squiress
24-Aug-2006, 17:14
It's been here for a couple of days. Along with it has come some brand new Fidelity holders and a couple of lenses I ordered off of Ebay. Also a dark cloth, three boxes of Velvia, one box of 160VC. Now I am simply waiting for one last lens board to be drilled and shipped along with a lens board adaptor so that I can use my Toyo AX45 lens boards with this camera.
The camera was certainly well packed and while I temporarily mounted it to a Bogen hexagonal plate, I order a Bogen 4"x4" plate for permanent use on my 3063 panhead, which until I see how that works and examine other alternatives will be the primary head.
The camera itself opens very nicely. Unhook the nylon strap and unfold the front bed. I wasn't sure what Bruce meant in the instruction about locking the three front pins into their holes, but it is really straight forward once you see how they should fit. The front standard folds down on the rails. It's obvious that if you were going to leave a lens on the standard that it would have to fit between the rails.
Front movements are really straight forward, although the detent takes a bit of levering to get shift and swing. I really like the single knob, although haven't had much time to see how easy things work from under the darkcloth. The rear movements are wonderful. Very straight forward and easy to understand. The rear focusing and ability to do an asymetrical swing, and tilt as well are all very nicely engineered. I really like how the rear standard braces appear to be spring steel (stainless) and would allow for swing at tilt at the same time. And once swing is locked, both geared rails move with the single focusing knob.
I mounted a 480 Apo Ronar into the lensboard and was quite please with the brightness of the plexiglas GG. With its 19" focal length I was just out on the forward bed. With rear focus rails all the way back, I could almost reach focus with just the main bed. So it appears that I will be able to use most of my lenses with the front bed removed in the field. I am looking at 300C Fujinon and 305 G-Calron primarily so if someone has either that they'd like to sell, please contact me.
I also really liked the levered pressure plate opening. You just move a lever and the back opens to receive your film holder. No rotational torque on the camera pulling on plate tabs to insert holder.
I plan to spend a lot of time getting used to the controls under the dark cloth before taking any pictures. And since I don't want to screw up loading, I bought some 4x5 sheet film to practice with those loaders first with the Toyo.
One of my desires with an 8x10 camera was to shoot 4x10. The lenses I bought for my 45AX were good for coverage of that format for the most part. Bruce will probably get into making that type of back, using someone elses holders, but it will likely be 12-18 months. Still looking for options there, but I suspect if there are some other folks with Wehmans (and I know there are at least 160 of you) had a desire to do the same, he might bump it up in priority. I would like to use Canham holders.
Really enjoyed chatting with Bruce. Since he used to live here in Colorado, he provided me some pointers on Rocky Mountain National Park, as to places to shoot.
Anyway, will get this well understood and start taking pictures. I have the 4x4 plate to get in and some Ektachrome 100 yet to arrive, plus the lens board and lens board adaptor. Then I'm ready.
Nice to have the site back up. Missed it.
Stew
The camera was certainly well packed and while I temporarily mounted it to a Bogen hexagonal plate, I order a Bogen 4"x4" plate for permanent use on my 3063 panhead, which until I see how that works and examine other alternatives will be the primary head.
The camera itself opens very nicely. Unhook the nylon strap and unfold the front bed. I wasn't sure what Bruce meant in the instruction about locking the three front pins into their holes, but it is really straight forward once you see how they should fit. The front standard folds down on the rails. It's obvious that if you were going to leave a lens on the standard that it would have to fit between the rails.
Front movements are really straight forward, although the detent takes a bit of levering to get shift and swing. I really like the single knob, although haven't had much time to see how easy things work from under the darkcloth. The rear movements are wonderful. Very straight forward and easy to understand. The rear focusing and ability to do an asymetrical swing, and tilt as well are all very nicely engineered. I really like how the rear standard braces appear to be spring steel (stainless) and would allow for swing at tilt at the same time. And once swing is locked, both geared rails move with the single focusing knob.
I mounted a 480 Apo Ronar into the lensboard and was quite please with the brightness of the plexiglas GG. With its 19" focal length I was just out on the forward bed. With rear focus rails all the way back, I could almost reach focus with just the main bed. So it appears that I will be able to use most of my lenses with the front bed removed in the field. I am looking at 300C Fujinon and 305 G-Calron primarily so if someone has either that they'd like to sell, please contact me.
I also really liked the levered pressure plate opening. You just move a lever and the back opens to receive your film holder. No rotational torque on the camera pulling on plate tabs to insert holder.
I plan to spend a lot of time getting used to the controls under the dark cloth before taking any pictures. And since I don't want to screw up loading, I bought some 4x5 sheet film to practice with those loaders first with the Toyo.
One of my desires with an 8x10 camera was to shoot 4x10. The lenses I bought for my 45AX were good for coverage of that format for the most part. Bruce will probably get into making that type of back, using someone elses holders, but it will likely be 12-18 months. Still looking for options there, but I suspect if there are some other folks with Wehmans (and I know there are at least 160 of you) had a desire to do the same, he might bump it up in priority. I would like to use Canham holders.
Really enjoyed chatting with Bruce. Since he used to live here in Colorado, he provided me some pointers on Rocky Mountain National Park, as to places to shoot.
Anyway, will get this well understood and start taking pictures. I have the 4x4 plate to get in and some Ektachrome 100 yet to arrive, plus the lens board and lens board adaptor. Then I'm ready.
Nice to have the site back up. Missed it.
Stew