[LargeFormat] Wide Angle Lens for 4x5

[Clive Warren]

At 14:02 05/12/00 +0000, Gareth Rees wrote:
>As a newbie to the world of large format (bigger than 24x36mm) the world
>of lenses and coverage etc is rather confusing.
>
>What is to choose between the  Wollensak  Optar 90mm or Raptar 90mm and
>the Angulon 90mm - any thoughts for use in a Pacemaker
>Speed Graphic 4x5
>
>Regards and thanks (in anticipation)
>
>Gareth

Hello Gareth and welcome to the list.

Probably others have more experience of these lenses than myself, however I 
can give you some armchair philosophy and some feedback from practical 
experience.

All three lenses are good and cover 4x5.

The 90mm f6.8 Raptar was the Wollensak wide angle made for 4x5. The 90mm 
Optar will probably be the same Wollensak lens but later glass was made by 
Rodenstock.  Graflex owned the Optar name (according to Richard Knoppow).

I have a Raptar and possibly an Optar sitting in the lens box. I made the 
decision to use a Schneider Angulon 90mm on a field outfit and have never 
bothered to check out the Wollensak lenses in terms of comparison shots, 
The Optar is sitting in a Speed Graphic lens board and I have used it with 
the Speed Graphic. It performs very well.

All of the lenses do not give a lot of freedom for camera movements - 
however all would be fine for use with your Speed Graphic. The Angulon has 
to be shut down to f32 to guarantee good coverage for 4x5  and generally is 
a lot more expensive than the other two lenses, probably because of the 
name :-)

I would bet that there is not a lot of difference between the lenses, 
although you may have more coverage with a Raptar or Optar.

If anyone else has information about coverage and resolution I would be 
interested to know more.....






All the best,
                 Clive   http://www.f32.net
                         Large Format Travel and Stock Photography