First Light With New (To Me) Camera

[tgtaylor]

Hi all,

A couple of week ago I finally scratched an on-again/off-again itch and bought a beautiful used Toyo-View 8x10 camera in excellent - close to mint - condition with a new bellows:



This is a big camera - weighs 19 lbs so I won't be doing any hiking with it. As it turns out two of my lens for my 4x5 kit will work with it so I won't have to buy any lens and my Manfrotto 475B tripod and 329RC4 head are perfect for it. Here's the cameras first light taken with a 120mm lens (17mm full frame 35mm equivalent):



It's shown contact printed on 8.5x11 Ilford MGIV RC paper (the negative (8x10) was placed on the oversize paper a little crooked). It's going to be fun finding those perfect views to justify hauling the big camera out to. Film for it is not cheap: $3+/sheet for B&W Ilford Delta and $9/sheet for color negative but then again I will be shooting only those "special" shots with it.

The cost was pretty reasonable also - less than what they were selling for when I first started looking several years back - and E-bay sent me a 10% discount coupon off the purchase price! I don't even need a case as it came with an absolutely indestructible fitted case for it that weighs 30 lbs.The only thing that I had to buy for it was 2 film holders that together will hold 4 sheets of film which is plenty for my planned purposes.

I'm looking forward to the occasional B&W and Color contacts I will be able to make with it.

Thomas

[Vaughn]

Congrats and have fun with it!

[darr]

Super shot Thomas!
Ah, the beauty and the potential ...

Cheers,
Darr

[Brian C. Miller]

Tom, my advice is this: don't justify anything! Just go and do it, and have lots of fun!

-- Brian "happiness is a larger negative" Miller

[tgtaylor]

Thanks everyone! I L O V E this camera and promise to use it to its maximum!

[Michael Cienfuegos]

This camera is proof-positive that you HAVE to scratch that itch every now and then.

Wonderful camera, you don't need to justify hauling it out. Save up for a few more holders and you can shoot more film.

[Frank Petronio]

I bet you made a good deal on the camera too ;-) Yes the film is too expensive but you are shooting the ultimate capture media.

[dsphotog]

Size DOES matter....
There are plenty of great images not far from the car.
(Like New Idria

David Silva
Modesto

[E. von Hoegh]

Thanks everyone! I L O V E this camera and promise to use it to its maximum!

There's no going back......

[Brian Ellis]

Nice photograph, especially for your first try, I'm impressed.

I'm even more impressed that you got a 19 pound camera out of the car, on the tripod, and ready to shoot while it was still daylight. : - )