Explain the difference between press and view lenses

[Tim Tucker 2]

The adapters take into consideration the flange/film plane distance of the camera that originally was used with the lenses you want to mount to the Canon. Consider that your Canon camera has a lens mount and that flange distance is fixed and never changes. Yet you can mount all different focal length Canon lenses to the camera. The Canon lenses are designed to that flange distance so that they will infinity focus. Same was done for the Minolta lenses and the Pentakon lenses that you have adapters for.

Joe

^^^^THIS!


That is my point I have been making.
The press camera uses a lens designed for a maximum distance based on the focal plane of the camera.

A view lens is a diff. beast.
The rear cell of a LF lens is designed to do what.......

The whole lens is designed to focus light.

Full stop - period...

More complex designs require more elements, and this is what you are seeing simply a lens that has more elements than a simple design.

Using purely arbitrary figures say a standard lens design (such as a Xenar/Tessar) throws a cone of light that's say 60 degrees out the back. The distance the lens is away from the film plane when focussed is the image circle/coverage of the lens. So a Tessar of 135mm focusses at infinity 135mm from the film plane, a 270mm lens focusses 270mm from the film plane at infinity and so it's coverage is bigger. It's a standard lens and not a wide angle, a 270mm Tessar easily covers 5"x 4" with movements whereas a 135mm Tessar only just covers 5"x 4".

A wide angle design such as a Super Angulon will throw a cone of say 110 degrees out of the back and so a 135mm Super Angulon lens will have a much larger coverage than a 135mm Xenar. It needs a few more elements to do this and is thus a more complex and bigger design. It is heavier and a lot more expensive, it is a Wide Angle design that allows movements on larger formats when at it's focus distance at infinity of 135mm from the film plane. A 90mm Super Angulon covers 5"x 4" with movements but a 65mm Super Angulon doesn't, but it's still a wide angle lens just for a slightly smaller format.

I have not seen your camera but do be aware that to focus a 90mm lens requires the lens or lens board to be roughly 90mm from the film plane, and though I've never had a problem with 135mm lenses when you get down to 90mm it can cause problems simply because the lens is so close to the camera. With a Sinar monorail a 90mm lens requires a set of bag bellows as the standard box bellows will not compress enough to allow focus. With the Linhof you need to use a recessed lens board combined with the drop bed. this requires some knowledge to set you as you have to drop the bed, reposition the rail then set the lens position nearly as far back as it will go.

*Standard* lens designs require fewer elements, they are smaller, cheaper and usually can stay mounted on the camera when folded. Where they covered the format they were often used by press photographers in *press* shutters and the name stuck. But please understand that there are not specific and special designs designated *Press Lenses*. They are simply the smallest and lightest lenses that were appropriate for the task and therefore used by press photographers on LF cameras.

EDIT: LF lenses are not designed the same way as DSLR lenses, they do not have the same restrictions as in a fixed mount registration distance and so do not generally need to utilise either retro-focus (reverse-telephoto) or telephoto lens design to achieve this. They are generally close to symmetrical in design and the focal length is close to the distance they need to be from the film lane to focus at infinity.

 

[vintagesnaps]

Try these sites/blogs. I can't say I know all the differences between view and press camera lenses; obviously press cameras were meant to be more portable to run around after news stories or get a picture quick without needing a tripod, etc.

Lenses

Antique and Classic Cameras

 

[Derrel]

The adapters take into consideration the flange/film plane distance of the camera that originally was used with the lenses you want to mount to the Canon. Consider that your Canon camera has a lens mount and that flange distance is fixed and never changes. Yet you can mount all different focal length Canon lenses to the camera. The Canon lenses are designed to that flange distance so that they will infinity focus. Same was done for the Minolta lenses and the Pentakon lenses that you have adapters for.

Joe

^^^^THIS!


That is my point I have been making.
The press camera uses a lens designed for a maximum distance based on the focal plane of the camera.

A view lens is a diff. beast.
The rear cell of a LF lens is designed to do what.......

Project a larger diameter image circle. The Nikon lens you show here is the same design type as a Rodenstock Sironar or Schneider Symar and they all perform similarly relative to thrown image circle. A "press" lens of the same focal length would be smaller and possibly faster and project a smaller diameter image circle out the back.

Joe

For those who still want more information:
large format lenses; focal length vs. angle of view?

And for those confused about image circle and movements, for example many 'press' lenses were small,light, and relatively "fast' but had rather small-to-average image circle/angle of coverage,allowing a minimum of camera movements. see the diagram at Choosing a 4x5 Camera and Lenses

Lenses designed for studio and architectural photography using view cameras often were often slower in aperture, often larger,and heavier, and had large angle of coverage, which allowed greater camera movements without image vignetting.

