Long Lens for a Short Bellows - What do you do?

Like others I have problems using a 300mm Nikon M on a Wista, it'll focus OK but at full extension and isn't that stable unless it's a very still day.

I picked up a coated 17" f4.5 military telephoto a few months ago but it's shutter less and needs an aperture scale, this would focus easily on the Wista but I'm going to have to make an extension board so I can use it on my Speed graphic which was modified to be a WA camera (from new).

Ian

Ian Grant said:

Like others I have problems using a 300mm Nikon M on a Wista, it'll focus OK but at full extension and isn't that stable unless it's a very still day.
Ian

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I compared my buddy's Nikkor M 300mm and my Fujinon C 300mm on my Toyo 45AII and the shorter focus (290 vs 282) with the Fuji made a much bigger difference than I expected, in terms of close focus ability anyway. (I also compared my 305 G-Claron before getting rid of it. Very little close focusing ability ((published at 302mm)) on my Toyo and it was much heavier than either the Nikkor or Fujinon, thus less stable at full extension.)

My understanding is that the actual focus distance of each individual lens can vary a bit but the lenses I mentioned testing side by side definitely showed a significant difference in the order indicated by their published numbers.

When I had a Toyo 45AII I used the Fuji 300mm Telephoto. Worked just fine.

I now have a Chamonix and a Linhof MT, so no need for the telephoto -- I now use the Fujinon-C 300mm instead.

Rolfe Tessem said:

When I had a Toyo 45AII I used the Fuji 300mm Telephoto. Worked just fine.

I now have a Chamonix and a Linhof MT, so no need for the telephoto -- I now use the Fujinon-C 300mm instead.

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Your Fujinon-C 300 would have been even better than the telephoto as it's so much lighter and balances beautifully at full extension. It's flange focus being 282mm gives you 42mm past infinity to play with. It's been a while since I measured it but I believe it focuses as close as 8 or 9 feet.