Portrait Artist wrote:I'm looking at purchasing a 6x9 for my environmental family portraiture. The 6x7 focal length that suits most of my compositions is 110 mm which normally gets cropped top and bottom. Can anyone offer an opinion on what 6x9 focal length to utilize with similar to slightly wider angle of view that will allow me use of the full 6x9 neg? Final print sizes range from 48" to about 72".
If you usually take 6x7 pictures (56x67mm) and crop top and bottom to get a 3:2 aspect ratio, then you get a 44.7x67mm image, which has approximately the same diagonal as a full 6x6 image. If you want the same field of view as your 110mm lens, then you will have to use a 135mm lens on 6x9.
You don't tell us what kind of camera you're going to use. There are many 135mm lenses that can be used on view cameras with a 6x9 rollfilm back, the most common being a Speed Graphic with a Graflex Optar or Kodak Ektar lens. If you want to use a rangefinder or a vintage folding camera, I don't know of any model offering a 135mm lens. The closer may be the Fuji G690 with its 150mm lens. Or the
Rittreck/Optika II-A with a Leitz Elmar 135mm F/4 mounted...
Cheers!
Sebastien