I don't think I posted here before but if I did I need to update anyway.
As a teenager and young adult I always dreamed of owning a LF camera but never actually got round to buying one. Fast forward a while and last year I finally bought my "starter" LF, a Speed Graphic 4x5 with a Wollensak 162mm lens. It was set up for ground glass viewing only and I've been having fun with it.
Then a few months ago a friend found a Gundlach 5x7 in a junk store and sent me a photo of it. I made a deal with the junk store owner over the phone and my friend picked it up and shipped it to me. It came with 2 lenses, a 105mm and a 135mm both of which started their lives on a 6x9 folder. The 105mm had a stuck shutter so that is now in a speed graphic board. The camera had no back so I built a 4x5 using a graphlex spring back and have used it this way a few times.
Fast forward a while and I found an original 5x7 back for sale in the classifieds on here, it was missing the ground glass but I have just ordered that and it should be here in a few days. This of course left the problem of the 135mm lens that I was pretty sure wasn't going to cover 5x7.
That was solved this last weekend. A local friend called me and said he was clearing out all his old camera equipment and would I like to take a look?
First, I now have two 4x5 enlargers, one of which is going to yet another friend. In addition I now have a Bausch & Lomb 1905 210mm lens in immaculate condition for the Gundlach.
I also picked up a Rochester 8x10 view camera from the early 1900s. It is complete except the lens board is missing. It came with 4 plate holders and a Gundlach 12" Radar lens in a Betax shutter, also in immaculate condition.
So that's my story.
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