new LF user in fairbanks alaska checking in

[robert liebermann]

Hello. I've been doing a little looking/reading on 4x5s, and since I've seen a few things on the threads here thought I ought to sign up.

I've been doing photography for 30+ years, but nothing bigger than 6x7 (I just got a 'new' Olympus Pen-FT half frame too - I like them all!)

Have been thinking about getting into 4x5 for a few years, but maybe I ought to do it soon while there's still some film left. I especially look forward to having control of the focal plane! Also the deliberative process of camera setup which, I hope, will slow and improve my photography to the same degree that the RB-67 did compared to 35mm.

I'm taking a photo class at the university here (mainly for darkroom access as I have much E6 to process! but everything else is fun too and always good to learn more). The next assignment is LF - so this will be my my first try of 4x5, and looking forward to it. I've borrowed a Linhof Color from the department and /really/ like its build; I'm taking it out this weekend on the snowshoes for a little shooting.

Now I need to think about used a camera to buy... Advice or ideas solicited. I know other formats pretty well, have an idea what I want to do, but need to know more about the technics and so forth of 4x5 cameras et al. I see there's a for sale part on this website, but I can't get it for-I think-a month as a new user, but have been looking elsewhere to see what's available.

I like landscape photography and would shoot 4x5 in B/W and, later, color (while I still can!). I'm a fan of Eliot Porter, Ansel Adams, George Tice, Nadine (also Les and Craig) Blacklock, among LF landscape photographers.

This will probably be rejected by the forum software, but here's a link to some of my photography/ideas, 'greatly enhanced by imperfection': http://rjl.us/photo/

I look forward to learning more about LF photography!

[Winger]

Welcome! Nice to see an AK resident (I was born in Sitka) here. I can't really help you with what to get, but others have said the best way to figure that out is to use something and see what you like and don't like. Then figure out which of the many out there is most similar. I think many of the members here have used several different cameras before settling on something.

[Nathan Potter]

Welcome from Texas. I keep wondering how dedicated photographers deal with the near perpetual darkness or dimness during the far north winter. I think I'd go batty, although perhaps you have a bit of sun on the horizon even in Dec. enabling a short span of time for image making.

Nate Potter, Austin TX.

[robert liebermann]

how dedicated photographers deal with the near perpetual darkness or dimness during the far north winter
I don't mind it - when I was out in December and January there was about a 1.5-2 hour shooting window, which is just enough to shoot a couple backs of 120 and get back in before my feet froze (record of trying to shoot this winter is -47f, but admittedly not super-productive at that); now there's what seems like an unlimited amount of daylight - must be 9 hours already, and in a few months it'll be shootable 24 hours a day! So, as photographers, we all appreciate the changing conditions of light, and I'd say in the north this is extreme! Alaska summer evening light is sublime, and it lasts hours and hours and hours!

[robert liebermann]

Have been thinking about getting into 4x5 for a few years ... I look forward to learning more about LF photography!

I was also going to add that I'm cruising through the many, many 'which camera recommended for new LF user' posts here and elsewhere so won't ask for general advice on which camera... I just hope I have the patience to read it all, watch the sales, and think before buying something ... but we'll see! Maybe I'll be too broke and have to put it off again...

BUT since I can't see the 'for sale' ads here, if someone sees/posts something there that I might benefit from, let me know...

... AND - forgot to add that I'm not a digicam refugee - I've been using film continually since the '70s and never found it lacking! (though only shot 126 and 110 in the very late 70s, and I did have a Nikon D700 for a couple years that I was staring to use almost as much as film, but that got stolen thus ending my digi-years for now). I also plan/hope to use my 35mms, half frame, 120, etc. forever even after I get a 4x5!

Viva film! - all of it, even the dead (expired film fan here, too)!