Suggestions on a 90mm lens for 4x5?

[stradibarrius]

I was curious about brands? In my other formats I do not like to go super wide. (28mm in 35mm format) is enough for me.
On a 4x5 do 90mm lenses require a recessed lens board?

[Konical]

Good Morning, Barry,

It may depend on the camera. I use my 90mm on a Calumet CC-400 and manage without a recessed board. It is tight, however, and movements are limited. If I did a lot of architectural work, I'd probably get a recessed board.

Konical

[walbergb]

I can't add anything new, so I will simply share my choice with you. I chose a Caltar II N 90mm f/6.8 to fit my Shen How PTB45. It seemed like a good compromise on size, coverage, and brightness for my needs & price range. Since the Caltar lenses are rebranded, I felt I wasn't losing anything in quality. I briefly considered the Caltar II N 75mm, but it would require a recessed lens board and wide-angle bellows and limited the adjustments. I couldn't justify the additional cost. BTW I paid $317 US for the lens, lens board, caps, and wrap.

[Huub]

It doesn't matter much which brand you use - Nikon, Fuji, Schneider and Rodenstock all build excelent lenses and you will have a hard time seeing the differences in print. And in general 90 mm doesn't need recessed lensboards.
But talking about lensboards there's something else to consider. Some of the faster versions have very large back elements that won't fit into camera's that use small lensboards - the 5.6 super-angulon XL for instance has a hard time to fit onto the technika camera's. Screwing the back element off, placing the board with the front element on the camera, take the ground glass off, screw the back element in again, and replace the ground glass, is not something you want to do every time you want to use a 90mm.
An other thing to consider is filter size - i standardised on 67 mm for all my lf-lenses. After playing around with an 6.7 Angulon and a 8.0 SuperAngulon I settled on the 6.8 Grandagon. It is brighter then the 8.0 Super Angulon, a very sharp lens and it has more image circle then my Toyo can give... Contrast is also a little higher - but then my Grandagon is multicoated, where my Super Angulon was single coated.

[grahamp]

I have the slightly uncommon 90mm 5.6 Caltar HR (the rebadged Topcon). A big lens (77mm filters), but it will fit my Wista DX with a flat lensboard. Movements are bellows-limited, since I cannot put a bag bellows on this camera, but I wouldn't be using a wood field camera if I wanted to do a lot of architecture ( 8-) ). I am more than happy with the performance. I standardized on 77mm filters with step-up rings for the other lenses, but since I don't need many, it hasn't been a big issue.

[nick mulder]

It doesn't matter much which brand you use - Nikon, Fuji, Schneider and Rodenstock all build excelent lenses .

Yup, agree - you just have speed, coverage, size and cost to decide on - these factors are all interelated ...

Someone should make a 'Choose your 90mm for 4x5" app for iPhone

[jnanian]

hey barry

i used to have a wollensak 3 1/2" exwa f12.5 it was a tiny little lens that stopped down
has a image circle to cover a 5x7 sheet of film. i also had a wollensak 90mm air signal corps
raptar, and like the exwa i ran out of movements on my 4x5 camera before i ran out of image circle.

both these lenses are probably around 100$ each ( or less ? ) ...

the thing about lenses for large format is that there are very expensive lenses and not so expensive lenses
and sometimes the less expensive lenses will work just fine, and in most cases stopped down they work just fine.


good luck !
john

[Seele]

I agree with most of the correspondents; how you use it and size are important factors too: if you go out in the field with camera in a backpack, the best lens is one you can physically get there!

This aside I actually quite like the older lenses. I use the Angulon 90/6.8 a lot, and also a Super Dagor of about the same specifications. The barrel-mounted Wideangle Aristostigmat 4" is a touch longer but covers like crazy.

But if you don't mind a more limited angle of coverage, it's worth checking out the Rodenstock Wideangle Geronar, being a much newer lens, with multi-coating and in a modern shutter it is very usable.