Ok, so last time I was banging on about my main reason for getting into the 4X5 large format Speed Graphic was so I could shoot with the legend that is the Kodak Aero Ektar 178mm 2.5 lens - I’ve waffled on about this mythical beast HERE and also possibly HERE but TLDR it’s a lens that was made to fit on US Air Force Bombers in World War 2, my copy was made in 1944 :D

So what?! I hear you cry! Well….. through the application of magic and science (and eBay) I have managed to combine this amazing beast of a lens to what is perhaps my all time most fave camera ever ever ever - that’s right it’s (drum roll please) THE PENTAX 67!!!

Oh I already wrote that in the title, bit of a give away I suppose…. and the photos… anyway! What a time to be alive eh?!!

I feel fortunate that I managed to get my greedy mits on the P67 a few years ago before prices went properly NUTS…more recently I was able to acquire a very special lens for it the Carl Zeiss Sonnar 180mm 2.8 which I waffle on about HERE and now friends, I can shoot the Kodak Aero Ektar in medium format!

I love the flexibility of having interchangeable kit - very useful!! In all honesty there have been times when I just cba to lug the speed graphic and tripod and all the other accoutrements of large format on a shoot, and on those occasions I can now add the Kodak Aero Ektar on to my list of options! Wahoo!

The magical device (which is literally just a tube of metal) with a P67 mount on one end and then a helicoid on the other - that’s a posh camera term for a threaded screw type thing that allows you to focus the lens by moving it along the length of the adapter.

I procured this marvel of modern engineering off of eBay, second hand for not a huge sum of money (what normal people might think was a bonkers amount of money, but for me that ship has sailed a looooong time ago) and voila…

In practice it’s HEAVY! I mean the P67 is no slouch on a good day but with the adapter and Aero Ektar attached you are very much aware of it’s presence (and possibly it’s gravitational field). Anxious to shoot a portrait with this set up I messaged my friend Ruth who not only is an amazing photographer but also a great model and seemingly ‘shoot ready’ within about ten mins of me messaging! :D

When shooting I found that the helicoid is ok for getting in the general area but for fine focussing I relied on my old trick of moving my body, leaning forward / back as required to nail focus as much as possible - one major benefit of this adapter over others that I’d seen out there on the market was the very long screw thread on the helicoid which meant that I can focus quite close, therefore making it great for portraits! Although the adapter is extended quite a lot to achieve this and it kinda looks a bit daft but hey - it’s about the results innit!

So let’s talk results…. wow! I don’t know what else to say really… all that preamble… all that scene setting and context…. but yeah WOW! Ok I’ll try and put some coherent thoughts together…. floaty and dreamy, slightly swirly bokeh, very thin DOF when working with this lens - I reckon I was probably shooting most of these at f4 but even then it felt like it was still a shallow depth of field….. I managed to get a couple of frames with the plane of focus just about where I wanted! Not always a given ;)

The fall off from sharpness to melty / floaty dreaminess is quite something - I am very much looking forward to exploring what this lens is capable of! I tried a few shots with direct sunlight in the scene which resulted in a bit of a mess really, I do have a lens hood for this so will bring that along next time and make the lens EVEN MORE LONGER-ER!

The film was slightly expired Portra 400 shot at 400 and developed in Bellini C41 chemistry - scanned on my Epson V700.