Is there a standard lensboard opening for barrel-mount lenses?

[celluloidpropaganda]

I've got my eye on a few cheap barrel-mount lenses on ebay, but I can't seem to hit on the right combination of search words to find out which size lensboards I should buy - copal 0, 1 etc. - or if I should buy blanks and drill to fit for each individual lens.

 

[juan]

You'll just have to measure - or research - each individual lens. Some are metric - some not. Some can use standard copal sizes - not do not.
juan

 

[Dan Fromm]

I have a small mountain of lenses in barrel. None mounts in a hole sized for a #0 or #1 shutter. Some mount in holes larger than the boards I want to put them in. Some are tiny. It depends on the lens. Drill no board, make no adapter until you have the lens in hand.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

If you're very lucky, once in a while you will get two lenses that use the same flange, but this is rare.

I have a Voigtlander Petzval, a Voigtlander Heliar, and a Verito that all use a flange that is approximately 4 inches, but each is slightly different.

I have a 12" Gold Dot Dagor, a 19" Apo-Artar, and a 5x8" B&L Tessar, though, that all take the same flange.

It's unpredictable.

 

[jimgalli]

Dan will outbid you anyway, so problem solved.

 

[rrankin]

If you are going to make a habit of this (as most of the above posters and I seem to do), a 'universal iris' or 'universal holder' is the way to go. They are a mechanism that holds barrel lenses without a flange at all. They are screwed into the front of a lensboard with a fairly big hole in it. They close in on the barrel like an aperture iris, then another knob tightens it down. You can install one of these on a single board and hold most sizes of lenses you're likely to encounter. There have been a few on Ebay lately but they aren't cheap. Here's a picture of one I found on theLF site . It's the top roundish bit in the photo with the two screw knobs:
http://www.photo.net/bboard/big-image?bboard_upload_id=21494384

Cheers, Richard

 

[Mongo]

Not having access to a universal iris (and unable to bring myself to buy one when there are so many great lenses I could spend the money on), I've taken to making my own lensboards. It's the cheapest way to mount lenses, and it isn't all that difficult. I use hobby plywood and a Dremel tool. Usually that's all it takes. With a bit of ingenuity you can make just about any lensboard that there is.

Any time I'm mounting a lens I just remind myself of the lenses I can buy with the money I'm saving. It's a great motivator, especially for a lens junky like me. (I figure that most lensboards cost me less than $1 to make, and I can make a lensboard for any of my current cameras in under 30 minutes.)

 

[Dan Fromm]

Dan will outbid you anyway, so problem solved.

Jim, I've pretty well stopped acquiring lenses. Too many people know too much. Good for you as a seller, bad for me as an accumulator.

I know I'm not quite your favorite charity. Send money anyway.

Cheers,

Dan

 

[Ole]

I'll repeat the advice to get a Universal Iris Lens Mount. Surprisingly they show up every once in a while on ebay - and they are often cheaper when attached to a camera! This one, with the attached 13x18cm camera with 6 holders complete with film inserts, all in exellent shape for it's age (80+ years), cost me less than $200.

Dead Link Removed

 

[celluloidpropaganda]

The universal mount is interesting, I'd never heard of one before.

Having priced blanks, I think I'd best look into cutting my own (generics from Badger cost more than the lenses I'm looking at!). Shouldn't be anything too tricky for Technika/Shen-Hao boards to start with.

Thanks to everybody for the info.