Graflex.org

[400d]

I've read from Ken Rockwell's site mentioning that f8 is very hard to focus which is almost black out. I have a 135mm f4.7, I stop it down to f8 and it's pretty hard to see anything.

I am planning to get a 90mm and a 75mm. 90mm's price difference between f5.6 and f8 is at least $200-300. I do some pretty damn dark work-shot of a pond at night, my Minolta Spot meter F is even giving me hard time on measuring light (under EV 1). I am on a budget, saving from a cheaper 90mm can help me to get the 75mm. Do you guys think the f5.6 worth it? Of course, I won't use f5.6 at all, I am doing 100% landscape.

This pretty much brings out my second question, how do I determine infinity focus on my 4x5 Crown Graphics? I have googled around for inifinity focus, but didn't get a clear idea.

[newspeedgraphicuser]

One has to use some infinity stops. In your case, using wide angles means the infinity stops won't be in front of the front standard but will have to be located in back of the standard. What I'm saying is that at least in my speed graphic with 90 lens, I can't put the infinity stops in front of the standard because the bed needs to be dropped and the front standard is on the back rail and the front of the standard is even with the front of the back rail. In setting this up I would use the infinity scale that is on your camera for the 135 lens. Perhaps placing a mark at the hyperfocal distance would be helpful too. Do a search on the web for hyperfocual distance calculators and there's a program you can download that makes a nifty paper calculator that you can carry with you. Use a loupe to get accurate focus on the ground glass. With a 90mm lens you could focus on a flashlight about 9 ft away, stop down to f22 or 32 and everything from 4.5 ft to infinity will be in focus if you need that much dof.

[Les]

Schneider made two 90mm SUPER Angulons and f8 and a 5.6. I have the f8 and it's awfully big and heavy on a Crown. I doubt you'll get the rear end of the 5.6 through the front standard, and I doubt you'll want to dissassemble the lens and bring the rear cell through the back and put it back together.
You'll also be spending a lot of money for coverage you can't use. I know the f8 will nearly cover 5x7 and the 5.6 even more so, but the limited movements on a Crown won't allow you to use that.

There are a series of wide angle lenses designed for press cameras, the movements are more limited, the lenses are smaller and so are there prices. The F6.8 Angulon, the 88mm B&L which I think is a 6.8 or a 6.3. Then there's the F9 WA Dagor, very sharp but yes slower too and probably the most expensive of the lot. I"ve seen the B&L go for less than $50 and it's a very good lens.

If you are using the ground glass to focus, then infinity stops for wide angle lenses are unnecessary (actually any focal length lens) For my 90 I open the bed and drop it down, pull the standard until it hits the rails and lock it down. Now open the lens and adjust focus from the ground glass. Anything wider is almost set up for infinity when it's parked inside, just open, drop the bed and start focusing. It won't take long for you to know where INF lies.

If you are RF focusing, that's a different matter and you'll have to set up stops so that when the RF is at INF, the lens is too.

I have about 5 to 7 lenses in my full kit (58mm to 385) but only one set of stops and one cam, for the 135 that came with the camera that I use when I want to go "street shooting". The rest of the time it's on the tripod and the ground glass is used.

_________________
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[400d]

[newspeedgraphicuser]

I found out a few minutes ago that Les is right! With the bed dropped (now this is on my speedgraphic-crown would probably be different) and the standard hitting the front rails (you have to keep the focus knob so the rail is all the way back into the camera) the camera is focused for infinity with the 90 Optar lens. Now I just have to make a hyperfocal distance mark for max. depth of field. I did see some focus marks on ebay made for the 90wa lens on a Graflex that should work on the graphics but one would have to remove the 135 focus patterns. I did download the picture and by scaling it properly one could tape a scale down on the rail and use it that way. I plan on putting a rollfilm back on mine and do some "street" shooting so some focus scales would be nice.