Sunday, January 15, 2012

100-year-old lens and 4x5 film

A few months ago I bought an old Kodak 3C folder from a flea market. This camera was about 100 years old and used extinct 126 roll film. However, the lens was in good condition and the shutter even worked! I had been meaning to try out the lens on my 4x5 camera but had not gotten around to it. As it turns out, that lens is amazingly respectable for something designed and built around 1910. Here are two images from that lens (the focal length is approximately 180mm). The first has some vignetting since I did a bit too much front rise:



I also messed around with just the rear element of a Schneider Xenar 135mm f/4.7. By my calculations, this simple element became a 90mm f/3.3. The images had crazy distortions in the side peripheries. For these images I stopped down to about f/8:



All of these were taken at Langdale Park. I just wanted to get out today and hike a bit so I decided it would be a good time to try out some interesting lenses and techniques.

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