Half-Plate Elitist User Group

[Rob_5419]

Just kidding.


There's only a handful on this forum who show interest in half-plates anyway.


I've been working this sunny Saturday on finishing off restoring my half-plate camera to working order.

Here it is:

http://img109.imageshack.us/my.php?i...andolfife9.jpg

Doesn't sit steady due to the knurl knob tilting it over.


Camera: Thanks for all the help I've had since posting (esp. Ole). I guess it is a Gandolfi then Ole. I couldn't tell the difference if someone had stuck a "Leica" label on it though. Guess I just like the solid wood sturdiness it provides.

Lens plates: I haven't sorted out the plates but did some handiwork on my own lensboard to fit the lens. Have emailed the Gandolfi firm to ask.

Lens: I have an 8 1/2" Tessar type f4.5 mounted onto the lens panel which is amazingly bright! on the ground glass. The view is rather telephoto. I guess I need a 6" or shorter.

Ground glass: The view of the ground glass has an elegant proportion. I haven't been excited about rectangular photographs like this in a long time. The ground glass is in great shape - for plain acid-etched, I'm surprised it's so bring (no darkcloth).

Plate holders: Cutting some 2mm glass (thanks Dave for the recommendation) and dusting off those bookform half-plate holders. Have yet to coat these black (how do you do it Ash?) or coat the glass plates in liquid emulsion - seem so hard to cut with a glass cutter.

Film: Well, it's Efke 25 which we're all raving about. Why Efke 25? The uncoated lens I have is low contrast. Perhaps the higher contrast of the film will make up for it.

It's raining now and the night's coming. Guess that's why I'm posting on the forum dum de dum. Looks like tomorrow before a shoot.

Thanks guys.

[C. D. Keth]

Raining in England?

That lens sounds like it will make a wonderful portrait lens for you. Have fun.

The efke 25 you mention is slow enough that you could easily give it a stop push to amke up for the contrast lost in your lens.

[Ole Tjugen]

Lens: I have an 8 1/2" Tessar type f4.5 mounted onto the lens panel which is amazingly bright! on the ground glass. The view is rather telephoto. I guess I need a 6" or shorter.

The "normal" focal length for half-plate should be 204mm, or just about 8".

With Tessar-type lenses you shouldn't go much below this or it won't cover the format. Plasmats (like Symmar) cover a lot more, and I believe a 150mm would just cover without movements. I know the corners go just a little bit soft on 5x7" with a 150mm Symmar.


There's no need to blacken the glass plates if you're just using them to stick the film to - the anti-halation backing of the film is more than dark enough to eliminate all reflections.

[Ash]

Rob, pm me your address and I may have a barrel lens or two you can borrow if you like.

One's a Wray 4.5" enlarger lens, and I'll see if I have a 6" or something. I prefer my 10"-ish lenses, and just bought myself a bag-full of condenser lenses to play with!

[Rafael Garcia]

My 4x5/5x7 Japanese Half-Plate conversion. It began it's life in the late 1930's/early 1940's (wartime baby) as as Asanuma King, Model 1. I have the original Half-Plate back but have no bookform holders.

[Rob_5419]

Raining in England?

I was hoping to get out to shoot - that's all. Guess you're right. I shouldn't be so surprised....it's an English Ross lens. I like the idea of an English Ross lens and an English Gandolfi camera (even if I thought it was an Italian import camera to start off with!)

Thanks Ash - I still have to get around to sending you some money for the bookform holder. No need to send me the Wray - I have a Wray 2", 4" and 6". They're great enlarging lenses but not very much use in regular shooting. Not sure if a 6" covers half-plate - in any case the biggest challenge is mounting the lenses onto a lensboard!

I have a few 6" lenses and some copy lenses, including a spooky ex-radioactive Cooke Apotal 14", Taylor Hobson 14 1/2" duplicating lens and various Ross incarnations. None of these are going to be easy to mount on such a baby lensboard and the rear elements won't fit easily to the Gandolfi so some lateral thinking required.

Cheers Ole - I didn't want to steep any lower than 8". Strange how a half-plate camera makes an apartment feel smaller. The signature of the plasmats haven't appealed to me. Have you any experience with LF triplets? (apart from being so fuzzy, that even fungus and decementing doesn't affect it).


Rafael - your half-plate looks so neat! Definitely a baby half-plate. Fujifilm are great that way - they respect all those older folk with half-plate cameras and still produce film for the older folk whereas Kodak seems to kill off anything that's considered old. I guess half-plate has only been available for a 100 years.... no reason to stop now

[Ash]

Ross lenses are great, and Cooke.. I think I only own English lenses for LF

[Struan Gray]

A 6" Homocentric supposedly covers half plate at 'medium stops'.

Otherwise you're looking to German things like plain Angulons, or Celors.

[Rob_5419]

Thanks for the recommendations Straun.

I've just trawled my dark darkroom lenses - a few enlarger and process lenses aside and found....a Taylor Hobson Series III 7.7 inch lens. It's a perfect 39mm lens flange so goes straight onto a Copal 1 size hole. Almost forgot about this - it's a very sharp lens when stopped down. Lightweight and very pretty in brass.

And it's marked 6 1/2 x 4 3/4.

Yesssssss!

[Paul Ewins]

I'm not a half-plate user, but I do have everything I need to be one. A few years back I bought an old Lancaster Instantograph. I built some adapters so that I could use regular 4x5 holders with it. Then when I bought my 8x10 Kodak 1A it came with a dozen half plate film-holders. They need a bit of cleaning and probably retaping, but look like they will be OK. I've even got an ancient cobbled together half-plate enlarger, although that will probably be rebuilt into an 8x10 enlarger.

The one thing I don't have is film...