribly wrong for much of the American west. There short lenses capture vistas that are all foreground and longer lenses work better.

I agree. Too much depends upon what you photograph, where you live and how you see and who knows what else. Everybody is different.

I know Frank Petronio pretty much just uses a 150mm for his portraits. It works for Frank.

 

[heespharm]

Croubie, the OP's question is too broad and so are the answers. Not that the OP and the responders are frivolous or that the OP's goal -- carry fewer lenses, concentrate on art -- is a bad one.

Rather that which focal length is best for a situation -- scene in front of the photographer, photographer's desired rendition of it -- depends on the scene. Where I live and often shoot lenses much longer than normal can't capture the scenes I see as I want to capture them because I can't get far enough back from the, um, horizon. I tend to use lenses shorter than normal, sometimes half normal. That's more or less your situation, I think. These focal lengths are, though, terribly wrong for much of the American west. There short lenses capture vistas that are all foreground and longer lenses work better.

Yeah i agree

My question wasn't advice related more like for what type of photography you mainly do, what would be YOUR one lens if you had to choose and in what instance..


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Alan Gales]

Yeah i agree

My question wasn't advice related more like for what type of photography you mainly do, what would be YOUR one lens if you had to choose and in what instance..


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Now if you changed the format to 8x10 the answer would of course be a 14" Commercial Ektar. Everyone knows that!

 

[BrianShaw]

Yeah i agree

My question wasn't advice related more like for what type of photography you mainly do, what would be YOUR one lens if you had to choose and in what instance..


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Really?

 

[jacaquarie]

Perhaps I have missed the obvious.
I start with a 210mm or a 8&1/4 and then.................
use my two foot wide angle - zoom accessories to frame and compose the image I want to photograph.

With so many choices have we forgotten to move the camera?

 

[E. von Hoegh]

Now if you changed the format to 8x10 the answer would of course be a 14" Commercial Ektar. Everyone knows that!

Silly wabbit. 14" Dagor, naturlich.

 

[heespharm]

Really?

Yeah youz got a problem with that ;-)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Vaughn]

...Is it really not that limiting sticking always with 210mm?

Sticking with one lens does not limit the number of possible images. There are an infinite number of images out there, and reducing the number by even 90% by using only one lens, still leaves an infinite number of images possible. Of course this does not mean that I can go out and find a image worth exposing onto film -- with one lens or six!

In a one-lens system, I prefer to use a 'normal' lens for the format. I find that it gives me the greatest flexibility...depending on the scene, one can get a normal lens to act somewhat like a wide-angle or a longer lens.

 

[Alan Gales]

Silly wabbit. 14" Dagor, naturlich.

I was just watching a 14" Gold Dot Dagor on Ebay. It started out cheap but ended up selling for over $800.00. The funny thing was that a previous owner had painted black over the face covering the white printing and gold dot. I guess you would now call it a Black Dot Dagor.

 

[TheToadMen]

[h=2]"If u could have one lens for 4x5 ..."[/h]
... then I wouldn't have GAS.

(I have several lenses for 4x5 but no camera yet)

 

[Alan Gales]

[h=2]"If u could have one lens for 4x5 ..."[/h]
... then I wouldn't have GAS.

(I have several lenses for 4x5 but no camera yet)

Ok, new thread.

If you could only own one 4x5 camera which one would it be?

 

[heespharm]

Ok, new thread.

If you could only own one 4x5 camera which one would it be?

So start a new thread instead of thread jacking this one ;-) hahah jk apparently anything goes


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[E. von Hoegh]

Ok, new thread.

If you could only own one 4x5 camera which one would it be?

I own only one 4x5, a Linhof ST IV.

How about one watch only?

 

[heespharm]

Great... Thread jacked :-( hahah

But for me it would be a Shen hao or a chamonix or an ebony... Love them wood field cameras


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[E. von Hoegh]

Great... Thread jacked hahah


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If you could have one thread only, which would it be?

 

[heespharm]

If you could have one thread only, which would it be?

Pmk vs pyrocat hd which one is better (breaking out the popcorn)

Hahahah


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk