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PaulG
11th November 2010, 08:50 AM
I'll admit I haven't yet given this detailed consideration yet but I was hoping that some of the 5x7 users on here might be willing to share the benefit of their wisdom on lenses.

I have a venerable Sinar Norma with a 5x7 back that I've been using for a mixture of tabletop/still life and some outdoor work . My style tends more towards fragments and details in the landscape rather than sweeping vistas. My current lens is a 210 and my query is whether other 5x7 shooters tend towards wide angle (say 120mm or thereabouts) or longer focal lengths 300 or 360mm, and what drove that choice? I'm contemplating a second lens to compliment the 210 and am interested to gauge views on which lenses people find useful.

Trevor Crone
11th November 2010, 08:57 AM
I'll admit I haven't yet given this detailed consideration yet but I was hoping that some of the 5x7 users on here might be willing to share the benefit of their wisdom on lenses.

I have a venerable Sinar Norma with a 5x7 back that I've been using for a mixture of tabletop/still life and some outdoor work . My style tends more towards fragments and details in the landscape rather than sweeping vistas. My current lens is a 210 and my query is whether other 5x7 shooters tend towards wide angle (say 120mm or thereabouts) or longer focal lengths 300 or 360mm, and what drove that choice? I'm contemplating a second lens to compliment the 210 and am interested to gauge views on which lenses people find useful.

Paul, having just started using this format I'm finding the most frequently used lenses I'm using are 120 for more open landscape, 150 and 180 (probably too close to your 210 to be useful) for detail, close up shots. With the shorter lenses you can get in really close.

PaulG
11th November 2010, 01:32 PM
Thanks Trevor. Some of the 120 Super Angulons seem quite reasonably priced these days and I might be tempted. Out of interest, what do you use for a 150mm?

Alan Clark
11th November 2010, 01:44 PM
Paul,
I have been asking myself the same question having just really got into 5 x 7. I hope I can stick with the 8" brass barrel lens my old camera came with, at least for a while in order to explore what is possible with it.
I too like taking fragments and details in the landscape and would have thought your 210 lens was perfect for that. When I have done this sort of thing with my 5 x 4 camera I've often found that I couldn't get close enough to the subject with my 121 mm lens, but my 203mm allowed me to easily get the camera into position.

Alan

Trevor Crone
11th November 2010, 03:33 PM
Thanks Trevor. Some of the 120 Super Angulons seem quite reasonably priced these days and I might be tempted. Out of interest, what do you use for a 150mm?

Paul, the 150 I use is a Super Symmar XL which I really bought for my 8x10 camera. It's a bit of a brute usuing 95mm filters:(, but offers plenty of coverage. IMO propably OTT just for 5x7 unless you need miles of coverage;)

PaulG
11th November 2010, 04:05 PM
Paul,
I have been asking myself the same question having just really got into 5 x 7. I hope I can stick with the 8" brass barrel lens my old camera came with, at least for a while in order to explore what is possible with it.
I too like taking fragments and details in the landscape and would have thought your 210 lens was perfect for that.
Alan

Alan, you may be right. I also have a hankering to try an old brass lens to see what results it gives (so many choices). To some extent I'm still figuring out what images work best with the format. Inspired by some of Roger Hicks' work I quite like the idea of a subject partially revealed, rather than the whole thing in the frame, and to some extent the 210 seems a reasonable lens for that. Perhaps I should stick with what I've got for now and see how I get on.


Trevor - that's quite a beast of a lens! I thought having to buy 77mm thread filters for my RB was bad enough. :eek:

CarlRadford
11th November 2010, 04:57 PM
PaulG

What can't you do with the lens that you have?

Trevor Crone
11th November 2010, 04:59 PM
Paul, you may find your 210 is adequate for all your needs. The Sinar Norma if I remember has a fair bit of bellows draw to allow you to get in really close if you need to. The problem I have is my Ebony will only allow me to use about a 360 at not much more than infinity focus, so I resort to short focal lengths for detailed stuff. However a 120 is great for me when I need that 'wider view'.

Alan Clark
11th November 2010, 05:30 PM
I bought my mahogany and brass half plate camera for £13. It came with a spare lens, a Beck symmetrical. The camera, and the original lens that came with it, had no name. The camera was unuseable because the bellows had split so I made makeshift lens boards so I could try the lenses on my 5 x 4 camera, alongside my Kodak 203mm. I was surprised when I found that the old lenses were just as sharp as the Kodak and the Beck had the same contrast level as the Kodak lens. The other lens had lower contrast.
I recently got interested in low contrast lenses, through studying the work of James Ravilious, who actively sought them out, and have also been charmed by the qualities in old photographs by the likes of Sutcliffe, and Emerson who of course had no choice but to use uncoated low contrast lenses. As a result I decided to renovate the old camera and use it with the low contrast lens it was fitted with. I altered the back so it would take modern film holders, made a new leather bellows, and am now ready for action! Initial results look very promising.
Eventually I might look for an old brass 6 inch lens, but at the moment I am enjoying the simplicity of making pictures with the simplest of means.

Alan

PaulG
12th November 2010, 09:44 AM
What can't you do with the lens that you have?

Carl, the short answer here is that I don't know. There's probably an element of GAS here, but also the curiosity about the effect of changing focal length on the images I make. As I'm finding, LF lenses ain't cheap, so I was interested to find out how others work with 5x7 to see if I could glean anything that might guide future lens choices (and avoid expensive mistakes.)

wiesmier
13th November 2010, 04:55 PM
I used a magnifying glass on my old FKD instead of a lens. I liked the effect too. http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3008/2905139200_3475543158_m.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/schlapp/2905139200/) Just William (http://www.flickr.com/photos/schlapp/2905139200/) by Wiesmier (http://www.flickr.com/people/schlapp/),

CarlRadford
14th November 2010, 12:09 PM
I used a magnifying glass on my old FKD instead of a lens. I liked the effect too. http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3008/2905139200_3475543158_m.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/schlapp/2905139200/) Just William (http://www.flickr.com/photos/schlapp/2905139200/) by Wiesmier (http://www.flickr.com/people/schlapp/),

You are just too creative :)