Baffle in 4x5, possible stereo use

[Terence Spross]

I'm wondering if anyone else has a baffle in there LF camera to limit exposure to a certain area.

I aware that some photographers use modified slides: i.e. pull out regular slide and put in cut out version, then make one exposure, flip to cut out slide and make the other exposure.

But years ago I built a baffle inside the camera that was quicker. A lever flipped the top half and bottom half of the photo so my 4x5 became a 2 x 5. At the time I was using it for technical photography but I always figured it would be good outside for wide landscapes. I even had the baffle flipped by remote control along with cocking and tripping the shutter and tipping the camera proportionatly.

This was severly damaged however when I was locked out of building just before a rain when I had the camera on the roof of the building.

So now I want to rebuild this (along with replacing the bellows) but plan on making two changes:

Instead of tilting the whole camera, the rear will now have a slider with stops set for the lower and upper half of the film.

Also for a different application: I enjoy stereo photography with a 35mm camera but the viewer has limitations along with grain size etc. Occationally I would like to take higher resolution stereo photos using my 4 x 5 (on dual 2.5 x 4 (or 2 x5) ) . I'm thinking of two lenses on the lens board spaced the normal eye distance apart, and an insert into the camera that has first surface mirrors to offset the images on above the other. (In this mode I sould not be doing any swings.)

I'm wondering if anyone has done anything like this or has any suggestions.

[Randall Ellis]

I have seen vintage 5x7 cameras with a septum that allowed side-by-side stereo image to be taken, and I think that if you are handy with woodworking tools you should be able to convert a 5x7 to stereo, but getting the shutters to synch has always been the fly in the ointment. As long as your subject is not moving too fast, manualy synching the shutters should produce perfectly usable results. Of course you will also have to find two lenses that are fairly closely matched opticaly or you will have problems.

I have to say that using a 4x5 in a panoramic format with mirrors sound too complicated to get off the ground. Aligning the mirrors and keeping them aligned might be daunting, and keeping dust off the surfaces would be a royal pain. For less much money I would think you could get a 5x7, make a septum and a lensboard to hold two lenses, and work something out that way.

- Randy

[David Van Gosen]

Polaroid made passport cameras (actually, subbed them out to Cambo) that had a vertical center divider and two 125 mm f/8 lenses. It gave you two photos at the same time on 4x5. They had a standard Cambo back, so adding a groundglass is simple. It was fixed focus, probably at six or eight feet. They go for around $100 or so with a 545 back.

Perhaps it would be easier to mount two medium format SLRs bottom-to-bottom? Say Mamiya 645s? The lens centers would be close to eye width. I've seen stereo pairs made from 35mm SLRs joined this way, and the results were pretty good.

[Ernest Purdum]

Professional Photographic Products, Inc, of Hammonton, New Jersey 08037 made an adapter for Graphics that shows up on eBay every once in awhile. It was two 150mm f4.5 Vivitar lenses mounted in front of a synchronized Packard shutter which in turn had a short extension which fitted a Grphic front end. I assume it was intended for passport photographs but would, of course provided two images whch could be viewed as a stereo pair. I don't know what sort of baffle was used, but probably something quite simple. Probably the baffle would not allow the camera to be folded, but perhaps it could be arranged to be removed easily.

[bglick]

If your not ultra picky about image quality, try a Russian Sputnick stereo camera, 6x6 frames. Or, use MF camera and shoot on slide bar with one camera.... if you like it, then there is more extreme set ups....

wg