GrafNoct 150mm F/1.6 MC Extra Rapid Portrait Lens

Elevan — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 16:33:45 +0000

Large-format portrait depth, made deliberate.

Pre-order

Estimated dispatch: within 2 weeks after order confirmation.

An ultra-fast 150mm lens for 4×5 and smaller large-format systems, designed first for portrait depth and then for the low-sensitivity and low-light situations where every stop of light matters.

150mm

Focal length

F/1.6

Maximum aperture

4x5

And smaller formats

A different kind of 4x5 portrait lens

Large-format photography already gives a portrait a physical presence: the sheet is large, the camera slows the process down, and the focus plane becomes part of the composition. GrafNoct 150 starts from that experience and pushes it toward a more pronounced, expressive separation between the subject and the background.

With a 150mm focal length and a maximum aperture of F/1.6, the lens is made for photographers who want to place focus carefully on a face, a pair of hands, or a small object while allowing the surrounding scene to recede. It is not a request for every frame to look soft. It is an invitation to make the focus plane and the out-of-focus character part of the image design.

Portrait depth on 4x5

More room to isolate the subject

At F/1.6, GrafNoct 150 opens a new portrait vocabulary for 4×5 users who want a thinner focus plane than a conventional large-format lens usually offers. The result can feel intimate and graphic at the same time: the subject holds attention while the background becomes a controlled field of light, shape, and color.

Open up, or take back definition

Use F/1.6 when maximum separation is the point, or stop down through F/2, F/2.8, F/4, F/5.6, F/8, and F/13 as the scene needs more depth and definition. The choice is part of the look, not just an exposure correction.

Portrait sample. A real-world photograph made with GrafNoct 150, showing shallow focus and subject separation. Sample courtesy of Tsukika777, YinanSun.

Out-of-focus rendering sample. A real-world photograph made with GrafNoct 150, included as a reference for focus falloff and background bokeh. Sample courtesy of YinanSun, 赵相机, 徐浩翔.

When you needs more light

Wet plate and direct photo paper work can demand a large amount of exposure. In those situations, a faster lens can reduce the lighting burden and give the photographer more freedom around faces, surfaces, and the atmosphere of the scene. The same principle matters when a 4×5 camera is used after dark or in other low-illumination environments.

F/1.6 does not remove the variables of large-format exposure. The actual result still depends on the medium’s sensitivity, reciprocity behavior, shutter, metering, subject movement, lighting, and development. GrafNoct 150 gives the workflow more light to work with; it does not replace those decisions.

Wet plate and direct photo paper

For low-sensitivity processes, the aperture can help bring the lighting setup closer to a workable scale, especially when the goal is to keep the subject’s expression and the scene’s natural light present.

Night and low-illumination scenes

For night portraits and other dim scenes, the extra aperture gives you another way to balance focus depth, shutter speed, and exposure without treating the lens as a fixed one-look tool.

Soft-focus control for a chosen look

GrafNoct 150 includes variable spherical-aberration control. This lets the photographer tune the lens’s soft-focus character rather than accepting one permanent rendering style. Depending on the adjustment, the out-of-focus areas can be made to feel smoother and more diffuse, or kept closer to a defined, structured look.

Think of it as another creative control beside aperture and focus distance. The most convincing result will always come from testing the lens with the photographer’s preferred film, plate, paper, lighting, and working distance.

Built around a large image circle and a fast aperture

Lens	GrafNoct 150mm F/1.6 MC Extra Rapid Portrait
Focal length	150mm
Available apertures	F/1.6, F/2, F/2.8, F/4, F/5.6, F/8, F/13
Coverage	4×5 and smaller formats
Image circle	170mm diameter
Optical construction	Double-Gauss design; 5 groups / 6 elements; includes lanthanide high-index glass
Coating	Visible-light multi-coating
Lens dimensions	Maximum outer diameter 108.2mm; total length 101.4mm
Weight	Approximately 1.3kg
Filter interface	Front M105 P0.75
Soft-focus control	Variable spherical-aberration control

Choose the board that matches your system

Select the lens-board format when placing your pre-order:

Sinar lens board
Graflex 8 Speed lens board
Graflex 24 Speed lens board
Linhof lens board

Shutter not included. GrafNoct 150 is supplied without a shutter and can be paired with a Graflex camera or a Sinar DB electronic shutter. The camera body, lens board, and shutter must be considered as one system.

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