Depth of Field Adapter on Steroids

Tons o Glass 0 Class wrote:

fferreres wrote:

Quick question to thread follows, can a bellows like this be a starting point for trying out the kind of thing in this thread?

https://www.ebay.com/sch/625/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=%28double%2C+dual%29+bellows&LH_TitleDesc=0

Of course, this is terribly expensive, but I am thinking more generically, starting with something that already has movement of rear, mid and front, and think a monorail setup could be good. I am thinking 4s5 would be best for experimenting as well.

That looks like a good way of doing it. Having bellows on both ends will allow using more than one lens (being rigid and of a fixed length, the DIY Perks rig will only work with one lens).

Similarly, Bosun Higgs mentioned putting two large format cameras back-to-back - a couple of leaky Omega 45s (patched with gaffer's tape maybe?) would be pretty attainable and worth experimenting with, but you probably won't be approaching the DIY Perks rig's DOF emulation of f/0.4 on a 4x5-based rig - you'd need a f/1.5 or f/1.6 lens for that, and I don't know that there are lenses that fast for the format, especially not cheap or readily available ones.

I missed Bosun's comment but was thinking the same thing. Maybe some monorail can be customized precisely without having to hack anything.

Another option is adapting rear View Finder, non reflex ones like some of older Cambos. Remove the eyepiece, and have a lens of the right FL. Would need enough bend from the fresnel. Of course, it will not be as good as the much larger setup, but there are some fast lenses that make it interesting or worthy or toying. Of course, the real deal would be a digital 4x5 back. It's amazing how film scales easily, and we can't get one single 4x5 done.

The movements could make up for that, though. I'm also pretty out of the loop when it comes to large format lenses (and medium format lenses for that matter).

Digital was a great way to practice vs film. This can be a great way to play with 4x5. Then one can jump to film, or better yet, maybe we are lucky and start to see 4x5 backs in 10 years, kind of affordable, something like $6K.

On a 4x5-based DOF adapter rig, f/2.5 via an Aero Ektar, f/2.8 via a Xenotar, or f/2.9 via a Pentac gets you f/0.67, f/0.74, or f/0.77 equivalent aperture emulations, respectively.

The Xenotar sounds amazing. I love the rendering of Xenotar lenses too.