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Thread: Worst View Camera Ever?

  1. #121

    Join Date
    Jun 2002
    Posts
    9,487

    Re: Worst View Camera Ever?

    I ain't using no 8x10 unfortunately...

    I really enjoyed owning Robert Fisher's near mint Sinar Norma, partially because I was so lucky to get for not much more than a nice C-1. But another good one I owned was the older style Arca-Swiss -- it was very light yet it seemed as sturdy as any of the other metal cameras. And the C-1 I had was a beater -- the bellows was shot, everything was binding -- but the same for the older 2Ds I've had, which were probably fine field cameras when they were in good condition but by the time they crossed my hands they were loosey goosey.

    I also had an 8x10 Fatif - that was funky but if it had been in good repair to begin with, it would have challenged the Sinar and Arca as being a nice solid compact monorail.

    That reminds me - the WORST 8x10 was a $275 DeGolden Busch 8x10 I found on eBay. It probably weighed 25 lbs, had all heavy brass hardware, and was built with the craftsmanship of a... Prinzdorf from Bombay, India, ca. 1953. Even though it weighed a ton it was still a loose goose, it was just horrible. I explained all that when I sold it too, at a ridiculous loss.

    I've never seen a 8x10 Korona that was (still) solid either come to think of it.

  2. #122

    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Location
    SF Bay Area
    Posts
    2,706

    Re: Worst View Camera Ever?

    [QUOTE=Chris Strobel;462206]
    Quote Originally Posted by Merg Ross View Post

    Yeah a few minutes with a sawzall and a spot welder did the trick for me.I have a second C-1 stock rail to use if I ever get a really long lens or shoot close ups.Was that you in the Brett Weston video with a Calumet 4x5 pointed down at the rocks?Are you still using the C-1 these days?

    C
    Yes, that is me with Brett and my Calumet 4x5 at Point Lobos.

    I sometimes use the C-1, however this week have dusted off my old Agfa/Ansco and will put it to use again. Shorter draw, but three pounds lighter. I presently have a Luc shutter on it and plan to adapt the Sinar shutter for use; a simple woodworking project.

  3. #123

    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Las Vegas
    Posts
    142

    Re: Worst View Camera Ever?

    I can't say it was the worst ever made but a former employer had me use an old kodak metal 8x10 camera for copy work. I don't even remember the model but it weighed a ton and would never cooperate by allowing me to move the standards for focusing, that is until I had it in focus then it would spontaneously move itself.

    Honest! I actually saw it happen once. I swear it was haunted.

  4. #124

    Re: Worst View Camera Ever?

    What a bunch of crap. A camera is only as good as the person using it. Excuses, excuses, excuses.
    "Drop your pants and slide on the ice"
    [url]http://http://www.cyrsmith.com/go/home.html

  5. #125

    Join Date
    Mar 2002
    Location
    now in Tucson, AZ
    Posts
    3,613

    Re: Worst View Camera Ever?

    "Fine tools contribute to fine work."
    - Alexander Calder

  6. #126
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    Apr 2009
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    Re: Worst View Camera Ever?

    What a great way to be introduced to a new forum!

    I'm quite satisfied to see that my vote for worst (Newton Nue-Vue) has been repeated by many others, and seems to be in the running for the lead. That was the first view camera I owned, after having had a Linhof available to me while in architecture school. Making any photos with that beast was battle and war. The decades that have passed since then have not dimmed those evil memories.

    And I'm rather glad NOT to see a Calumet 45N, which is about 90% of a Cambo SC but at a much lower price. I think I paid $200 for mine with a couple of lens boards, a compendium shade, and both bag and pleated bellows. I just wish I could get the standards close enough to happily focus my 47mm Super Angulon.

    And I saw several mentions of the MPP. I have only one bit from that maker--a 6x9 rollfilm back for 4x5--but it does remind me of the V-8 engine in a Triumph Stag: Heavy in the wrong places and too light where it shouldn't be.

    I also have the Calumet CC-400, which is not really in the same league as the Cambo, but is saved from attracting too many of my ill thoughts on the basis of my prior experience with the Nue-View.

    And to those who complained of Ukrainian junque, I would offer the Ilex Universal shutter in rebuttal, and those work just fine even when 60 years old. They are made the same way--like a cheap alarm clock. I have three Kiev 60's and two of them work pretty well most of the time. But the Pentacon Six (of which I own two, one of them hiding under an expensive Exakta 66 skin)--that camera over-reached and tried to be too precise for its own good. Mine are guaranteed to advance film properly only during testing. But I can adapt the lenses to my Pentax 645 (and to my 5D), so all is not lost.

    Rick "who traded that Nue-View for a Solar 5x7 diffusion enlarger and felt good about the deal" Denney

  7. #127

    Join Date
    Dec 1999
    Location
    Forest Grove, Ore.
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    4,674

    Re: Worst View Camera Ever?

    Quote Originally Posted by John Kasaian View Post
    A pinhole camera I made from a frozen turkey--baaaad idea!
    Seems like it has possibilities, though. You can grab the legs to point it in the right direction.

  8. #128
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    Apr 2009
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    Re: Worst View Camera Ever?

    Quote Originally Posted by focalplane View Post
    A camera is only as good as the person using it.
    Sometimes it's not that good. If a camera leaks light, causes flare because of a shiny interior, positions the ground glass differently than the film, or loses its adjustment when loading film holders, then it can ruin even the best photographer's work.

    And if the controls break skin, require tools without notice, refuse to stay in position, or break easily (or because too much force is required to make them work), then the camera can be miserable to use.

    And that doesn't even go into the problems that can be caused by faulty shutters or unreliable film advance, but that would be off-topic.

    A good photographer can never be made better by a camera, but he can surely be made worse.

    As a tuba player, I've heard the same statement made about musical instruments. But if I have to bend the pitch of every note because the instrument doesn't tune to a western diatonic scale, then the music will suffer because of the effort I'm putting into overcoming the instrument's weakness instead of expressing music.

    Rick "thinking Nue-Views, if not already in a landfill, can probably be bought pretty cheap" Denney

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