Ohhh, Ba-by!

bobfowler · May 2, 2005

There are times when I'm REAL glad I can be quick on the draw and not let a silly little thing like money hold me back from getting something. I am referring to the 5" f/4 Ross WA Xpres I bought from Jason's Brooklyn Stoop Sale (part I). It greated me when I got home from work today...

I just did a very unscientific, hold-it-up-to-the-opening-in-another-lensboard for a look see on the ground glass of my 5x7 - this thing is going to be SWEET!

Carol - heads up, as soon as I make a lensboard and shoot a few sheets, it's comin' your way for some flash sync!

WOOHOOO!!!!!!!!!!

Peter Schrager · May 3, 2005

Ross Lens

Bob- I believe the Ross wide angle is one of the lenses that Ansel used alot. You have just found out about Ross lenses so welcome to the club. I have a 10inch Ross Homocentric in Compur that was sold to me by "dad" at Lens and Repro over 30 years ago.It was my only LF lens for many years.
There is the same lens in a different shutter w/o coating on epay right now.
Someone should grab it for themselves.
Best, Peter

Dan Fromm · May 3, 2005

Good luck. I have one, apparently WW-II vintage, ex-MoD, uncoated, in barrel. It is luminous, flary, not all that sharp.

I gather that yours is in shutter. Which shutter, and what is its smallest aperture?

I don't know about you, but my impressions of the image a wide-open lens puts on the ground glass don't always predict what it will put on film when stopped down.

Cheers,

Dan

Ole · May 3, 2005

bobfowler said:
There are times when I'm REAL glad I can be quick on the draw and not let a silly little thing like money hold me back from getting something. ...

So am I - the Gandolfi wood parts are my way to "modern" 8x10", and the (coated!) Eurynar is in place in the old Rodenstock plate camera. It was a drop-in in the same shutter where the old, fogged, and cracked Eurynar sat. So now I'll just have to get a new ground glass for that camera, and anther for the bergheil, and then one for each Gandolfi back, and I might as well replace the one on the Linhof Color... Satin Snow can expect an order from me very soon!

bobfowler · May 3, 2005

Peters said:
Bob- I believe the Ross wide angle is one of the lenses that Ansel used alot. You have just found out about Ross lenses so welcome to the club. I have a 10inch Ross Homocentric in Compur that was sold to me by "dad" at Lens and Repro over 30 years ago.It was my only LF lens for many years.
There is the same lens in a different shutter w/o coating on epay right now.
Someone should grab it for themselves.

I have an 8 1/2" f/5.6 Homocentric. Nice piece of glass!

Dan Fromm said:
Good luck. I have one, apparently WW-II vintage, ex-MoD, uncoated, in barrel. It is luminous, flary, not all that sharp.

I gather that yours is in shutter. Which shutter, and what is its smallest aperture?

I don't know about you, but my impressions of the image a wide-open lens puts on the ground glass don't always predict what it will put on film when stopped down.

It's in a Betax #4, stops down to f/32. I'll find out how she performs this afternoon. I made a lensboard for it last night and got it mounted up and ready to go. I set up a still life last night and had a good look with it stopped down to about f/22 - it looks like it'll be fine. You're right though, there is no substitute for seeing what it'll do on film in a "real world" situation.

I'll soup and scan tonight and post an example.

Claire Senft · May 3, 2005

Did Robert Marplethorpe use a Homocentric lens?

jimgalli · May 3, 2005

Bob, These computer thingies have added an element of fun to life. Especially at my age. I'll get home and there'll be a box sitting there and I can't for the life of me remember what I bought. It's like Christmas. Last evening there was one with 4 lenses inside........one is even useable.

bobfowler · May 3, 2005

Claire Senft said:
Did Robert Marplethorpe use a Homocentric lens?

Well, it certainly wasn't a Homophobic lens...

jimgalli said:
Bob, These computer thingies have added an element of fun to life. Especially at my age. I'll get home and there'll be a box sitting there and I can't for the life of me remember what I bought. It's like Christmas. Last evening there was one with 4 lenses inside........one is even useable.

