Talk:Great Wall DF

Removable lens

Thanks to Zorkikat for the improvements to the article. I have doubts about this sentence:

No other lenses were known to have been made for this camera, and because of the shutter design, it was perhaps also impossible to design others which would fit and work satisfactorily. The removable lens option is probably to allow the photographer to use the lens on an enlarger to make prints from the Great Wall negatives.

I think that it would have been possible to design telephoto lenses, and perhaps wide-angle retrofocus lenses, the same as for any other SLR with behind-the-lens shutter (Hasselblad, Kowa Six, etc.) It is just that the manufacturer did not take the trouble to design other lenses, for price or other reasons.

I can see at least one other use for the removable lens: to insert 39mm screw mount extension tubes for close-up photography. Moreover, I don't know the Great Wall's film-to-flange register, but it is equally possible that lenses made for the Visoflex or other M39 reflex housings can be attached to the camera without losing the ability to focus at infinity. (But I don't think this was a reason for making a removable lens at the first place.) (Please disregard my remark on Visoflex lenses, these may not have enough coverage for 6×6cm exposures.)

--rebollo_fr 12:02, 15 September 2010 (EDT)