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[egoldste]

Forgive me if this has been covered before, but I did my best to find it and could not...

After toying with the idea of shooting a 65 on this camera, I am now headed toward getting the 80/6.3 WF Ektar instead. Can the experts please enlighten me as to how to adapt it to a body currently set up for a 101mm Ektar. Are viewfinders available? Can the kalart be adjusted for this lens and will any new hardware be necessary? Are different distance scales necessary/available? Many thanks in advance for sharing your experience.

[Les]

I had a WF ektar on a Pace crown, not sure right now which.

I know Kalart RF can be used with an 80 because they talk about using a single folding stop on the handle side of the camera BEHIND the front standard.

If you tried to put the stop in front, you'll find it needs to go in the gap between the bed and the body. The idea is once set up you pull the standard out, flip up the stop and put it back.

it's pretty good rig if you want to tripod the camera all the time. WF Ektars are slow to start and don't hit their sweet spot until f16 or so, which means you'll be doing a lot of out side flash or being very steady with those slow shutters.

I finally moved to an 80mm Planar so I could hand hold the camera.

I don't think you'll have a lot of fun with it on a Mini speed as their inf stops don't fold. The best you could do is create a gage block or spacer block to move the inf. stop out on the bed. Then you'ld open the camera add the spacer block pull the standard until it hit the block, lock it down and put the block back in the camera bag.

Les

[egoldste]

Thanks Les this is exactly the kind of info I am looking for. Is there no option of using a folding stop on these cameras?

Don't mind the slow speed; this lens is perfectly acceptable at f/8-11 and a Planar won't cover 69, which is where I want to be.

What about viewfinders? Where there any 80 mm factory equipped Baby Speeds and if so could the viewfinders be used?

[troublemaker]

I agree with Less. I occaisionally use a 90 Raptar or Angulon on my 2x3 Graphics but only off of a tripod. One certainly wont run out of movements, and based on the WF Ektar reputation it will probably provide good results. A slower lens is going to be a little harder to pinpoint in setting up the RF if you plan to use it in that manner, but it could certainly be hand held. As a field reference I mark my rails with a fine point sharpie pen so I can set the standard at infinity in low light (it does wear off after a while). I do not like the idea of one stop as this can lead to having the rails cocked off a bit. That said, I suggest making a focussing scale for the lens for a quick reference and becoming familliar with its DOF at intended apertures. If set up well, I do not see any real reason one could not shoot good photos from either a scale, RF, or GG focussing, at least in my mind. On the other hand, why would you want to switch from the 101mm Ektar? Even my uncoated version provides useable images, and the coated Ektars in 101 thru 127 tend to be very good to excellent. The 80mm is only going to provide a slightly wider image on the GG, and baased on everything discussed herein, a lot of work and wonder to use. However, I should note that the stuff I have shot with my 90 Angulon can be really nice and sharp, and the same with the wide Raptar, so if I had the 80WF Ektar I would definately want to know what kind of results it would provide and run some film tests behind it, esspecially if I were not satisfied with the results from my normal lens, and the wide lens were coated and in good condition. But I would test it prior to doing a lot of work. First thing I would want is a lens board to fit the 80, which I believe is in a #2 supermatic
(someone correct me if wrong), and requires a larger hole than the #1 shutter of the smaller 101 Ektars. Once you have the proper lens board, and if I am correct in thinking it is a #2 shutter, you would then also be able to use the same board for a 127 Ektar should you want a longer normal lens with a lot of movements at some point. OK, enough out of me...
P.S. View finders tend to cover a slightly smaller area than that of the actual lens coverage, but once you are familliar with the small difference between the 80 and 101 I would think just compensate a little. On the other hand, a little room for cropping is nice also. Case in point, the standard view finder for the 101 and 103 focal lenth "normal" lenses, mathces more closely the longer 127 and and 135's that I have used. Also, since you are not going to be using the full coverage of the 80 WF lens, you may be able to use it at f11 or even f8 with reasonablely good results, but I would test it out on a couple things. Final film results will probably be your determining factor.
have fun ...
regards,
stephen

[ This Message was edited by: troublemaker on 2005-03-27 09:34 ]

[Dan Fromm]