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I have the Deardorff... but 90% of the time I use an Agfa-Ansco. A bit larger and heavier but so much easier to work with. Obviously a little less well known. The lens boards are big enough that you...

You may want to be sure that whatever you buy is designed to handle the "modern" film holders... before about 1930 the film holders were different, and many cameras were designed to use glass plates.

Here's a thought. When a camera back is precisely vertical most vertical lines in a photograph "line up" and the photograph has a formally composed appearance. Typically tripod mounted LF cameras are...

To the original poster... you will achieve the extremely limited depth of field similar to a 300mm f5.6 on 8x10 by using a 150mm f2.8 or f3.5 on 4x5, a 80mm f 2.0 or 2.8 on medium format , or a 50mm...

You asked about lens lengths. You can certainly use a 150mm lens for portraiture but a 210 will have slightly less distortion of near/far relationships. You can easily get an argument started here as...

I've been through most of the folding field cameras, and still have and use the Chamonix, DEARDORFF 4X5 SPECIAL, AND ANSCO 5X7. But frankly a Sinar packs just as easily and will do everything the...

Tell us what your project is and we can recommend a camera. Remember heavy is good on a tripod unless you need to move around a lot.

The first question for any new LF shooter is "Are you sure you...

There was a gizmo a few years back where you put the film in a flat holder and shined light through it onto a sensitized piece of paper. This gizmo only used a single light bulb rather than complex...

As someone pointed out earlier in this thread EBay has made it possible to try many cameras and pass on those you fail to bond with. And boy have I tried MANY LF cameras over nearly 40 years of doing...

Hey, I use Nikon lenses on my 4x5's all the time.

My favorite is the 210mm F5.6, but I also like the 135mm f 5.6 and the 90mm f 8.0....

No problem with coverage at all. But they are a bitch to...

Ok, let me tell you what I know.

Large format lenses are mechanically pretty simple. They mount to thick sheet metal plates with a hole drilled one of the several standard sizes (#0 #1, #3 being...

The Sinars are now super cheap. Just check EBay for prices.

Absolutely everything is easier to do with a Sinar than a field camera... except getting the camera to where you want to take the...

Wolfram

Good luck with your Ebony. Certainly it is a wonderful camera... and one which lies right between most monorails and field cameras in design.

I do think you may find yourself frustrated...

Try to find a seller who is selling a complete outfit... camera, lens, and a few film holders... maybe even a dark cloth and light meter. These outfits are nearly always cheaper than buying the...

I have found that strangers will always give you a better pose if you are using a view camera. Presumably because you are recording them for all of history instead of taking a snap shot. And because...

The latest Silverfast software gives me great scans on CN film... older software was terribly frustrating because I had to do too much of the adjusting and typically got it wrong despite my best...

Make your life easy and try Ektar or Portra. There was a day when 1) Transparency film had better grain and color fidelity, 2) the entire graphics art industry was set up for trannies and die...

Then the Fuji is probably the best option. While I have not used the 6x17 the lenses on their 6x9 and 6x7 cameras may have been the best I have ever used.

There is also the Hasselblad X-Pan with...

Just a few other points:

If you plan to use roll film backs, make sure any camera you buy has a "Graphlock" (also known as Universal) back. The ground glass comes out and you replace it with the...

Basically it is massively cheaper to buy a sheet film camera and either use a roll film back or just crop the film. 4x5 (or 5x4 as you say in the UK) is wider than 6x12... and 5x7 is wider than 6x17....

These are different ovens about 40 miles from Redstone/Marble. There are several old sites here in the county. Coke is a purified coal (nearly 100% carbon) used in blast furnaces and for making high...

Hugo Zhang tells me that Chamonix has sold several thousand 4x5's in the domestic Chinese market. They are selling large format cameras at a quicker pace than Deardorff ever did.

Now it is true...

Oren

Try lostening only the knob on the side you want to pull or push on... leave the other one fairly tight (but not oexcessively tight)... you will find that the back pivots nicely... just as...

Harley

Don't forget this piece that recently ran in the Onion:

Artists Announce They've Found All The Beauty They Can In Urban Decay
July 23, 2011 | ISSUE 47•29

DETROIT—After spending more...

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6231/6284869013_afd5ab9345_z.jpg

Used Car Lot (of sorts)
Above Rifle Colorado
Sinar F1
Rodenstock 150mm
Portra converted to B&W

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6213/6285391500_33fe29729e_z.jpg

Hand Hewn Timber Barn along 4 Mile Road above Glenwood Springs Colorado
Ansco 5x7
8 1/4" Commercial Ektar
HP-5

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6100/6285393210_0320afecd5_z.jpg

Ruins of old coking ovens
Cardiff Colorado (Near Glenwood Springs)

Chamonix 45n2
150mm Rodenstock
Fuji NPS

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6038/6284880527_08db6edeac_z.jpg

Above Rifle Colorado
There is a radioactive tailings dump just to the left of frame
Chamonix 45n2
Rodenstock 210mm
FP-4

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6108/6284874605_4f3c24bb69_z.jpg

Above Silt Colorado on the Burford Road
Sinar F1
Rodenstock 210mm
Kodak Portra

Here's a long shot possibility... maybe your holders are "plate" holders designed for glass plates rather than film holders.

M A Y B E ??? that would be sloppy enough for the film to be able to...

I wouldn't carry the Ansco held to a tripod by just a single 1/4" screw. Whereas I do that all the time with a Chamonix 4x5.

A 150mm lens on an 8x10 is an extremely wide and hard to work with lens. I doubt there are many photographers who would use one as a primary lens. For landscape they will make anything in the...

If you don't mind weight the Ansco 5x7 is a real contender. I prefer it to my Deardorff. I use a Chamonix 4x5 and previously owned a Shen Hao. Both of those makers give you a terrific product... the...

Having lived and shot in Australia I would strongly encourage you to consider color negative film in place of Velvia. The outback is a place of extreme contrast ranges, which negative film handles...

For $409 these days you can buy one hell of a 4x5 enlarger.

I have 2 Ansco 5x7's... they are terrific cameras... every bit as well made and functional as Deardorffs. A little Pledge and this will look new. By the way you can synthesize front tilt by pointing...

I wish I could help. Mine was so buggy, and the company had left the US market, that it is now in the Glenwood Springs CO landfill. My Epson V-700 works pretty well however.

Thanks to the pushing here I finally made some good prints on my EPSON R2400 and Entrada Rag... the secret was reading this:

"The Front feed is for extremely thick media and the heads are farther...

Yep, calibrated monitor.

The muddying up I had was with Velvia source scans, and perhaps would be less severe with color neg which has less dense shadows.

But no way are my Epson prints as...

I have tried to print on both Hahnemuhle Photo Rag and Moab Entrada, using their profiles for the 2400 and get muddy prints with blotchy shadows. I'd love to be able to print on those richer papers....