I know the feeling. I got home one night and there was a box with a lens that I didn't buy! The ebay seller screwed up and sent me the wrong package (I had bought a Packard). Too bad I'm so damned honest, it was a real nice 12" Commercial Ektar...

Speaking of packages... Has anyone placed a small order with Calumet lately? I ordered 4 yards of film holder hinge tape a while back. When it arrived, this little dinky roll of tape was in an 8x12x16 box with enough plastic peanuts to cushion a tank! The packing material was worth more than the tape!

I thought it was a fluke (or at least a bad joke) until I ordered 2 replacement 8X10 darkslides. When that arrived, it was a HUGE box with a ton of peanuts!

At least I have plenty of cushion material for sending lenses to Carol's Shutter Spa...

Nathan Smith · May 3, 2005

... to diverge from the thread topic a bit farther, is there much difference between film holder hinge tape and gaffer's tape?

Nathan

bobfowler · May 3, 2005

nsmith01tx said:
... to diverge from the thread topic a bit farther, is there much difference between film holder hinge tape and gaffer's tape?

Nathan

Yes there is. A roll of film holder tpae is about 1/4" wide and costs about $5.00 a yard (+ or -). A roll of gaffers tape is 2" wide and a 60 yard roll costs me about $15.00!

Seriously though, the film holder tape has a bit of a different adhesive and doesn't tend to slide as much with time and heat as does gaffers. If I had to do it again (and I will, someday), I'll stay with Gaffers.

dschneller · May 3, 2005

Or how about...

bobfowler said:
Yes there is. A roll of film holder tpae is about 1/4" wide and costs about $5.00 a yard (+ or -). A roll of gaffers tape is 2" wide and a 60 yard roll costs me about $15.00!

Seriously though, the film holder tape has a bit of a different adhesive and doesn't tend to slide as much with time and heat as does gaffers. If I had to do it again (and I will, someday), I'll stay with Gaffers.

...black hockey tape is $2.99 for a 12 meter roll. Seems to be holding up quite well so far.

Dave

Seele · May 3, 2005

bobfowler said:
There are times when I'm REAL glad I can be quick on the draw and not let a silly little thing like money hold me back from getting something. I am referring to the 5" f/4 Ross WA Xpres I bought from Jason's Brooklyn Stoop Sale (part I). It greated me when I got home from work today...

I just did a very unscientific, hold-it-up-to-the-opening-in-another-lensboard for a look see on the ground glass of my 5x7 - this thing is going to be SWEET!

Carol - heads up, as soon as I make a lensboard and shoot a few sheets, it's comin' your way for some flash sync!

WOOHOOO!!!!!!!!!!

Bob,

There had been many wide-angle lenses made by Ross over the decades, the WA Xpres was actually the first of the modern Plasmat-type LF lens which departed from completel symmetry. Most of them found nowadays were made for the war effort, of 5" focal length and mounted for aerial reconnaisance cameras taking 5" square film.

Other focal lengths were made as well for normal photography, mounted in shutters. I have a 4" version, mounted in rim-set Compur and it does throw a nice image, abeit quite flarey due to the lack of coating; if modern coating was used, it would be more than satisfactory.

In the Ross catalogues, the 4" was said to be able to cover 4"X5" at its maximum aperture of f/4, something I do not wish to try for myself. This being said, I think I should be using more of this lens.

By the way, the Ross Homocentric was identical to the Hugo Meyer Aristostigmat.

Also, are there a lot of us still using Ross lenses? Apart from the WA Xpres I have several, to frighten people I often use a Petzval-type lens by Ross, signed "A. Ross" so it was made before the founder Andrew Ross passed away, and by its Waterhouse stop slot I feel sure that it was made in 1858 or 59. Also I have an ultra-rare Ross Concentric 6" which I am determined to master obe of these days.

bobfowler · May 4, 2005

The first negs are hanging ...

... and they look pretty dang good!

I shot 5X7 J&C 200, various exposure times, but always at f/22. The coverage falls off at the corners (looks like about 3/8" radius), but that's OK, I didn't expect it to fully cover the 5X7 negative at infinity and as I allow for a bit on all sides for cropping, it's within my "safety zone".

DRY!... DAMN YOU.... DRY!!!

Ohhh, Ba-by!

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