Finally after years of longing I have a large format camera a Christmas gift from my father to his graduating college student
I've purchased film, film holders etc. Now I only have to discover what lens to buy...only there was no instruction manual and I'm sad to say I don't know very much about LF cameras (something I'm hoping to remedy). So would anyone out there know a handy source of information in regards to the Cambo 4x5? I tried searching on google, but got nothing but sale items.
Thanks in advance,
Erin
The things to consider with a lens are the focal length and aperture (obviously - the aperture is mainly for focusing and composing and larger = brighter), but less obviously lens coverage (how big a circle does it throw - bigger allows you to get more movements without running out of image circle), coatings (older lenses from e.g. the mid or early 1900s can be single coated or if you go back far enough not coated at all), and the type of shutter it's mounted in. Modern (1980s+) lenses are multicoated and usually in Copal brand shutters which are sort of the standard (there are compur and others too).
Most modern Rodenstock and Schneider lenses are very good (and Nikkor and Fujinon as well); there are a lot of older lenses that are also very good. Newer ones typically are painted black and have an appearance something like this, and the advantage of multicoated optics and a good shutter:
I'd look on ebay for a Caltar lens in good condition - these are Rodenstock lenses with a different name stamped on them (there are also a couple of Schneiders, and even a Horseman designated by Caltar HR)- very high quality glass and brand-conscious people are afraid to buy them which means you can save a few hundred over the exactly identical rodenstock (the flipside is that you won't get as much reselling them, but you're buying it to shoot, not to make money on ebay!). If you're familiar with 35mm film or digital SLRs (which I'm sure you are) here are three lenses to consider and their rough equivalent in 35mm terms (full frame, not APS-C digital):
Caltar-II N 90mm f/6.8 (or f/4.5 for a bit more money) (same as Rodenstock Grandagon-N 90mm): Somewhere in the 20-24mm range.
Caltar-II N 150mm f/5.6 (same as Rodenstock Apo-Sironar N 150mm): About a 35mm slightly wide / normal lens.
Caltar-II N 210mm f/5.6 (same as Rodenstock Apo-Sironar N 210mm): A slightly long normal - ~50-60mm.
I have the 90 and the 210 and they're
excellent lenses. If you want to look up the specs of these lenses, there's a chart here:
http://www.largeformatphotography.info/lenses/LF4x5in.html.
I use my 210 quite a bit and the 90 a bit less (it's hard to get movements out of this focal length without switching to a soft bag bellows which is sort of a hassle). All three of these lenses have good coverage for doing all kinds of extreme movements (shifts, tilts, swings, rise/fall, etc). I'd get a 150 or 210 first, because 90 really is a very wide angle lens.
I paid $400 for the 90 and $205 for the 210mm. The rodenstock labelled ones usually go for $200 (or more) higher, even though they're exactly the same in every single way (made by the same factory, serial numbers in series with each other, etc).
These lenses typically come in a Copal shutter (Copal 0, Copal 1 or Copal 3, in order of size from smallest to largest). Whatever lens you get should come mounted in a shutter (some enlarging lenses etc come as "barrel" lenses which are not quite as useful), and you'll need to buy a lens board with an appropriate sized hold to mount it. To mount it you unscrew the rear element of the lens from the shutter, and remove the retaining ring. You can use any suitable spanner wrench for this, and there are lens-specific ones for sale at (for example) badgergraphic.com. I bought the $14 square piece of metal one and it works great.
In general largeformatphotography.info is a really good resource for articles and information about LF photography. There's also a good discussion forum there.
