From Brooklyn and my new friend Sinar Norma 4x5.

[shrooms]

Hi. I was about to buy a point & shot camera as a present for my mom and I did but also ended up with a Sinar Norma for myself. I'm a newb in photografy. I don't have much funds and knowledge to buy everything I need to go out and take shots yet. Please feel free to share any information related to my camera and accessories for it.

Thanks in advance.

[Cletus]

Looks like somebody landed a nice camera! And some nice lenses to boot! Take a look through the Large Format Homepage, you should find plenty of info on 'photografy' to keep you busy for a good while.

I'm not really the normal welcome ambassador (haven't been around here that long myself) but welcome to the forum!

[diversey]

Hi. I was about to buy a point & shot camera as a present for my mom and I did but also ended up with a Sinar Norma for myself. I'm a newb in photografy. I don't have much funds and knowledge to buy everything I need to go out and take shots yet. Please feel free to share any information related to my camera and accessories for it.

Thanks in advance.

Know nothing about the camera and lenses, but curious to know how much you paid for them.

[shrooms]

Know nothing about the camera and lenses, but curious to know how much you paid for them.

$620 shipped on fleabay.

[Frank Petronio]

Looks like you got a good deal, congrats!

[welly]

Welcome to the forum and nice buy! All you'll need is a tripod, a film holder, some film, a black tshirt (to duck under) and some way to figure out your exposure - light meter, exposure chart or digital camera and you're pretty much good to go.

[shrooms]

Thanks a lot guys for your inputs. I'm glad I joined your forum.

Welcome to the forum and nice buy! All you'll need is a tripod, a film holder, some film, a black tshirt (to duck under) and some way to figure out your exposure - light meter, exposure chart or digital camera and you're pretty much good to go.

I like the website you suggested. Ooh its really tough to understand how to put exposure on practice.

[Cletus]

Exposure's not that bad and nothing that should keep you from getting out there. If you have a spot meter, just meter somewhere in the shadows, or the darkest part of the scene where you think you'll want detail in the print. (I.e., if it's pitch black in the scene, meter an area where there's still some detail. Or about Zone 4, if you read Ansel's book, which is recommended, BTW. In fact, read all three, or at least "The Camera" and "The Negative", depending on whether you plan to do any darkroom printing.

If you're using an incident meter, with the little white dome on top, just take a reading with the little dome pointed TOWARD your camera and use that for your exposure value. You'll soon pick up the fine ponts of exposure with a little experience.

[Frank Petronio]

You can also just use an exposure reading from any metered camera to start with. Most people here are more advanced than that and get into the details, but 1/125 at f/8 or the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunny_16_rule will serve you well to start with.

Try not to get overwhelmed and make it more complex than it is. Set it up and play with the camera without film, then perhaps find a friend with some experience or at least a darkroom and figure out how to load some film holders (very easy once you see how they work) and send the film to a lab if you aren't up to developing it yourself.

I use a Sinar Norma myself - you have more gear than I do actually.

[Bob Salomon]

Looks like most of an Expert version set. I used the 45, 57 and 810 Expert during the mid to late 60's in my studio. The biggest problem I ever had with them were the rails oxidizing and developing a rusty looking area on some of the rails. The Sinar Product Manager at Paillard, the Sinar distributor back then, used to make fairly frequent trips to my studio in CT from their office in Linden, NJ to keep replacing those rails.

Doubt they would do that today.