 

[Soocom1]

The adapters take into consideration the flange/film plane distance of the camera that originally was used with the lenses you want to mount to the Canon. Consider that your Canon camera has a lens mount and that flange distance is fixed and never changes. Yet you can mount all different focal length Canon lenses to the camera. The Canon lenses are designed to that flange distance so that they will infinity focus. Same was done for the Minolta lenses and the Pentakon lenses that you have adapters for.

Joe

^^^^THIS!


That is my point I have been making.
The press camera uses a lens designed for a maximum distance based on the focal plane of the camera.

A view lens is a diff. beast.
The rear cell of a LF lens is designed to do what.......

Project a larger diameter image circle. The Nikon lens you show here is the same design type as a Rodenstock Sironar or Schneider Symar and they all perform similarly relative to thrown image circle. A "press" lens of the same focal length would be smaller and possibly faster and project a smaller diameter image circle out the back.

Joe

For those who still want more information:
large format lenses; focal length vs. angle of view?

and for those confused about image circle and movements, for example many 'press lenses were small,,light, and relatively "fast' but had rather small-to-average image circle/angle of coverage: see the diagram at Choosing a 4x5 Camera and Lenses

thank you.

 

[IanG]

Perhaps something is being missed. There's usually no differences between lenses for Press cameras compared to other LF cameras.

However the type of shutter can differ. Copal and Prontor made Press style shutters, these are self cocking first pressure of the shutter or cable release cocks the shutter and then on full depression releases it. The plain Prontor shutter itself derived from the Ibsor is a Press shutter it's just Gauthier didn't use that term for the shutter.

The Prontor S, SV, and SVS were more like the Compur and Copal shutters with no Preview button/lever though. The Copal Press was designed to compete with the Prontor but they aren't common.

Now I said there's usually no difference, however some faster lenses were designed for Press use I have 6" f3.5 Dallmeyer Press lens on a Dallmeyer Press SLR (a rebadged Ensign), Dallmeyer also made an f2.9 lens. CZJ made a 165mm f2.7 Tessar before WWII, and there were also the f3.5 Tessars I have a 135mm on an Ihagee 9x12 press camera.. These fast lenses weren't as sharp particularly at wider apertures compared the the same manufacturers slower lenses so not recommended for the highest quality results..

Post WWII as already mention there was the f2.8 Xenotars and also the Zeiss 135mm f3.5 Planar for the Linhofs. In general though because quality wasn't a primary issue as images were rarely used large Tessar type lenses like the Xenar, Optar/Raptar, and 127mm Ektar, The latter lens was designed for the quarter plate Speed Graphic but because of demand some were sold with 5x4 Pacemaker cameras.

It's worth mentioning Press cameras weren't universal around the world, in Germany and Europe they were using 9x12 Avus style cameras before WWII, some had focal plane as well as lenses with leaf shutters, SLR's were also common as well in the UK, and theAnschütz style press camera were still made by Peeling & Van Neck after Goerz was absorbed by Zeiss Ikon.

Ian

 

[Soocom1]

here is something I tripped accross this am.

The link is a scroll copy of the old Calumet product catalog with some really good info and data.

Camera Eccentric: Info

One of the particularlly interesting parts of this thing is pgs 20 & 21.

Some of the previous pages and some of the following pages are quite informative.

 

[Derrel]

The Symmar lens was kinda neat in that the majority of models made were 'convertible', meaning that the an element group could be easily unscrewed, thus lengthening focal length; as I recall, this was NOT at all uncommon, and three-focal length "convertible" lenses were also available. As the above 1970 Calumet page shows, the 135mm Symmar became from a 285mm to 310mm focal length with JUST the rear element,depending on the distance focused at.

I used to have an old 101mm KosakWide Field Ektar for my 4x5, and the rear element un-screwed and made a lovely soft-focus lens of around 200-plus mm or so, I would guess. I only used it as a SF lens a few times.

 

[Soocom1]

Well I went ahead and bit the bullet on a Calumet 215mm f/6.3. Though they say its for certain use, me thinks it will work fine for product as well as landscape.
At least for now I can set up the Canon on the back and get some movements.

What I didnt think about that was previously posted is a recessed board.
I brain farted that aspect and didnt think of mounting the 135 on a recessed board to get some distance between standards so I can shoot the canon on it.

But that also rides directly to the focal distance aspect.