It's a good idea to thoroughly question the seller about what they mean by "cleaning marks". A few wisps won't hurt anything but ask very pointed questions if you cannot see it before buying it. If you are buying on the famous auction site, be aware that 90+ percent of the sellers wouldn't know a cleaning mark fom a Buick. On the other hand, there are lots of nice older lenses available for little money. If the camera is extremely nice, the lens may not be such an issue. An example of buying sight unseen: I bought a 127mm f:4.7 Ektar on eBoo that was described as "clean - no scratches". I got it very cheap but it was so bad, you could not even see through it. It's ok, I just wanted the rear group, which was perfect. And the shutter was good. So, ya never know------

Cleaning marks can be anything from serious surface scratches to very faint wisp that can be only seen with a loupe. They must be very bad to degrade an image. Another case in point is a 12" commerical ektar I purchased for less than adverage with cleaning marks. When I got aroud to removing the cells and cleaning each one the cleaning marks disappeared! They were only in the white haze that accumulates on glass over the years of non use.
Light leaks is another more serious problem. Minor pin holes can be painted over with fabric paint, black silicone rubber, or black rubberized tool dip. Large holes and dried out leather or vinal need more work. Rubberized cloth as used in changinmg bags can be glued to the inside of the bellows to make it light tight again but creates more bluk.
Chalres

Okay, I am going to trust the man that I am buying from and hope that there aren't nasty gouges in the glass!

Wish me luck, I should have the camera in about 8-10 days! YIPEE!!!

I am new to LF and was wondering what the "cams are for? Why are there different sizes per lens?

I'm hoping you have at least one wide angle and one normal or telephoto lens in your 35mm bag.

If you look at the focus scales you can see that a 24 or 35mm lens focuses from 3ft to inf much much faster than say a 135 or 200mm lens.

Rangefinders work by moving a mirror a certain distance in relation to the lens moving a certain distance. With a wide lens the movement of the front standard is small, but the rangefinder moves a set amount, therefore the cam will be very curved on a 90mm cam.

At the other end of the scale it takes a great deal of movement to focus from 6ft to inf with a long lens, but the range finder still moves the same amount so a 385mm cam will be nearly straight.

If yo focus on the ground glass all this is meaningless.

Thanks,

I was planning on focusing on the ground glass anyway, but was interested in knowing.

I get my 4X5 on Tuesday!!!