Sunday, July 5, 2015

Brass Lens On Graflex

Well I got my old brass lens mounted onto the eBay lens board and it is now in my camera. I plan on experimenting and shooting with it this coming week off. The lens is a bit longer (10 inch) than the normal 190mm F5.6 that comes with the camera. With the focusing extension that is part of my lens and the long bellows I can still focus pretty close to my subject. I should be able to use this lens camera combination to do reasonably tight head shots just as I can with the 190mm.

I have no idea what the 1 f-stop this lens has is (think its a magic lantern projection lens). I am assuming the widest aperture is f5.6 or so, maybe f4. In this weeks experiments I will see. So far as I look through the Graflex's SLR mirror I find the lens quite sharp. I hope it is not too sharp!! I wanted some weird ass looks from this old old tech. The lens is over 100 years old maybe 120 or so. We will see what happens. Tonight I plan on doing a bit of sanding on the board to make it fit easier into the camera. Right now the lens feels tight, and is difficult to put in and out.

Update: Did a bit of sanding on the edge of one side of the new lens board and now it fits snug as a bug! Pops in and out with no problems and it is secure. It took less than 5 minutes, you to love sand paper!

Stock 190mm Kodak Ektar lens beside my new brass lens on eBay board
Graflex with 10 inch brass lens
Close up of 10 inche lens