Projector lens for 4x5 Speed Graphic

campy51

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Looking for something fairly cheap to play around with. Can anyone recommend a projector lens to adapt to Speed Graphic and best way to do it?
 

woodlandSerenade

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The older, brass B&L Cinephor Series II lenses are often pretty inexpensive on the bay. I have a 5.75" that covers 4x5 with some extreme swirls, and a 6.75" that covers with less nausea-inducing effects.

The barrels are stepped, so it's easy enough to cut a tight fitting hole in a wooden lens board and press the lenses into place.
That being said, I had issues with the wooden lens boards cracking with changes in humidity, so I sketched up some lens boards with a longer 'skirt' to cover more of the 'step' in the barrel and 3D printed them with an opaque filament & high infill.

The example image was taken prior to flocking the inside of the lens, which makes a pretty substantial difference in contrast by reducing reflections within the lens barrel.
 

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AnselMortensen

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Is your Speed Graphic an Anniversary or a Pacemaker?
The 4x4" wooden lensboards of the Anny are easy to work with...
The metal Pacemaker boards, slightly less so.
I have mounted numerous projector lenses on my Anny...drill a hole of the closest smaller size & sand to fit.
Black silicone RTV ( think fish tank sealer) or black hot-melt glue to adhere the lens to the board & fill the gap making it light-tight.
Best to mount the lens at its "balance point".
As far as cheap, there are a ton of Wollensak, Revere, etc. 5" f/3.5 projector lenses out there from various slide projectors.
Check garage sales, Craigslist, flea markets & thrift stores.
 

AnselMortensen

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It would be optimistic to try to use the rangefinder with a projector lens.

One "cheap & cheerful" (and reversible) way to mount a smooth-barrel projector lens onto a Pacemaker metal board is to wrap the lens barrel with built-up layers of tape on both sides of the lens boards (one side at a time) to make "shoulders" that butt up against the lens board....and then use hot melt or silicone to adhere it in place.

Another way? Automotive hose clamps.

Permanently? J.B. Weld.

Maybe others will chime in with other ideas/methods.
 

Harry Callahan

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campy51 said:
Looking for something fairly cheap to play around with. Can anyone recommend a projector lens to adapt to Speed Graphic and best way to do it?
Click to expand...

But... you needed a projection lens of a 4x5 slide projector then, as all the other lenses have too small image circle - or very high distortion on 4x5 as shown by woodlandSerenade.

It would do a lot more sense to adapt some enlarging lenses for 4x5 onto the Speed Graphic - unless you want heavy distortion in your images.
 

OrientPoint

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I would second hose clamps. Secure, easy to find, easy to use and easy to undo.
 
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