Please help with lens coverage database

[darinwc]

I'm working on a database of large-format lens data.
When my webserver is abck up I will webify the data for all.
Of course I will have all the usual data, including lens type and elements/groups.

I will have a field to account for different versions of a lens, like "pre-war" "linhof", "multicoated" etc.

And I will have separate fields for 'coverage' and 'illumination'.
Should I include a field for light falloff?
Should there separate light falloff fields for the edge of coverage vs edge of illumination?

[donbga]

I'm working on a database of large-format lens data.
When my webserver is abck up I will webify the data for all.
Of course I will have all the usual data, including lens type and elements/groups.

I will have a field to account for different versions of a lens, like "pre-war" "linhof", "multicoated" etc.

And I will have separate fields for 'coverage' and 'illumination'.
Should I include a field for light falloff?
Should there separate light falloff fields for the edge of coverage vs edge of illumination?

You may find this link helpful.

http://www.bostick-sullivan.com/Alt_...t%20lenses.htm

[David A. Goldfarb]

There are also tables like this mostly for modern lenses at lfphoto.info.

[darinwc]

I have those lists, thank you. My goal is to combine the modern list with the classic list.
Then I will make a cross-reference table of the diagonals of most formats.
This will allow people to quickly answer questions like: what lenses cover 7x17?
Does this lens cover 10x12?, etc.

Also, we talk alot about the manufacturers specs vs. what is acceptable and vs. the illumination. I would like to see some of that listed in my database.

[Oren Grad]

If you're looking for features that might distinguish your effort from the existing lens tables floating around, you might consider including separate fields for image circle at f/22 and at f/45, to capture transparently the behavior of the many process lenses and classic lenses that continue to gain usable coverage as you stop way down. If you do that, you should also distinguish between values obtained from manufacturers' specifications, and values obtained from user report.

[df cardwell]

You might check manufacturer's data against the existing tables: many are simply recycled and contain some... flaws.

That's the problem when you introduce photo lore to a data base: bad data becomes even more difficult to weed out.

Thankfully, there are primary sources. PLEASE, use them.

[Capocheny]

I have those lists, thank you. My goal is to combine the modern list with the classic list.
Then I will make a cross-reference table of the diagonals of most formats.
This will allow people to quickly answer questions like: what lenses cover 7x17?
Does this lens cover 10x12?, etc.

Hi Darin,

Take a peek at this link as well...

http://www.egksystems.com/lenses/

Cheers

[darinwc]

Hi Darin,

Take a peek at this link as well...

http://www.egksystems.com/lenses/

Cheers

blech! those colors are hideous, like crab juice or something. Heh, well that list is a start. but they have the diagonals for the film wrong, and they dont include any panoramic formats.

[darinwc]

You might check manufacturer's data against the existing tables: many are simply recycled and contain some... flaws.

That's the problem when you introduce photo lore to a data base: bad data becomes even more difficult to weed out.

Thankfully, there are primary sources. PLEASE, use them.

Yes of course. I will probably add tags to the coverage data so as to show manufacturers data vs reputed coverage. (thank you for the suggestion Oren!) Maybee in the future I will allow people to vote on certain data or something.

[AllenR]

I have a LF lens database that contains around 2000 entires for older optics. It's been in the works for several years and the data comes entirely from catalogs and advertisements that I have in my posession. Each entry lists the source of the data. I had a html-only test version on the Center For Photographic History & Technology server for a while, but that site is being restructured, so it went away. I will try to get this text version up on my server in the next few days. Longer term, the data needs to be ported to MySql and a direct database interface crafted, however this is not very high on my priority list at present.

Allen