Even if the bellows has leaks in the corners, a little liquid acrylic artist's paint thoroughly scrubbed into the inside fabric should cure that. As Mike says, lens boards are easy to make. They can be cut and milled on a table saw, or cut with any saw and glued up. Film, holders, lenses, and a good tripod can be expensive, though.
For $100, buy it. I don't think there could be anything seriously wrong with it that you couldn't fix. They're simple things and as long as most of the weird/custom hardware is there, you should be good to go.
Thanks for the advices...
The person selling this camera is a widow. She stated that all the stuff in their darkroom belonged to her late husband who passed away a couple of years back. She was finally getting around getting rid of his stuff.
There are lots of vintage camera stuff, from pinhole camera, to old enlargers....large format lenses that the lady and I had no idea what they were. I will be coming back to her place tomorrow evening to look at the 8x10 again.
Will bring a flashlight to check for holes....but from just visually looking at the belows including the corners....it looked pristine. From storage, there were dust on top of it but seemed quite supple.
All the movements felt good...though some needs to be 'greased up' ...but nothing rough.
Will let you know....thanks.
I'm a stupid man and the older I get the more this is apparent to me. I am really really dumb. I'd go over there and tell the old lady what all that stuff is really worth. I might offer to sell some of it for her for small fees. OTOH, if she was financially well-off and just wanted the stuff out of her way the easiest/fastest way possible then I'd get it as cheaply as I could.
Whatever your adventure brings, good luck.
Well, if my guess is correct, she was financially set....She lived in a nice 'old' neighborhood in town....in a well kept, expensive decor home....drove a Volvo....so 99% sure money was no longer an issue.
She had something to sell, she gave me a price for an item her and I were not familiar with....
She also offered me to take 'for free' all the boards/lenses and pinhole stuff she had over there....but told her I myself was not familiar with them...I told her will think about it as I did not want to take something that will end up in a box somewhere in the house...
You are welcome to go over there to offer her advice ONLY AFTER I purchased the B&J 8x10..
Originally Posted by Old-N-Feeble
I'm a stupid man and the older I get the more this is apparent to me. I am really really dumb. I'd go over there and tell the old lady what all that stuff is really worth. I might offer to sell some of it for her for small fees. OTOH, if she was financially well-off and just wanted the stuff out of her way the easiest/fastest way possible then I'd get it as cheaply as I could.
Whatever your adventure brings, good luck.
LOL!! Okay, she sounds like a nice old lady. Hopefully she can easily afford to be generous and, if so, I hope she's quite generous to you.
What's her address?
Brian Ellis
Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you do criticize them you'll be
a mile away and you'll have their shoes.
I'd make certain that she knows she is being very generous with pricing, and promise to give her late husband's gear would be put to good use.
I think that would mean quite a bit to her.
"I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White
My gosh, I see old cameras in this price range all the time. You guys are acting like it's something rare, or somehow a great, quality camera. It's neither. It's an old, dusty piece of wood to 99.8% of the world. About as useful as a 1950s typewriter. It's all the heavy breathing talk that makes the next widow think their ratty 5x7 is worth $800. I found a Deardorff this weekend that I passed on because the owner hunted around on the net for a while and decided it was worth the super-high buy it now prices he saw.
Garrett
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A 1950s Underwood is a far better typewriter than Mark Twain used. The B&J should be far better than some of the cameras that Atget used. Go for it. Also, if there are accessories like lenses and lens boards that fit it, get them too, even if you aren't familiar with them now.
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