What's missing in LF newbie online resources?

Greetings, Y'all. Maybe what we/steve needs is a more comprehensive
listing, posted periodically (weekly, bi-weekly?) to online LF resources?
I think a periodic posting of LF URL links and pointers would be handy for
newbies not sure where to start, as well as provide a LF FAQ for this
group (the current version of which was last updated in 1995 ;-)

Equally worth highlighting is missing resources - things which are NOT yet
available online. Some online resources (such as Michael Davis' lens
charts http://www.largeformatphotography.in...es/LF4x5in.xls) are great,
but only list a subset of lenses users are likely to run into (hence the
many questions here on lens coverage etc. for older optics).

Other resources seem to be missing or scattered, such as comprehensive
listing of:

a) LF books and magazines, with pros/cons reviews and user comments
b) LF rental sources in USA/World, items carried, sortable by brands(xls?)
c) LF price guide for used gear like cameras and lenses by condition
d) LF ads from the past, for fun, old prices, and view of camera and accys

What do you wish you could find, or what do you want to see for LF users?

a)
b)
c)...

thanks for your comments...

regards bobm
--
************************************************** *********************
* Robert Monaghan POB 752182 Southern Methodist Univ. Dallas Tx 75275 *
********************Standard Disclaimers Apply*************************

"Bob Monaghan" wrote in message
...
Greetings, Y'all. Maybe what we/steve needs is a more comprehensive
listing, posted periodically (weekly, bi-weekly?) to online LF resources?

[...]

Other resources seem to be missing or scattered, such as comprehensive
listing of:

a) LF books and magazines, with pros/cons reviews and user comments
b) LF rental sources in USA/World, items carried, sortable by brands(xls?)
c) LF price guide for used gear like cameras and lenses by condition
d) LF ads from the past, for fun, old prices, and view of camera and accys

What do you wish you could find, or what do you want to see for LF users?

a)

A LF photographer,other than an aerial photographer, who shoots wide open,
or nearly so. Heresy?

jjs wrote:


What do you wish you could find, or what do you want to see for LF users?

a)

A LF photographer,other than an aerial photographer, who shoots wide
open, or nearly so. Heresy?

I've been playing with just that using an 8X10 and a 300mm heliar. Just got
this lens sorted out (diaphram was messed up on a sample I could afford),
my other attempts at wide open shooting weren't pretty, they were all done
with tessar clones. Seems many modernish LF lenses have terrible bokeh.
Everyone seems to want the "f64" type shots out of LF, to do anything else
seems to require looking at the older lenses? The heliar seems to fit this
bill as the test shots I did with it look nice, now to find some
interesting subjects to point it at!

Another lens I'd like to play with is a verito, I'd guess it probably has
nice bokeh as well? Any other ideas to try?

--

Stacey

Stacey wrote in message ...
jjs wrote:


What do you wish you could find, or what do you want to see for LF users?

a)

A LF photographer,other than an aerial photographer, who shoots wide
open, or nearly so. Heresy?

I've been playing with just that using an 8X10 and a 300mm heliar. Just got
this lens sorted out (diaphram was messed up on a sample I could afford),
my other attempts at wide open shooting weren't pretty, they were all done
with tessar clones. Seems many modernish LF lenses have terrible bokeh.
Everyone seems to want the "f64" type shots out of LF, to do anything else
seems to require looking at the older lenses? The heliar seems to fit this
bill as the test shots I did with it look nice, now to find some
interesting subjects to point it at!

Another lens I'd like to play with is a verito, I'd guess it probably has
nice bokeh as well? Any other ideas to try?

Stacey,

Try a Goerz Dagor or Artar. I recently acquired some older lenses from
a local pro who had gotten out of 8x10. Other posts mention using a
Dagor at wider apertures as a portrait lens. The Dagor design is also
convertible by removing the front element, leaving you with a triplet
- triplets seem to also have good bokeh. Unfortunately a couple of
these lenses have sticky shutters (expected for Ilexi of this vintage)
so they are off to the shutter doctor and I haven't gottent to do more
than a couple of tests. Hurrel also reportedly used a Goerz Celor,
which as far as I can tell is a faster, uncoated version of the Artar.
Since he allegedly shot the Celor at f/16, the Artar should reproduce
the look reasonably well, but maybe harder to focus because of the
smaller minimum aperture.

Thanks!

