Large format macro

My 150/5.6 Componon is already mounted in a shutter (#1?), and I've used it several times. I won't have money to spend on lenses and shutters any time soon, though -- and I do have 4x5 film on hand, so experimenting with the lenses I have will come first...

Probably a #0 shutter with speeds to 1/500.

Speeds to 500 I'll confirm; I'm not sure what size it is, but it mounts nicely in an Annie/GVII board, so I'm happy with it.

Donald Qualls said:

Speeds to 500 I'll confirm; I'm not sure what size it is, but it mounts nicely in an Annie/GVII board, so I'm happy with it.

Click to expand...

Marked speeds to 500 = #0. To check, try swapping the cells front to rear. #0s are asymmetrical, 40 mm front threads, 36 rear.

By the way, I just checked, my 105/5.6 Componon's cells are direct fits in a #00.

I'm pretty sure I tried mounting the front cell backward once (seeing if it would produce good images as the longest in a convertible set) and it threaded right in. I'll try to remember to look at the shutter and confirm what brand and verify reversing the lens when I'm home tonight.

Nothing new, but my plate camera 9x12 having a focal length F=135mm can do 1:1 macro with the extension B=270mm and the max extension B=290mm reaching 1:1.1481 magnification and requiring 2-stop compensation @1:1 and 2.2 stops for @1:1.1481 magnification.

Hope, I can shoot some rododendrons in coming spring...

Dan Fromm said:

Marked speeds to 500 = #0. To check, try swapping the cells front to rear. #0s are asymmetrical, 40 mm front threads, 36 rear.

By the way, I just checked, my 105/5.6 Componon's cells are direct fits in a #00.

Click to expand...

Okay, I was incorrect. My Componon (150/5.6) is mounted in a Synchro-Compur with 400 maximum speed. Also, the front and rear cells on the Componon are different thread diameters. Front group larger, probably what you quoted above, but this is too big for a #0, I think. The shutter has an engraved aperture scale that matches the full lens, but doesn't have markings for the rear group alone. This shutter, however, is much larger than the one on my Annie that holds my 135/4.5 Tessar (which is an older rim-set with the works gone, but IIRC maxed at 250 -- the Annie is currently out of reach).

My Angulon 90/6.8 is in a Compur-Rapid the same size as the older rim-set on the Annie; that one also has larger front thead than back, but only by a couple millimeters. Could that be a #00? I thought the #00 was the size you'd see on medium format folders.

#00, front and rear threads M22.5x0.5
#0, M29.5x0.5
#1, M40X0.75, M36x0.75

This is the modern Compur, Copal and Prontor standard, but there are no #00 Copals

You don't necessarily have to reverse the lens elements to shoot at 1:1 or closer. A lot of lenses will work well enough in their normal orientation until you start getting into much greater magnifications. You could try it out yourself just by looking at the image on the ground glass and evaluating if it seems to have good enough sharpness and contrast to warrant spending a couple sheets of film testing it.

Dan Fromm gave good information in post 18 (and a few years ago) above. Movie camera lenses can give greater magnification than larger camera lenses.