A friend lent me his Aero Ektar lens a while back. He had it on an odd hacked up Speed Graphic, which I used, but I also got a lensboard and put it on my Speed Graphic the way that most people do it.
The appeal is the wide f/2.5 on 4×5 film, which gives you a very shallow DOF. It doesn’t have a shutter in the lens, so you have to use a Speed Graphic with a cloth rear curtain shutter.
I hear that this lens was affordable before David Burnett put one on his Speed Graphic, and people like the results so much, its driven the price up a bunch.
Well that friend wanted his back. I loved the results I had with it, so I got one before they weren’t quite as expensive as now.
Last Saturday there was a Seattle Flickr meetup, so I brought it along. Its pretty laborious to use, but the results can be worth it.
I was shooting some really outdated black & white film, ISO 400, but I was shooting at 200. I developed it at home in Diafine.
The exposure here was 1 second, and the camera only goes to 1/15th, so I just removed the dark slide on the film holder and put it back in. That was my shutter.
I gotta make more more pictures like these.
52 rolls 
Very jealous that you have been playing with a Graphic and Aero Ektar lens. Love the second and second to last photos. Has a lovely sharpness
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