Very Old School Shutter Care and Film Holders

[Joe taylor]

I have a very old Eastma No. 2-D 8X10 Camera manuactured by the Graflex corporation. I have not tried shooting with it yet but it it is in excellent shape and by old I mean old as it has a "real" Bulb for the Bulb feature. The lens is Baush & Lomb Zeiss Tessar Series 1c. The lens is in perect shape and is timed likea swiss clock. All of the shuter speeds a deadly accutate. Even 1, 2 , and 3 Sec. Since I don't have a lot of experience with these old cameas I really want to care for this lens and shutter and keep it finely tuned since I plan to put this camera back to work and do some shooting with the camera this summer. What is the best method to keep a shutter this old working properly when not in use? Is leaving it in the closed "Bulb" setting a good position or shoud I keep it in a "timed" position. Also, since I have not film holders, will new 8x10 film holders work on his camera?

Thank You

[John Kasaian]

Joe,

Welcome to 8x10!

AFAIK, modern film holders will work on your 2D. I kind of like the wooden black Eastman Kodak holders made by Graflex, but Agfa/Anscos, Liscos and Fidelitys(both wood and plastic) are good as well.

What kind of shutter is your tessar mounting in?

[Joe taylor]

Thanks John, that's good news. The shutter is also a Baush & Lomb, your typical spring wound leaf shuter. I'd like to get an idea of how old this camera is. I've done some work with old Speed Graphics, but I have yet to shoot 8X10.

I've been working on doumenatary film about ghost towns and the mystique of the western lanscape for about 4 years now, shooting with a 35mm motion picture camera. I usually shoot what I shot through the movie camera with my Canon Iv using Provia and Velvia films. I do this with the same compostion and filtration as the movie camera. I also do a lot time-lapse using moon and start light as lighting sources and back drops for my subjects. I Hoping to have a print ready for Sundance next year. Seen some amazing things in my travels and would love to revist and capture a few of these locals with the old 8x10. I realize the lens was made before color film so hopefuly I'll get so intersting results with this old uncoated lens. I'll probably filter it with a Chocolcate or Antique suede filter.

thanks for your help.

[John Kasaian]

Joe,

There is an interesting article on the performance of a B&L Tessar (5x7) series 1 on The Large Format Photography Home Page you might enjoy.

I don't know anything about B&L shutters, but I store all my shutters uncocked. It seems to keep them happy. www.skgrimes.com (http://www.skgrimes.com) has a lot of info on old shutters but I don't know if he covered B&Ls or not---it might be worth taking a look at.

Good luck!