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Thread: toyo 23 first impressions

  1. #1

    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Posts
    159

    toyo 23 first impressions

    Hi. Finally got to play with the toyo 23...

    Camera has geared movements, which is rather nice.

    Kit came with wide angle and standard bellows. Nice.

    Loading Horseman back is a royal pain in the neck (and other places.)

    Rail extension is useful.

    Focusing is DIFFICULT to say the least. Then again, portraits in very low light can be difficult to begin with. Perhaps a hood is in order? A loupe? Jeffrey, your input would be appreciated.

    Selective focus as an option is NICE.

    Difficult to get same results as with Fuji 6x9; perhaps it is simply that rangefinders are easier to use (or that I am used to them.)

    Hmmm....should a Linhof technika be in my future? I wonder...expensive, though.

    Horseman back is PAIN IN THE BUTT to load! What gives? Loading my (former) RB67 backs were FAR easier.

  2. #2

    Join Date
    Sep 2003
    Location
    Harbor City, California
    Posts
    1,750

    toyo 23 first impressions

    Regarding focusing, the first necessity is to allow your eyes to adjust to the low light. Wait for awhile before even trying to focus.



    A well-adjusted dark cloth is better than a hood because a lot of light comes to your eyes from around the edges of a hood, particularly a small one.



    Your groundglass is small, and magnification will greatly help. If you can rig up a low power magnifier spaced correctly from the screen that would be useful. Some people have found cheap drugstore reading glasses helpful. They are not for people whose eyes have astigmatism, though. A Loupe? Yes! What power, though, is a matter that seems to be rather individual. If you use the search option on this forum for "loupe" I think you will find some comments that will be helpful, if possibly also confusing.

  3. #3

    Join Date
    Dec 1997
    Posts
    117

    toyo 23 first impressions

    Percy, I have an Arca 69 which I find very easy to focus. I use a Schneider 4X loupe under a dark cloth. I also have a binocular viewer which magnifies the image 2X but I use it primarily for compositional purposes rather than focusing.

    What kind of problems are you having loading the Horseman back? Give it time and it should become second nature to you.

  4. #4

    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Posts
    159

    toyo 23 first impressions

    Uh...perhaps I should clarify...having a hard time seeing what is in focus...

  5. #5

    toyo 23 first impressions

    Because sticking one's head under a focus cloth is unpleasant for much of the year here in Arizona, I generally used Toyo's monocular loupe on my 23G. I wasn't able to find the vesion that was designed to mount directly to the 23G, but I did find one that was designed for Toyo's quick-slide rollfilm adapter and adapted that to fit by removing the base and holding it in place with a pair of rubber O-rings (the only difference between the two versions is the base).

    This worked great for me until my eyes started begging for bifocals and I was forced to start looking through the monocular viewer with my eye a few inches away from it instead of pressed firmly against the eyecup as had been the case originally. I solved this problem by switching to the 8x10 format and now use a Toyo loupe for fine-focusing.

    As for the rollfilm backs, as I mentioned previously, get yourself some Toyo backs. Not only are they very easy to load, you won't have to remove the groundglass assembly for every shot as they slide underneath it.

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