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Leitz Epis lens on an 8x10 Wet Plate Camera


Ambro51

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I build wet plate and daguerreotype cameras and recently a client ordered an 8 x10 and sent her lens for the build. Never having seen one before, I was very startled by the size and weight of this F 3.6 monster. The camera took it all in stride, and WOW what a beautiful image it threw on the ground glass. Under the loupe, the detail was perfect, with even coverage across the plate. I'm sure the tinypes and ambrotypes it makes will be stunning. Without an iris though, it will be a challenge to work this as exposures (by lenscap) will be in the two second range on a bright day. It is my understanding this is a projector lens. 01D64D7F-20F8-431C-975A-C16E57F123C1-110

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Yes, as suggested by the name , Leitz EPIS lenses were used in projection ("epidiascope") systems : you can find them, for instance, in the Leitz 1957 General Catalog: the 325mm f3,6 lens you depict is listed together with an EPIS 400mm f4 (projection distances 6-11 mt for the 325mm, 8-14 mt for the 400mm).

 

Compliment for your work !!! I suppose you prepare also your own wet plates... a patient task...

Edited by luigi bertolotti
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I wonder if couldn't be better to mount the lens in reversed position... surely a less "clean" arrangement and aspect... but it's consistent with the lightrays direction the lens was designed for...

 

Anyway, there is a historical official precedent story of a projection lens adapted for taking (the Leitz Hektor 120/125 mm f 2,5)

Edited by luigi bertolotti
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I did not realize the light ray path ideally should be the other way, but cannot find any fault with the image it produced. F 3.6 is the normal design ratio of a Petzval lens. I stopped actively shooting wet plate a decade ago after having done my decade on the Civil War Reenactmennt scene and doing about ten thousand plates. The camera building business is more than full time now. I do wonder about "crossing" wet plate to Leica......it would be really easy to design a "single shot" small wet plate assembly much like the second version of the Leica unit, with the lexposures made by cap. Collodion plates are grainless and allow amazing enlargement. BTW for "scale" here's another picture of the 8x10. AD7259A9-4945-466C-A2EB-D00661A17BF3-110

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I wonder if couldn't be better to mount the lens in reversed position... surely a less "clean" arrangement and aspect... but it's consistent with the lightrays direction the lens was designed for...

 

Anyway, there is a historical official precedent story of a projection lens adapted for taking (the Leitz Hektor 120/125 mm f 2,5)

 

As I became my IIIf in 1957 my parents gave me a small Leitz projector too. It had Leica LTM thread and my first slides were projected with an Elmar 9cm f/4. Of course at f/4, because of the heat.

 

Fstop f/4 offered not much light, so only small pictures were possible. But the screen of my now used laptop is only 14".

Jan

Edited by jankap
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I wonder if couldn't be better to mount the lens in reversed position... surely a less "clean" arrangement and aspect... but it's consistent with the lightrays direction the lens was designed for...

 

Anyway, there is a historical official precedent story of a projection lens adapted for taking (the Leitz Hektor 120/125 mm f 2,5)

I don't think the direction in which the light travels matters greatly. What seems more important to me is that the rear side of the lens should face the image, because it's closer to the lens than the object.

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I did not realize the light ray path ideally should be the other way, but cannot find any fault with the image it produced. F 3.6 is the normal design ratio of a Petzval lens

I think anyway that reversing the lens wouldn't make a significant difference ... Petzval, iirc, is a symmetrical design... I am not surprised that it covers fine an 8x10" format ... for epidiascopes, it was normal to use A4 sheets for projection... and some of them were really "big iron" :)

 

http://pradoseum.eu/Epidiaskope.html

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Nice Cam & lens!

I haven't shot LF for 5 to 6 years now..but just this week...dusted off a couple of 8x10's..and the 100 year old

Dallmeyer F3...

You think your lens is big...this one definitely stresses the Dorff front end bigtime..too bad the Ebony in back has such a tiny lil lensboard..the Dallmeyer just wont fit..

8x10%201_zpswmpcjyhp.jpg

Edited by tsleica
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I used mostly 8 ply birch plywood, the lens was some early 20th century process lens with about a 42" fl. It lit up the focusing screen pretty well. That one was my "high water mark". The client supplied the bellows, he paid $500 for them some years ago but never found someone crazy enough to build the camera around it.

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  • 6 years later...
  • 1 year later...

Hi, I have mounted my 325 Epis, my 430 Ross and my 460 Cooke to my Mentor Panorama Camera (18x24CM) and it has a built in shutter. Set up for use with film and plates.

Find yourself a mentor - east german rail camera, big, heavy but good for this

Preview attachment 5E38CE1B-456A-4CB3-BC9A-FF9E1E6DEB9B.JPG

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