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My new DIY long lens - Ross Xpress f4.5 8.5inch remounted
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 2:20 pm    Post subject: My new DIY long lens - Ross Xpress f4.5 8.5inch remounted Reply with quote
Hi folks

A while back I bought a beautiful, mint condition Ross Xpress f4.5 8.5inch large format lens mounted on a mint set of Russian M42 bellows for the princely sum of 6.99:




I tried it out on the bellows and it's a very sharp lens with no CA, excellent colours and pretty good contrast for such an old lens. Ergonomics using it on bellows handheld was a pain though:







PostPosted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 2:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Excellent performance and great catches, congrats! Cool


PostPosted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 3:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Thanks man, lucky find indeed.

Here is the diy remounting part - I took a truly awful 5.6/300 lens and removed the glass and aperture blades then cut a few inches off either end amd used the resulting tube and helicoid to remount the Ross lens. It works perfectly, hits infinity when set at the infinity mark and focuses down to around 2.5m. I need to paint out the existing focus scale and engrave new marks on it, this will take a while but I feel it's well worth doing.




Sorry for the crappy pics, I used my NEX to shoot em and it's hard to focus the damn thing and even harder to hold it steady...


PostPosted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 3:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Well, I spoke a tad too soon. It doesn't quite hit infinity, it's a fraction off, so I'll have to fix that, just a small adjustment.







PostPosted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 4:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Well done !

The trick with a fixed mount like this remounting a non-telephoto lens is getting the minimum focus down as far as you did, as you need so much more focusing range. Infinity adjustments are tiny tweaks in comparison.


PostPosted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 5:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Cheers Luis, it will just take a small tweak to fix the infinity.

The donor lens for the mount was a truly awful Dufay 5.6/300, one of the cheap tubular types, so no loss that I destroyed it, this was what it did at infinity at f11:



The only decent shots I got from it:




PostPosted: Sun Aug 28, 2011 8:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Looks like a good job done to me Smile


PostPosted: Sun Aug 28, 2011 2:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Cheers Martyn.

I have cut up another 5.6/300 (branded Pentor but same lens) to remount my 5 inch Ross Xpress, that is a much trickier job, I'll show that one when it's finished.

I've also cut up a 8/500 version to remount my Wollensak Apochromatic Raptar 21.25 inch.

I just prefer this old glass to anything more modern, they have more character and for me, character is much more important that technical brilliance.


PostPosted: Mon Aug 29, 2011 8:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Well done, Ian!

Keep it up! These old lenses deserve to be used.


PostPosted: Mon Aug 29, 2011 10:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Cheers pat, got a couple more remounted lenses in the pipeline to show ya soon, just tweaking the mounts to get infinity.


PostPosted: Mon Aug 29, 2011 1:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
iangreenhalgh1 wrote:
Cheers pat, got a couple more remounted lenses in the pipeline to show ya soon, just tweaking the mounts to get infinity.

Congrats on the Ross XPress remount, it seems to be worth the effort.

To mount those seldom used lenses without doing any destructive surgery on them, I have modified a Russian bellows with the addition of an universal diaphragm holder (also called universal iris holder):







A picture of this contraption holding an old 58/2.4 Takumar lens:



I have been using this iris holder for years now and it has proven to work very well indeed. I often use it on the field, even during daylong hikes, and it has never failed: when the lens is secured, the whole assembly is quite sturdy. Rigidity is good for most lenses up to 200mm in focal length, or for longer lenses in short barrel mount (without helicoid). Of course longer lenses in heavy focusing barrels (like lenses designed for medium format cameras) can also be used, but they need to be attached to some kind of support.

Here's the original thread: http://forum.mflenses.com/universal-diaphragm-lens-holder-the-ultimate-weapon-t4403.html

Cheers!

Abbazz


PostPosted: Mon Aug 29, 2011 5:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Thanks for showing that Abbazz, I would love one of those! Never seen one before though...


PostPosted: Mon Aug 29, 2011 5:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
iangreenhalgh1 wrote:
Thanks for showing that Abbazz, I would love one of those! Never seen one before though...
+1


PostPosted: Tue Aug 30, 2011 8:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
iangreenhalgh1 wrote:
Thanks for showing that Abbazz, I would love one of those! Never seen one before though...

You're welcome. You can order this kind of equipment from suppliers for optics/photonics labs, like this for example:



Available here:

http://www.qioptiq-shop.com/en/Optomechanics/Mounts-Posts/Diaphragms/Iris-Diaphragms-with-Different-Outer-Diameters.html?cur=3#G550527000

Or, potentially cheaper, the Indian version:

http://www.oeplindia.com/Lens_Holders/IrisDiaphragmLensHolder.html

Cheers!

Abbazz


PostPosted: Wed Aug 31, 2011 12:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Thank you for the diagrams and the links
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