10x8 Wide Angle Lens Recommendations

[John Hamlen]

Cheers Thingy (... what a fabulous user name!). I checked out the link. Looks like a real lens and a half. Very versatile, but not wide enough for my (current) needs.

BTW - When first joining this forum I saw some of your earlier posts and was intrigued by your email signature as I didn't know what a PS945 was! A little bit of surfing and lots of reading later revealed that it is an absolute stunner isn't it. How wonderful that a British company is still turning out this sort of quality lens!

Have you considered a Cooke Series XVa Triple Convertable? It costs the same as the PS945. Incidentally you can use the PS945 with 5x7, just. The PS945 is much lighter in weight than some of my modern Wide Angle lenses!

http://www.cookeoptics.com/cooke.nsf/products/xva.html

[Thingy]

John

Thanks for your comments.

I can see that I was unclear about the Cooke Series XVa Triple Convertable. This is a lens for 10x8 format cameras, and closely resembles the Cooke Triple Convertible the late Ansel Adams used and spoke so highly of, during his lifetime. You can buy it from Robert White. Although the PS945's very occasionally are available used, I have never seen a Series XVa Triple Convertable lens available secondhand. Below is the link to RW's page on this excellent lens.

http://www.robertwhite.co.uk/product.as ... &PT_ID=369

PS: Last year it was the same price as the PS945, but I see it is now actually cheaper!

[timparkin]

John

Thanks for your comments.

I can see that I was unclear about the Cooke Series XVa Triple Convertable. This is a lens for 10x8 format cameras, and closely resembles the Cooke Triple Convertible the late Ansel Adams used and spoke so highly of, during his lifetime. You can buy it from Robert White. Although the PS945's very occasionally are available used, I have never seen a Series XVa Triple Convertable lens available secondhand. Below is the link to RW's page on this excellent lens.

http://www.robertwhite.co.uk/product.as ... &PT_ID=369

PS: Last year it was the same price as the PS945, but I see it is now actually cheaper!

I would have liked the Cooke but because of the design the flange focus distance is actually longer than the focal length - very annoying..

Also I thought I mentioned the Schneider Symmar 110mm XL and the Fujinon 240A which are great..

[Darwinean_John]

Hi John,
The Schneider 165mm Super Angulon f8 IC 395mm @f22 so plenty of excess coverage.
But of course there's a trade-off :
- Weight 3.5lbs (1.6kgs)
- there's one on fleabay now for just over £1,000 (was £1,223.39)
- filter size 110mm
Co-incidentally, I have one of these beasts and was thinking of selling.
J

[John Hamlen]

Cheers John,
Yes, they are beasts are they, but beautiful beasts . How have you found yours in use?
Good luck to the eBay seller asking £1000 when Peter Phipp has a golden oldie up for only £325 on this very forum!
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2630
All the best,
John

[John Hamlen]

Thanks for all your help everyone! These are what I ended up buying:
115mm f6.8 Rodenstock Grandagon N
150mm f5.6 Schneider Super Symmar XL
190mm f6.3 Kodak Wide Field Ektar
Can't wait to start using then. Thanks again and all the best, John

[The Fine Print]

Re: standard threads: Dunno about these three lenses, but I have adapter rings on them which bring them to 52mm.
1) : 158mm f6.5 Cooke VIIB (coated) usu. In a Compur #2 (!) shutter,
2) : ditto for my 165mm f6.8 plain Angulon (58mm thread perhaps).
3) : 159mm f6.8, or f9.5 Wollensak W. A. Raptar usu In Alphax or Betax #3 shutters (there also was an uncoated earlier f12.5 W.A. Velostigmat version.
All these lenses are 300g or under and have over 300mm IC.

An aside: As I've gone to 5x7 entirely, I've sold both the Angulon and the nice Cooke, as frankly the "Wollies" do me just fine and were quite cheap. I use the 108mm* and 159mm f6.8 versions, both in Alphax Synchromatic shutters, (on modern speeds).
*(I also have a 103.7mm f9.5 version which I'm still checking out).

[Thingy]

I've just noticed that RW are selling a used Cooke XVa triple convertible lens for £2400. Anyone interested?

http://www.robertwhite.co.uk/product.as ... &PT_ID=499

The set comprises:

1 Cooke XVa triple convertible lens in copal 3 shutter with metal caps
1 Cooke XVa triple convertible lens in barrel mount with metal caps
1 Cooke 3 focal length aperture scale
1 Cooke 5 focal length aperture scale
2 Cooke cover rings
1 Cooke shutter blanking cover
1 Set of instructions

[patawauke]

Re the Cooke XVa triple convertible, I believe it was Tim Parkin who mentioned above that it was a problem that the FFD was greater than the focal length of the lens(es). Could someone explain to a neophyte like me what that implies please? What exactly is the disadvantage? Thankyou. John

[Trevor Crone]

John, if you can track one down I would certainly recommend the discontinued Fujinon 210 W. It's a small lens for the 8x10 format, 58mm filters and a decent image circle of 352mm, so allowing a little movement with 8x10. I managed to pick one up on Ebay from a US dealer for a good price and I love it as a gentle WA lens with this format. Here is a picture of the lens in question; http://www.subclub.org/fujinon/210w56.jpg Note the inner lettering, later versions with less coverage have lettering on the outside of the lens barrel and are multi-coated this version is single-coated.