Steve

Steve Hamley wrote:

Stacey wrote in message


Another lens I'd like to play with is a verito, I'd guess it probably has
nice bokeh as well? Any other ideas to try?

Stacey,

Try a Goerz Dagor or Artar. I recently acquired some older lenses from
a local pro who had gotten out of 8x10. Other posts mention using a
Dagor at wider apertures as a portrait lens. The Dagor design is also
convertible by removing the front element, leaving you with a triplet
- triplets seem to also have good bokeh.

Thanks for the tip. Yes triplets do seem to have smoother bokeh and I assume
used as a convertable it would increase it's focal length? Right now I'm
forced to use a packard shutter as these 300mm f4.5's I'm playing with are
*huge* pieces of glass! I need to look into some large ND filters to use
with these as I'm about out of some old APX25 I've been using.

--

Stacey

Stacey wrote in message ...
Steve Hamley wrote:

Stacey wrote in message


Another lens I'd like to play with is a verito, I'd guess it probably has
nice bokeh as well? Any other ideas to try?

Stacey,

Try a Goerz Dagor or Artar. I recently acquired some older lenses from
a local pro who had gotten out of 8x10. Other posts mention using a
Dagor at wider apertures as a portrait lens. The Dagor design is also
convertible by removing the front element, leaving you with a triplet
- triplets seem to also have good bokeh.

Thanks for the tip. Yes triplets do seem to have smoother bokeh and I assume
used as a convertable it would increase it's focal length? Right now I'm
forced to use a packard shutter as these 300mm f4.5's I'm playing with are
*huge* pieces of glass! I need to look into some large ND filters to use
with these as I'm about out of some old APX25 I've been using.

Stacey,

Converting the lens will give you a focal length of about 1.75x the
original, and an f/stop of 1.5x smaller. So the rear cell of a 210mm
f/6.8 Dagor would be about 370mm and an effective f/13 or so. Although
the effective maximum aperture is small, the lens is tiny compared to
long f/4.5 lenses.

Thanks!

Steve

jjs wrote:

"Bob Monaghan" wrote in message
...
Greetings, Y'all. Maybe what we/steve needs is a more comprehensive
listing, posted periodically (weekly, bi-weekly?) to online LF resources?

[...]

Other resources seem to be missing or scattered, such as comprehensive
listing of:

a) LF books and magazines, with pros/cons reviews and user comments
b) LF rental sources in USA/World, items carried, sortable by brands(xls?)
c) LF price guide for used gear like cameras and lenses by condition
d) LF ads from the past, for fun, old prices, and view of camera and accys

What do you wish you could find, or what do you want to see for LF users?

a)

A LF photographer,other than an aerial photographer, who shoots wide open,
or nearly so. Heresy?

Do it all the time with my f/4 Veritos. The glow disappears rapidly when you
stop down from wide open. Trouble is shooting ISO 400 film in sunlight at f/4
with a Packard or hat. Time to invest in some ND filters. 8^P

Joe

In article , Joe Smigiel
wrote:

A LF photographer,other than an aerial photographer, who shoots wide open,
or nearly so. Heresy?

Do it all the time with my f/4 Veritos. The glow disappears rapidly when you
stop down from wide open. Trouble is shooting ISO 400 film in sunlight at f/4
with a Packard or hat. Time to invest in some ND filters. 8^P

Most excellent! Regarding exposure times, of course going to a slower film
doesn't help enough, so you might look to www.surplusshed.com for some
large filters. For example, you can get high-quality filters that fit
(with a little gaffer's tape) the 14" Veritos cheap: a set of three B&W
filters for $15. (ND filters that large... dunno.)

See this link: http://www.surplusshed.com/pages/item/m9014.html

That sounds like an ad, but it's not. It's just a great deal.

jjs wrote:




Most excellent! Regarding exposure times, of course going to a slower film
doesn't help enough, so you might look to www.surplusshed.com


That sounds like an ad, but it's not. It's just a great deal.

Thanx for the link!

--

Stacey

"Joe Smigiel" wrote


Trouble is shooting ISO 400 film in sunlight at f/4
with a Packard or hat. Time to invest in some ND filters.

Speed Graphic, with it's focal plane shutter, to the rescue!

Actually, at the price of ND filters, $47 a whack for
3" from Calumet, a Speed body would be cheaper than a set of filters.

--
Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio
Consulting Engineer: Electronics; Informatics; Photonics.