Some years ago I came across an incredible modification of a 37mm Mamiya to act as a circular fisheye on 4×5″ view cameras. Along with a marvelous system for cocking the inner shutter. I’d love to chat with the inventor of this beauty.
” You will probably never see another one of these on Ebay. For you film users that want a full circle fisheye lens on 4×5 sheet film this one is for you! This outfit was built in our machine shop about 18 years ago for a special purpose photograph in a crowded boiler room. The agency wanted a high quality 4×5 transparency with a full view of the inside of this room for a magazine. We built this camera for the job and everyone was happy. It has only been used a couple of other times since then and now it is time to pass it on. The fabrication required only one modification to the lens and that was to make the lenshood removable so that the edges of the hood would not be in the photo.
That was the easy part and there is no damage of any kind to the lens or lens barrel. The hood can be slipped back on for use on the RB & RZ67 cameras if you want. The lens includes the original caps, case, filters and box. The lens is in excellent condition with no haze or marks of any kind and the shutter is crisp. The resulting images are tack-sharp edge to edge.
The 4×5 mount was fabricated from aircraft aluminum and installed in a recessed Toyo lensboard. The custom bayonet mount allows you to mount the lens just as you would on the RB or RZ cameras. The beautiful part is when you rotate the front mounted knob counter-clockwise it cocks the shutter and opens the lens for composing and focussing. You turn the knob clockwise to close the sutter, pull your dark slide and trip the shutter with the cable release.
The included camera is an original Omega view made by Toyo. It comes with a 7.5 inch rail that is suited for this lens. The 4×5 back rotates and has a fesnel lens for easy viewing. Also included a regular lens board for use with one of your lenses to use this as a standard 4×5 camera.
Also included are 6 good 4×5 film holders, a 3′ cable release and the angle adapter for the cable release to get it into the recessed lensboard.
The image circle is approx. 3-5/8 inches in diameter and the field of view is 180 degrees. The camera will allow the lens to focus right up to the front of the lens for some really wild effects!
The only flaw is the cable release socket on the lens has to be placed halfway between normal and mirror up for it to work properly. This is an easy fix for a repairman but it has never caused any problems at all and works perfectly.
This would make a great high resolution cloud camera. Or use it to shoot forest canopies. Good luck and please ask questions.
Thanks for looking.”
