Lenses for Whole Plate cameras

[Murph]

What would be a WA for a whole Plate camera (6 1/2 x 8 1/2), a normal, a slightly longer than normal, and a super wide?

Just curious

[bondarnes]

10 1/2 inch or 265mm would be a normal lens, so 175mm to 200mm would be wide angle, with 150mm or less being super wide and 300mm to 350mm would be slightly longer. An ideal portrait lens would be around 500mm.
Formula for normal lens:
The square root of: length X length plus width X width.
6.5 X 6.5 = 42.25 8.5 X 8.5 =72.25 42.25 + 72.25 = 114.5 sq root is 10.70 rounded to 10 1/2. 10.7 inches X 25 mm per inch = 267.5mm

[Murph]

Thanks!

[venchka]

Clay Harmon has a bushell of old lenses and a Chamonix whole plate camera. Clay sold all of his larger cameras, 8x10/7x17, etc. and kept the whole plate camera. Film isn't easy to find. Ilford cuts whole plate in FP4+ and HP5+ anually. Either of those would be plenty to keep you busy.
Any lens that covers 8x10 will work on whole plate with the corresponding "crop factor". There are a few wide angle formulas in the 6" (150mm) range that would work. I know that my 250mm Fujinon would work since it covers 8x10 at the corners leaving some image circle for movements on whole plate.
What are you up to Murph?

Large Format Lenses, 2nd Ed

lenses for 8x10 in

http://www.largeformatphotography.in...ighlight=plate

lenses for 5x7 in

5x7 is a close cousin and very nice. I find myself cropping a lot of my photos to 5x7. Film for 5x7 also falls into the same category as whole plate: limited but available.

[Murph]

Nothing really, just day dreaming more than anything else.

[venchka]

I know a lot ot folks like whole plate, but.........
Decent 5x7 & 8x10 cameras are much more plentiful and less expensive.

[henrysamson]

I actually considered a whole plate camera about a year ago. My 8x10 was getting too heavy to travel with and I found that as a result I had spent most of the two previous years just shooting 5x7. I did not go that route and my considerations were:

- Another size film to keep on hand.

- The expense of another set of holders. They are very expensive and used is not often an option (see below).

- Film is hard to get.

- I would have to buy 8x10 paper and cut it down so I would not save money on paper. With 5x7, I get two prints from an 8x10 sheet.

It is a great size though. I ended up switching to a really light 8x10. As an aside, one nice thing about 5x7 is that most 4x5 lenses will cover it and they are plentiful and relatively cheap. For whole plate, if you want movements then you may have to get lenses made for 8x10 and they are harder to find and more expensive. Film for 5x7 is limited, especially in color but it is always available.

A word of caution though. There is no standard for whole plate film holders. In other words, holders made for one camera may not work in another one. I found that out while I was exploring the options.

Henry