Schneider Comparon for wet plate?

[israel_alanis]

Hello, Im building a 5x7 camera for do wet plate, I will try pinhole for a while, but I found a Schneider K. 210mm/5.6f for enlarging, Im little confuse if this enlarging lens works well with wet plate.

Does somebody know if this lens work for 5x7 camera and wet plate (ambrotype or tintype)?



Thank you.

regards.

 

[FrankS]

Enlarging lenses will work, but are optimized for close up distances.

 

[Dwig]

It is designed to cover 5x7 when working fairly closeup. If used at infinity, there will likely be some coverage problems. It should work very well when used for portrait work, especially when the subject is 30x40" or smaller.

 

[israel_alanis]

Hello FrankS, thank you, this means I will not be able to do landscape with this lens? maybe just close portraits?

Regards.

 

[sevo]

Well, it is not the worst choice. In general, relatively low end (i.e. low element count) lenses do better for wet plate, as a lower element count means higher UV transmission, and wet plate sensitivity mostly lies there. But it is optimized for close distance (about 1:4) and while technically a 5x7 enlarging lens, it will get close to the margins of its coverage if you use it at or near infinity.

A coated GDR f/4.5 Tessar would be of similar design, faster (and with better edge performance at infinity and fully open), better corrected for general photographic distances, and ought to be at least as cheap.

 

[sevo]

Hello FrankS, thank you, this means I will not be able to do landscape with this lens? maybe just close portraits?

No, it will cover 5x7, at least stopped down - but the performance (and edge performance) at landscape (or full body portrait) distance will be somewhat less than could be got out of a lens of that construction type.

 

[israel_alanis]

Thank you very much Sevo, FrankS and Dwig.

Have a great day.