Graflex Auto RB Lenses

[Pioneer]

Is there an on-line (or available printed) resource of lenses that are compatible with a Graflex Auto RB 4x5 camera?

[jnanian]

hey there

not sure if you know graflex.org ...
they seem to have everything you can think of over there !

http://graflex.org/helpboard/viewtop...ce7c08c5fa81f1

it seems there are 2 auto rb cameras, and depending on which one you have ....

oh, i searched using " lenses" + " auto rb " in quotes just like that in their sitewide search engine
other stuff came up too but the link posted seemed just right ...

have fun !
john

[Pioneer]

Thanks John. I have been to Graflex.org many times but never to the help board. Lots of info here.

[paul ewins]

The usual lens was a Kodak f4.5 Anastigmat, but the advertising material notes a long list of lens manufacturers that made suitable lenses. Mostly f4.5, presumably Tessar types, plus an f3.5 from Dallmeyer and telephoto lenses from Cooke and also Dallmeyer. With the exception of the Kodak Anastigmat the lens name is not mentioned.

[Pioneer]

I have two f/4.5 Tessar lenses with this camera. One, a Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 250mm will focus to infinity and is an absolutely wonderful lens. I love using it for portraits. However, as you can imagine, it is a large lens and the front door of the camera will not swing closed when I have this lens attached. The second is a very nice Bausch and Lomb 210mm f4.5 that fits perfectly and allows the front door to close properly. Unfortunately it will not focus to infinity although I am uncertain why this is. It does seem very close so I suspect that if I constructed a recessed lens board it would not take much to get it to work. However, it does work beautifully at closer distances so it is quite useable as a portrait lens. I also have another B&L 190mm Tessar on the way, which should provide a "standard" view for this camera, assuming it will focus correctly.

I know that the 190mm Kodak was considered a standard for this camera but it should accept lenses from around 8 inches through about 12 inches I suspect. But, as long as I am playing anyway, I though I would try to locate any useful information regarding focal length ranges that could be used with this camera. I am reading quite a bit at Graflex.org but any additional help is certainly appreciated.

These are big cameras, no doubt about it, but I have been having a blast working with this old time, large format SLR. It will take me some time but if Dorothea could swing one of these around I suspect I can learn to do it as well.

[jnanian]

hi pioneer

i have a 21c, tessar ( 3.5 .. ) on my series D
its a fast and sweet lens .. i must admit though
i don't use it much, i have a RR named laverne
purchased from davela many years ago
that roosts on the series d these days ...

its funny, these seem like they would be such a big bulky camera, these 4x5 slrs
but they are perfectly weighted. i usually do 1/15 handheld work with mind

have fun !
john

[Whiteymorange]

Have you looked here?

[Pioneer]

I would love to. I have tried several times but for some reason I cannot load the site. I have tried with Firefox, Safari and now IE, none will load it.

[Whiteymorange]

It balked on me this morning and then, ten minutes later loaded just fine. Must be a server problem. Try the Wayback machine.

[shutterfinger]

cameraeccentric was down for the last few days. firefox gave unable to find server while ie gave unable to connect error.
the site or sever goes out to lunch for 2 to 4 days on occasion.