Curiosities, unusual LF cameras?

[jnantz]

I don't know. Do you want me to look for a resource link, or was this just a vacuous question?

i already linked to a photograph of the camera and manual,
it was no trouble at all, and took about 30 seconds.
the unusual thing from what i remember is the2 leaf focal plane shutter
not the single slit the graflex cameras have ..
but then again it only had something like 3 speeds
instead of the armload of speeds the speeds and slrs have.

[Paul Cunningham]

Jac, the Peckham-Wray was really a press camera, not an aerial camera. Its lenses are in focusing helicals. I once bought two 135/4.7 Wray Lustrars in P-W helicals. Aerial cameras are fixed focus.

An air-to-ground aerial camera would be fixed focus. An air-to-air, used to shoot other planes, would probably not be.



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[Dan Fromm]

An air-to-ground aerial camera would be fixed focus. An air-to-air, used to shoot other planes, would probably not be.

I'm not at home, don't have my copy of Eyes of the RAF ready to hand. IIRC all of the aerial cameras mentioned in it, including the Agiflite and predecessors, which were shot hand-held, are fixed focus.

I could be wrong but I think you're mistaken. Would you please give a few examples of aerial cameras? Hand held Linhof aerial cameras, about which I know little, might be.

[Jac@stafford.net]

Yea, Randy Moe! Thanks for the pictures. I have more Printex cameras than I can recall. Got 'em long, long ago in Illinois when they were being dumped.

Your photo of the linkage from lens tube to rangefinder reminds me that they decoupled easily. A bummer. My fix was to cut a piece of steel bar just tall enough to fit horizontally under the lens' coupling arm. The coupling then rides back and forth nicely, never loosing the notch position.

Not heavy, but not comfy

The cure is to attach a Linhof anatomical grip. (The camera shown was an utter failure of my build effort because it could not focus, but most of all because I cracked the body.)

[Jac@stafford.net]

I could be wrong but I think you're mistaken. Would you please give a few examples of aerial cameras? Hand held Linhof aerial cameras, about which I know little, might be.

The Linhof aerial camera lenses are fixed-focus as well.

One aircraft oriented hand-held 4x5 that focused was mentioned in a earlier post in this thread: the Peckham Wray, but as Dan reminded me, it is ambiguously described in web titles as a 'press camera', and an authoritative article states that it was specifically intended for in-flight aircraft photography, an air-to-air camera as Paul Cunningham wrote (and even an SLR!) Oh, IRL it really sucks to use, and any you find will likely be broken - the SLR-like optics yellowed, mirror linkage shot, focal plane shutter nonfunctional (but one can still use the leaf shutter). But it is pretty in a mongrel kind of way.

EDIT - according the the article, the Peckham Wray WAS later modified to be more of a press camera for land base use.

[Pfsor]

Fair question.

Most of the USAF aerial cameras that we think of as 4x5 more-or-less actually shot 4.5 x 4.5 on 5" roll film.

One of the reasons for it was that it was easier to evaluate pictures when they had the same degree of distortions in all directions.

[jnantz]

jac

ever seen a land 600 portrait camera ?
http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedi...lent-condition

takes standard 4x5 film/plate/plaroid/readyload holders
and is fixed focus, fixed aperture and shutter speed

[Bob Salomon]

The Linhof aerial camera lenses are fixed-focus as well.

One aircraft oriented hand-held 4x5 that focused was mentioned in a earlier post in this thread: the Peckham Wray, but as Dan reminded me, it is ambiguously described in web titles as a 'press camera', and an authoritative article states that it was specifically intended for in-flight aircraft photography, an air-to-air camera as Paul Cunningham wrote (and even an SLR!) Oh, IRL it really sucks to use, and any you find will likely be broken - the SLR-like optics yellowed, mirror linkage shot, focal plane shutter nonfunctional (but one can still use the leaf shutter). But it is pretty in a mongrel kind of way.

EDIT - according the the article, the Peckham Wray WAS later modified to be more of a press camera for land base use.

Only the 90 was fixed focus, the others all had a helical focusing mount. Also, except for the wide, all of the other lenses for the Aerotronica also had a helical focus mount.

[Henry Suryo]

The Linhof aerial camera lenses are fixed-focus as well.

One aircraft oriented hand-held 4x5 that focused was mentioned in a earlier post in this thread: the Peckham Wray, but as Dan reminded me, it is ambiguously described in web titles as a 'press camera', and an authoritative article states that it was specifically intended for in-flight aircraft photography, an air-to-air camera as Paul Cunningham wrote (and even an SLR!) Oh, IRL it really sucks to use, and any you find will likely be broken - the SLR-like optics yellowed, mirror linkage shot, focal plane shutter nonfunctional (but one can still use the leaf shutter). But it is pretty in a mongrel kind of way.

EDIT - according the the article, the Peckham Wray WAS later modified to be more of a press camera for land base use.

On the contrary Jac, my two working black beauties : the first camera came with only two 135mm helical mounts and I mounted a 135mm F3.5 Xenotar and a 135mm F5.6 Apo Symmar and calibrated the infinity focus to the scales. The second set is complete with a 135mm F4.7 Lustrar and a 9" F6.3 Plustrar in matching helical mounts and original hoods and filters. I ended up selling the second set but still use the first set quite regularly. With several Grafmatics, it handholds well for rapid shooting but on the heavy side. Shaped like a giant Leica M.

[Jac@stafford.net]

On the contrary Jac, my two working black beauties [...]

WOW! Henry, you the first person I've known to have one, let alone two! And in working condition! Good for you.