Big Bertha's new john says Hello!

[Dan Fromm]

Dan,

See http://66.49.230.119/booklets/photog...ol_1_31-61.pdf , its down near the bottom.

Neater than the homebrew dicke Berta you bought. The design studies I did for a 2x3 kleine Berta were more like it than yours. Not to say that yours won't do the job, though.

How to make something like the Naturalist that will focus a longer lens should be obvious.

[Dan Schwartz]

Dear Dan, there's one bid difference -- The Naturalist hardly ever comes up, while I did indeed snag this Big Bertha.

Indeed, the Naturalist with it's 360mm focal length could be easily mimic'd with a Speed Graphic (perhaps with an extended lensboard, the opposite of a recessed lensboard), depending on whether the lens is a telephoto design or not, i.e. the back focus distance is almost the entire, or about half, the focal lens length.

See http://66.49.230.119/booklets/photog...ol_1_31-61.pdf , its down near the bottom.

Neater than the homebrew dicke Berta you bought. The design studies I did for a 2x3 kleine Berta were more like it than yours. Not to say that yours won't do the job, though.

How to make something like the Naturalist that will focus a longer lens should be obvious.

[Dan Fromm]

Dan, you raised an interesting point. When you can, please tell us more about how your dicke Berta's lens is supported and what moves to focus.

I ask because when I was designing I found fairly quickly that I didn't want to hang a heavy lens far out in front of the front standard on an extension board or tube. Also that I didn't want to have a front standard far behind the lens; done that way, if the lens is long enough vignetting is a problem. That's one of the reasons why I'm moving so slowly on the Mk II tandem; there's no way a 600 will cover 2x3 with the present arrangement. My tandem has two front standards, the rear one is limiting with lenses much longer than my longest.

Incidentally, the ad's text says that the Naturalist "will accomodate lenses from 12 1/4 to 26 inches." 26" isn't in your territory, but its closer to it than 14" is.

I've always thought of Bertas as monorails with a mirror box and focal plane shutter at the rear. The purest expression of this idea is probably the Arca Swiss Reflex; AFAIK it was made in 6x9 and 4x5. I haven't checked, but there may have been a similar Mentor Reflex. The Arca Swiss isn't what your application wants, its highest shutter speed is too slow.

[Dan Schwartz]

Dan,

The lens itself is anchored, and the whole Graflex camera slides back & forth with the focus gearshift lever, i.e. the whole thing sits on a track.

Go to my Big Bertha Page and look at all six photos, and it will become clearer.

Dan, you raised an interesting point. When you can, please tell us more about how your dicke Berta's lens is supported and what moves to focus.

I ask because when I was designing I found fairly quickly that I didn't want to hang a heavy lens far out in front of the front standard on an extension board or tube. Also that I didn't want to have a front standard far behind the lens; done that way, if the lens is long enough vignetting is a problem. That's one of the reasons why I'm moving so slowly on the Mk II tandem; there's no way a 600 will cover 2x3 with the present arrangement. My tandem has two front standards, the rear one is limiting with lenses much longer than my longest.

Incidentally, the ad's text says that the Naturalist "will accomodate lenses from 12 1/4 to 26 inches." 26" isn't in your territory, but its closer to it than 14" is.

[Dan Schwartz]

Here is a snapshot from the other side. Note that she has two sets of bellows, with the set on the left all bunched up into a 1-1/2 inch thick pack. The lens itself moves (extends) another 7 inches, with an anchorpoing halfway in between... This is something the previous owner didn't notice. All you need to do is pull the thumbscrews and the lens slides outwards along the base.

EDIT: I added a photo showing Bertha with her lens and front bellows off and the front standard extended all the way.

[Bill_1856]

Are you sure that you're Bertha's John, and not her Pimp?

[Dan Schwartz]

Bill, I won't start pimping Bertha until she's making money for me at a speedway... Until then, I'm just her john, showering her with love, attention... And money.

[Dan Schwartz]

OK guys, you can click here to see the progress of Big Bertha's restoration.

[Dan Schwartz]

Unfortunately, Big Bertha sat disassembled in a crate for over seven years; and now the photos are all missing. Are they buried somewhere in the database?

OK guys, you can click here to see the progress of Big Bertha's restoration.

[Mark Sawyer]

I've noticed many of the old threads are missing photos uploaded to this site. I'd guess they are deleted after a few years. Too bad, because so many of us search the old threads for information...