Lens

martin henson

Very Active Poster
Registered User
Joined
Aug 6, 2016
Messages
620
How many LF users on here use lens longer than 210mm for landscapes, if you were to choose a longer lens what would you recommend, I know it depends but just a general idea, problems, weight etc
 
Oddly enough, I was looking through my lens case last night, and amazingly the smallest and lightest lens there is a 300mm Apo Ronar f/9.

A lot is going to depend on the bellows of your camera; the Wista DX would be borderline with a 300mm lens; and the only other common focal length below that is 240mm.

I've mainly used a 150mm lens, but am certainly warming to the 210mm as a standard. I tend to prefer longer rather than shorter focal lengths though.
 
I use a Nikkor-M 300mm all the time; beautiful small, lightweight lens. I backpack my LF outfits quite a bit. But, as Stephen said, if you use anything other than a telephoto design you'll need enough bellows to focus a longer lens--12" in the case of a 300mm, and that's only to infinity focus. So, realistically you'll need a bit more...say around 14".
 
If it's for backpacking and weight is a factor maybe a convertible Symmar would be worth thinking about. I think a 15cm becomes a 26.5cm lens converted, just be careful with focus shift stopping down.

I've used an 18cm Symmar converted on 9x12 too - in addition to a 22/22 Protar VII on a 9x12 plate camera. The 22/22 Protar lens is good for backpacking because it's so small and light. Symmar lenses are a bit bigger and heavier, but are coated and take modern filters too.

I've found that a long lens is very useful for landscapes, particularly in mountainous terrain.
 
I use a Fuji 240/9 quite a bit, great lens, small and light, very sharp and contrasty. Also the fuji 300/8.5 which is equally good and compact for a 300mm. Both will cover 10x8! Neither of the above are amazingly easy to come by unfortunately. The g-claron f9 lenses are more readily available and are very good and well regarded too.
 
The g-claron f9 lenses are more readily available and are very good and well regarded too.

Just be aware that G-Claron's were uncoated when first released and single-coated in later runs. Not sure if they were ever multi-coated. Certainly not a deal breaker either way.
 
That's true, I think most instance of G-clarons are single coated. Don't think it makes much odds either way, they're pretty simple designs with not many surfaces unlike zoom lenses.
 
I use a 270mm f9 G-Claron on my Wista. It's about as long as you can go on a 12" bellows and still have some close focus ability. If the rear group is not too big, you could probably manage 20-30mm of top hat extension, or look for a telephoto (which brings in the issue of movements when the optical center is not at the lens board).

The 270mm G-Claron is popular with 5x7 users, and it even works on 8x10 as a medium wide if one sticks with rear swing and tilt.

I probably do half my work with a 150mm, to be honest.
 
I use a Fujinon-T 300mm F8 on 5x4 with my MPP Micro Technical, it is nice and sharp plus it covers 5x7. Being a telephoto design the bellows draw required is much less than a normal 300mm lens at only 195mm. It's not too big or heavy but I'm comparing it to my Schneider 90mm f8 and 58mm f5.6 which aren't exactly tiny.
 
I have a Rodenstock 75mm WA and a 150mm 'normal' lens... but the lens I find most used on my 4x5 Linhof monorail is my f5.6 240mm Rodenstock Sironar... which also 'doubles' as a semi-wide angle on my much more experienced Burke and James 8x10 'woodie' via a home-made plywood 'adapter'. I'm now 'shopping' for a used Linhof lens-board for a 480mm f.9 Rodenstock Apo-Ronar for use on my monorail that will also 'match-up' with the 'adapter' on my B&J.

Ken
 
I have used and still use on both the Cham and Ebony the Fuji 240/9, Fuji 300/8.5, Schneider 300/5.6 (beast of a lens) and Fuji 400/8T. All wonderful lenses and great for getting more detailed landscape shots when you don't want the wider scene.
 
Glenn do you favour or find the 400 lens a more versatlie telephoto for picking out detail in landscapes as against the 300 lens, whats your opinion seeing you have both.
 
That would depend. Out of both focal lengths the 300 gets used the most but I wouldn't be without the 400.

For detail the 300 fits my vision and eye better than the 400 hence the reason I use it so much but there are a few occasions where the 300 is too short and the 400 comes out. If I was looking at longer focal lengths again I would start at 300 before anything longer. At least then I would have the option of cropping an image if the 300 was too short and then evaluate over time. If I found I was having to crop the 300 images all the time I would then look at something longer.

HTH.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I was just thinking about the choice of lenses for my Wista DX so this thread has arrived with perfect timing. I currently only have a Nikkor W 180mm f5.6 which is a lovely lens but I need something longer and something wider. I was hoping to go to 300mm but it would appear that this would be too long, is that correct? So 270mm or around that would be my best option. I was looking at one of these, FUJINON W 250mm f/6.3, which seem to have good reviews, any thoughts?

Andy
 
According to the first spec I found, the Wista has a maximum bellows of 305mm. If I've correctly used Windows calculator (and not made a slip in my mathematical rearrangement) that means that with a 270mm lens you couldn't focus closer than about 7 feet 9 inches (2352.857142.... mm on the calculator). Would that be a problem?

The 300mm lens would focus on infinity and just about assuming all figures are correct.

The simple formula to use is 1/f = 1/u + 1/v where f is the focal length and u and v are the subject distance and bellows extension. Purists will say that it's not quite as simple as that (but as close as makes no real difference), but then neither are manufacturing tolerances...
 
Thanks Stephen that clears things up I think. I'm not too bothered about going all the way to 300mm and having done some lunchtime research it would appear that the Fujinon 250mm is a well-regarded lens so I might treat myself.

As to a wider option I'm thinking that 90mm might be a little wide for my tastes so, sticking to the Fujinon theme, the 135mm f5.6 looks to be a nice little lens for a very reasonable price.
 
If you'd like to borrow a 90mm lens to see how it feels ("never mind the quality, feel the width" :D) let me know. I have a couple so I can spare one (for a time...)
 
You can always try to find a 300mm with a telephoto design - they're designed to need a shorter extension than their focal length to focus at infinity. The large format world is a place where the difference between "long focus" and "telephoto" is a very real and important distinction.
 
Thanks for the offer Stephen but I think I might be sorted for a wide lens.
I think a telephoto might be a bit too expensive and large as I want to keep the weight down as I intend to do some hiking with the kit in the Spring and I think I will look at something in the 240-270mm length.
Cheers

Andy
 
Back
Top