Ansel Adams gear

[christopher walrath]

I see what he's saying though. My grandfather used to go down to Bay Hill and play and once ran into Arnold Palmer who offered to sell an old sand wedge. My grandfather bought it for $20 bucks. The bottom where the 'S' would be looks like it was left in a media blaster for an hour on high. Guess where that sand wedge is now? It's cool having a tool that was used by a hero. And I guess if I had the dough burning a hole in my pocket, I would jump on one of Mr. Adams' beauts in a heartbeat. Maybe half of one. The heartbeat, not the lens.

[Turner Reich]

I have some of it.

[Mark Sawyer]

Adams' favorite 8x10, a butt-ugly aluminum imitation of a 2d custom made for some obscure polar expedition, is at the CCP in Tucson. As they have Adams' archive, they may have more of his equipment.

There ain't no magic bullet (see my answer to your other post).

I think the magic bullet is knowing what you're doing. Adams knew how to expose and develop a beautiful negative, which is most of the work in making a beautiful print. He also knew how to print for subtlety or drama. There are a lot of steps involving craft and artistry in making a fine print. Adams was a master of all of them.

And that's one heckuva magic bullet!

[neil poulsen]

Another source would be Rod Dresser. I recall that he was put in charge of the trust or something. He's the one who set up the auction for the Hasselblad. He might know about the other equipment.

[Phil]

Here's to the "Magic Bullet"...

http://www.largeformatphotography.in...ic-bullet.html

[Deane Johnson]

What you guys may not know is that Ansel had a secret zone he never told anyone about.

[neil poulsen]

Whether or not he had a magic bullet, I think he often had an ace in the hole. By taking two photos at the same exposure, he could later optimize the highlights with a different development.

[Dave Wooten]

Some of it was traveling with the show of his prints etc. Some is in Arizona as mentioned, and then maybe Turner Reich has the remainder.

[Don Dudenbostel]

Seems like his Hasselblad system only went for around $15k. I studied with Adams in 1975 and at the time due to severe arthritis in his hands he was only using the Hasselblads. He showed me samples of work he shot with his Contax rf and if I remember correctly he used a 121 super angulon, Cooke lens as mentioned, a couple of Dagors and some Wide Field Ektats. I think he also used a Dallmyer tele from time to time. He did shoot a good bit of 8x10 but he shot almost every other smaller format including a great deal of 4x5 and 5x7.

It's not the lenses, film or developer but the technique.

[Turner Reich]

The clothes makes the man, the equipment makes the craftsman.