Id like some recommendations for a wide angle lens to use on a Super Speed Graphic. Id like to have the equivalent of a 20 to 24mm on a 35mm camera. I can only spend around $500, so it will have to be a used lens. Im intending to use it for scenics. Thanks in advance.

-- sheldon hambrick (shambric@us.ibm.com), January 13, 1998

Answers

Sheldon, I am making the asupmtion that you are speaking of a 4x5 Super Speed Graphic. To get the equivalent of a 24mm lens in 4x5 you would need something like a 65mm Schneider Angulon or a Rodnstock Grandagon. However, with a Speed Graphic, or any "press camera" when a 65mm lens is focused to infinity you will get a portion of the camera's focusing bed in the picture. Even dropping the bed and using the front rise movement to recenter the lens on axis will still not solve the problem. I have a friend who loves his 65mm lens and also uses a press camera his solution to the problem was chop off the front 3 inches of his focusing bed! This is pretty dramatic action which also limits his ability to focus on objects much closer than infinity. I would recomend that you look into a perhaps 90mm wide angle lens which is equivalent to about a 28mm lens in 35mm. It's not as wide as the 65mm, but there are more of them available used, they give you move movement, and you don't have to worry about light fall off to the edges of your image.

Best of Luck.....

-- Britt Leckman (bleckman@gmu.edu), January 14, 1998.

I use a 65mm f/8 SA on a Graphic with excellent results. Just drop the bed, it works fine. However, It can also be used without dropping the bed by having the lens mounted above center on the lens board. I have one mounted this way and it works fine also. This lens will cost about $500.

-- Wayne Firth (wfirth@erols.com), January 15, 1998.

I also use a 65mm SA on a Supergraphics; with the back in landscape (horizontal) it works fine with the bed dropped (minimal movements); with the back turned vertical (portrait format) a little of the bed shows. Since I use it mostly for landscapes, this is not a problem.

-- John Lehman (ffjal@aurora.alaska.edu), January 21, 1998.