The Air Forces had plenty of motor driven reconnaissance cameras that used 5" roll film and made 4x5 frames. IIRC they also had some motorized cameras that used 8" rolls and made 8"x8" negatives.
Top dog was the Hycon model 732 cameras that took 9"x18" negatives and held 1800 feet of Kodak film.
So who can develop long rolls of 5" film anymore ?
Tony
Newnan, GA
Cambo 23SF
The utility of a motorized back for 4x5 would be in a remote application; Wildlife photography maybe or in an underwater housing; more of a mechanized film magazine.
Sure a 50 foot roll is something to think about, but the LF roll film aerial cameras that I have seen are pretty big and weigh 40-50 pounds.
Something built around a Grafmatic could be a real-world DIY project. Maybe model airplane servos . . . an old guy way of thinking. Today the young people call it robotics.
Drew Bedo
www.quietlightphoto.com
http://www.artsyhome.com/author/drew-bedo
There are only three types of mounting flanges; too big, too small and wrong thread!
A 50' roll of 5" wide film would give about 150 shots of 4x5 (4"x3 = 12"/1' so 50' x 3 = 150). If anyone knows what a 'Big Bertha" camera is, one of the long roll backs would be great on one. A Big Bertha is a very long lens on a Graflex 4x5 camera- about a 40" lens. Many newspapers owned them and used them for sports. Some sources say that the Big Bertha used a 5x7 Graflex. A 5x7 long roll back would be possible, too.
Here's an article about the Big Bertha and a famous shot of baseball player Don Newcomb from 1956:
https://kodakery.com/2013/06/28/big-...-don-newcombe/
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