5x4 Lenses Are Getting Very Expensive

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Ian-Barber

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I only have 2 lenses for my 5x4 setup and the one I use for most situations is a 150mm Rodenstock Sirona-N Copal 0 which I bought in 2015 for £75 from Real Cameras in Manchester.

The aperture adjustment is getting extremely stiff now to turn and the shutter is sticking probably 1 out of 3 goes so I thought I would look for another one but Wow... I was shocked by how much these have gone up by, £300+ is what I am seeing now.
 
Yes they are.
This is the normal operation of supply and demand and it will get worse as they don’t make them any more, while at the same time interest in LF is increasing. Some lenses have jumped even more, because well-known photographers on the web have been seen to use them. It’s not their fault; they are helping to spread the word. Intrepid might have inadvertently increased the demand, too.
Many of us have been unexpectedly lucky, including you, and bought when prices had been depressed by the expectation that digital would soon rule the world.
However, if you can find a (say) twenty-year-old pre-digital catalogue, you’ll see that they are still a bargain, relatively speaking. And in those days, money was worth something.
Why not simply have your lens serviced? If given proper care, they are almost immortal. Regular servicing is a normal part of owning precision equipment.
 
You had a bargain in 2015, you need to get the shutter serviced, I always use B on W in Bristol, but Copal lens servicing is quite common there may be someone closed.

The problem is there are no new shutters being made, so prices will keep going up, & then there's all the new cheaper LF cameras being made. The market will shrink.

Ian
 
I have emailed B On W for an estimate, looks like this is going to be the cheapest route
 
I used B on W to service my 90mm Super Angulon and they made a good job of it. I have also used Newton Ellis in Liverpool who also do a good job.
 
I’ve used Linhof and always been satisfied. No idea if they are the cheapest, but they are certainly cheaper than a new lens.
 
I took the LF plunge just before the pandemic struck and put together a kit over the course of about 6 months. I went looking at lenses again recently and things do seem noticeably more expensive even in just 18 months or so. There also seem to be fewer about on the auction site in the UK, and of course the weak pound makes Japan even less attractive.

I was lucky to pick up a Nikkor 300 f/9 and a Super Symmar HM 120 for good prices back then. Both of those seem to have gone up by at least 50% since. And don't get me started on centre filters!
 
Centre filters, I bought two in early 2020, one for £30 & the other £35, the shop had a third for £55. They were all Hoya, new but old stock, the third sold as soon as I mentioned the shop's eBay store online. I think Hoy discontinued making them around 2002.

I'd been after a centre filter for years, There was a point where Schneider had a clear out in the early 2000s, they sold off surplus stock G-Claron, and late version Xenar lenses, also Centre filters, through a small number of dealers, Robert White here in the UK, Badger Graphics in the US, Everything was cheap, I made the mistake of not buying Centre filters at that point, at around £100 each.

I know that some of the Xenar lenses were being sold for less than the price of a new Copal shutter, and these were the best Xenars ever made, a slower Tessar design, 150mm f5.6, 210mm f6.1, & 300mm f5.6.

Ian
 
I bought myself a centre filter, but in B+W, I’ve never needed it. Any fall-off has been either easily corrected in printing or a positive aesthetic benefit. Perhaps I’ve been lucky with my collection of lenses.
I understand that the situation is different with transparency film, but my colour pictures are usually taken with an iPhone - a remarkable device. Doesn’t even need a dark cloth.
 
Go on, enlighten me. What is a Centre Filter and what are you using them for
 
A centre filter is used with wide Angle lenses to correct the light fall off at the corners and edges. They are essentially a two element optically flat filter where the centre is darker than the edges. So the darker element is convex and the other concave. They are expensive because the failure rate in manufacture and quality control is quite high.

1659434567804.png
I needed one for the 75mm f8 Super Angulon I use with my 6x17 camera, the edge fall off is noticeable, however it's not so bad with my 75mm f5.6 Super Angulon on my Wista 45DX.

With my 90mm f6.8 Grandagon N there is slight fall off really only noticeable with E6, but not with B&W.

Ian
 
It’s a neutral-coloured graduated filter. We are familiar with these for darkening bright skies, particularly with digital cameras.
A centre filter is round, with a darker centre. Many wide-angle lenses are brighter in the centre than in the corners, because of the inconvenient laws of the universe. It’s most clearly seen with a pinhole.
A centre filter reduces exposure in the centre (who would have guessed?) so that the overall exposure is more uniform.
Different lenses may have different rates of fall-off so filters may be designed for specific lenses.
As they are tricky to make and demand is low, they are expensive.
 
Actually, David, the Centre filters were suitable for different focal length lenses.

1659436921596.png

So Schneider's IIIb was recommended for the 58mm XL, 80mm XL, 90mm f8, 110mm XL, and could be used with the 47mm XL, although there was also a stronger IIIc for the 47mm.

Ian
 
Thank you. I hadn't realised there was such a straightforward connection.
Considering prices, a Big Stopper (a plain un-graduated ten-stop filter) is £94 on Amazon. Makes the smaller-sized centre filters seem quite reasonable. The bigger ones do induce a rapid clenching of the buttocks. Do you have date for this list?
Interesting to see the different front and back thread sizes, presumably to avoid physical cut-off.
 
Those were the 2005 prices, today you'd be lucky to find a Centre filter for under £250-£350. I don't know how much the Hoya Centre filters were new, Robert White were selling them off in 2002, but didn't list sizes or prices.

My pair of Hoya centre filters came from Cambrian Photography and were listed on eBay as used, however the seal on one box wasn't broken, and both were clearly unused. They'd been in the shop labelled Used at £55 and £105.

There is a Heliopan Centre filter E39 fit for £75 or best offer, but it's sounds from the description that it's delaminating.

Yes the wider front thread is to prevent cut off with a second filter.

Ian
 
I found a website listing quite a few other manufacturers of Centre filters, CZJ made them for their Germinar wide angle lenses as did Carl Zeiss Oberlocken for a Distagon, I was surprised just how many companies had made them.

Ian
 
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