Shooting with barrel lenses

DConvert · Joined: 12 Jun 2010 Posts: 884 Location: Essex UK

Many of my potential LF lenses don't have shutters & often there's no aperture as well.
Having just started to shoot (rather than just collect) my 5x4 kit, I've found this causes more difficulties than adapting to digital bodies!
Looking on-line for shutters I see the range of sizes is limited & e-bay seems to want as much for an empty shutter as for a random lens in the same shutter. Either way the price is too much for me.

Restricting the aperture can be arranged with paper/card 'waterhouse stops' directly in front of the lens, or with a purchased iris if I have one the right size.

For longer exposures simply uncapping & recapping should work, but that's not an option below 1"
I have managed to get a few ancient Thornton Pickard shutters that might work & could be used with some of my lenses, but the speed range is limited even when they work well.

Things get particularly awkward with lenses like this 150mm f/1.2

A challenging lens by Mike Kanssen, on Flickr

Six inches across is actually bigger than any of the Thornton Pickard shutters made according to the old 1920's TP catalog I browsed, as well as any standard LF shutter...

My efforts with a 'Galli shutter' (usually 2 dark slides, but need to be bigger sheets for this beast) have so far not given usable exposures so I want to investigate other budget DIY options.
Any suggestions?

Does anyone else shoot with barrel lenses? If so your experiences would be most helpful!
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