Need a litle help finding information on this lense:Zeiss 15cm f4.5 Tessar. It came with a fairly decent 5x7 Korona field camera, but I can't find any info on the size of its image circle. Until I can work up a few bucks to get the lense I want, I'll be using the Zeiss. The info on the static part of this site doesn't seem to list a 150mm and it seems an unlikely length to be the original lense for a 5x7, but the Copal shutter (#3? It's fairly large whichever it is) seems to look the right vintage, as does the lens board. Given the oldish ground glass it's tough to tell if it really covers 5x7 without shooting a few shots, and I won't be able to pick up film for about 2 weeks. Any help would be appreciated.

-- Terrance McDonagh (tmcdonagh2@hotmail.com), March 05, 2002

Answers

I doubt that a 150mm Tessar will cover 5x7, even if it's stopped fully down. The minimum aperture on this lens is only going to be f/32 anyway, I would think. Maybe the former owner wanted that vintage vignetted look?
My advice, FWIW is: Keep the shutter, it's worth more than the glass.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), March 06, 2002.

Before I could afford a newer lens, I used a 13.5cm f/4.5 Tessar on my 4x5. Though capable of surprisingly good quality when stopped down, it barely covered the format and certainly didn't allow much in the way of swings and tilts. Possibly you can scale that info up to 5x7. If it covers at all, you won't be able move much. Possibly you could remove the ground glass to view through the corners and see the coverage yourself (if they're not already cut).

-- Conrad Hoffman (choffman@rpa.net), March 06, 2002.

Thanks for the responses. That's about what I figured. Even after cleaning the GG the corners looked like they fell off pretty bad. But being new to large format I find it difficult to judge this very well without a fresnel. One more question, how can I identify what size shutter it really is? After looking at a few others I think it may only be a #1 or so. The opening for the lense itself is small. The shutter, however, is over four and a half inches in diameter.

-- Terrance McDonagh (tmcdonagh2@hotmail.com), March 07, 2002.