[LargeFormat] Lensboards on the road

[Michael Briggs]

On 06-Apr-02 Hornford, Dave wrote:
> 
> Do you have each lens mounted to a lensboard? Change them in the field?
> What do you do to protect them?

I leave my lenses always on a lensboard.  I think the operation of changing
mounting a lens on lenboard isn't wise to do in the field, and adds a delay
before taking the photo.  What if the light is changing?   Thinking carefully
about what lenses to bring and leaving one behind will save far more weight
than leaving a bunch of lensboards behind.

> 
> My current thinking is to put each lens in a Domke wrap and take along a
> pair of lens boards (Copal 0 & 1)
> -Fujinon 75mm Copal 0
> -Fujinon 90mm Copal 0
> Yes I know they are close, one may not get packed, but they were both a
> very good deal and selling the old Calumet provided a respectable down
> payment on one of them
> -Sironar 180mm        Copal 1
> -Fujinon 450c or Nikkor 300m will be a Copal 1 when acquired

If you are concerned about weight or space, I think bringing the 75 and 90
would be foolish.  I would take the 75 because one can always crop.   I find
that I almost never use my 300 mm lens, so I would take the 450 mm.   For many
years I owned only one LF lens.  Today I have more, but 75% of my photos are
probably done with two: normal (180) and moderately wide (110).

--Michael