I have a 10" Kodak Commercial Ektar Lens and need to find the filter size. The front of the lens is marked with the following:"Kodak Wide Field Ektar f:6.3 250mm (10in.) ES 115. I have tried a few filter sources with no luck. I even e-mailed Wisner as I had just purchased a 5"x7" view camera from them. I have recieved no response. Can anyone tell me what the front filter size is? Thanks in adv

-- Bruce E. Rathbun (brath@iquest.net), December 28, 2000

Answers

Bruce, this is not real rocket science. Take a good plastic or metal ruler and measure across the front of the lens from outside to outside (ie, the diameter). That is the filter adapter size. When that lens was made, you were expected to buy an adapter that slipped on over the front of the lens, and use "Series" filters. There may well be no screw-in size filters to directly fit this wonderful lens.

-- Bill Mitchell (bmitch@home.com), December 28, 2000.

Try Steve Grimes www.skgrimes.com before you spend a lot of time researching. Not only will he know, but will be able to offer you a couple of options, including making adapters for filter sizes you may already have.

Regards, ;^D)

-- Doremus Scudder (ScudderLandreth@compuserve.com), December 29, 2000.

I've taped 3" filters behind the lens with my 10" WF Ektar. It seems like they would be a trifle small, but if you do it carefully, it works (potential downsides to behind-the-lens filters considered).

-- David Goldfarb (dgoldfarb@barnard.edu), December 29, 2000.

I'm not 100% certain of this, but if memory serves me, a series 8 retaining ring may be all that you need for holding a filter in front of this lens.

-- Robert A. Zeichner (info@razeichner.com), December 29, 2000.

Bruce,

If your lens is "Kodak Wide Field Ektar F6.3 250mm" (not the 10" Kodak Commercial Ektar), the filter size is series 9. The filters are still available new from B+W and Tiffen for $65+, or you can get used ones for ~$15 from KEH. Hope this helps. Happy new year!

-- Geoffrey Chen (db45tek@aol.com), December 29, 2000.

I have this lens and it does _not_ have the standard metric thread. Kodak is a US company and it made all it's threads based on imperial. It it very close to 52 mm and will work but the pitch is all wrong and will damage the threads after a while. I'm lucky enough to have access to a machine shop where I made an adapter that allowed me to put standard and cokin-p sized filters on.

In your case you can get a series filter holder to mate with the lens and using epoxy glue a stepping ring to it to mate with your desired filters. These adapters are mostly available at older photo stores in a big box that they haven't got around to throwing out yet.

Cheers,

-- Duane K (duane_kucheran@creoscitex.com), December 29, 2000.

Thanks for all of the great feedback. I did contact a few of the resources from suggestions and found that the lens is a Series 9. Again thank you for all of your help.

-- Bruce E. Rathbun (brath@iquest.net), December 30, 2000.