PaulRicciardi
2-Jan-2008, 17:23
Not too long ago I stumbled across a set of photos on Flickr by one of my favourite Flickrites that were taken with a Tomiyama Art-Flex. It's a 4x5 TLR camera and ever since seeing the pictures taken by it, particularly this one (http://www.flickr.com/photos/clarice_e_simon/360256292/), I've been fascinated by the camera. I've done a lot of Googling but can't seem to pull up any decent information on it with the exception of this link. (http://www.cameraquest.com/4x5Mamiyaflex.htm)
And, while the link has some good photos of the camera, it doesn't really offer any information about the camera or its history. The search que "Tomiyama Art-Flex" on Google yields only 3 pages and I've been to just about all of the links. They all seem to link back to the CameraQuest page about the camera or to Clarice's Flickr shots. There are a few forum posts in archives of forums I've pulled up but none of them seem to give me any leads.
As far as I can figure out Tomiyama is a small Japanese company that is still in existence and up until around 2001 was producing panorama cameras under the "Tomiyama Art Panorama" name. I don't know when the Art Flex was produced, but I imagine it was sometime during the 50's or 60's. I've discovered that there was both an Art Flex 4x5 and an Art Color 4x5, though I don't know the difference if any. I've found a few web links citing that the Art Color retailed for less than the Art Flex but none of them have any explanation as to why. A search for the Art Color turned up naught.
So I figured it was worth a shot to ask you guys. Does anyone know anything about these cameras? Anyone have one? They really interest me, I love my 4x5 monorail and I love street photography especially with a TLR thus I am really wanting to combine the two. Shooting with my little 6x6 Yashica D is one of my favourite things however I often times find myself longing for a larger negative. I recently bought a Mamiya Press Universal to be able to have a hand holdable camera with a larger negative since hand holding my RB67 without a grip or a strap is a pain after more than 2 hours but even shooting 6x9 on the Press I still find myself missing large format. I'd love some more information about this camera if anyone has any, can find any, or at the very least point me in the right direction. Books, magazine articles, websites, people to email or write to or call. Anything really as I'd love to shoot some large format street work and would like to be different from the Graflex crowd. I respect the Graflex cameras and a Speed Graphic has tempted me more than once but there's something utterly and completely charming about this camera to me. I'd love to know more about it if you guys could help.
Thanks
Paul
And, while the link has some good photos of the camera, it doesn't really offer any information about the camera or its history. The search que "Tomiyama Art-Flex" on Google yields only 3 pages and I've been to just about all of the links. They all seem to link back to the CameraQuest page about the camera or to Clarice's Flickr shots. There are a few forum posts in archives of forums I've pulled up but none of them seem to give me any leads.
As far as I can figure out Tomiyama is a small Japanese company that is still in existence and up until around 2001 was producing panorama cameras under the "Tomiyama Art Panorama" name. I don't know when the Art Flex was produced, but I imagine it was sometime during the 50's or 60's. I've discovered that there was both an Art Flex 4x5 and an Art Color 4x5, though I don't know the difference if any. I've found a few web links citing that the Art Color retailed for less than the Art Flex but none of them have any explanation as to why. A search for the Art Color turned up naught.
So I figured it was worth a shot to ask you guys. Does anyone know anything about these cameras? Anyone have one? They really interest me, I love my 4x5 monorail and I love street photography especially with a TLR thus I am really wanting to combine the two. Shooting with my little 6x6 Yashica D is one of my favourite things however I often times find myself longing for a larger negative. I recently bought a Mamiya Press Universal to be able to have a hand holdable camera with a larger negative since hand holding my RB67 without a grip or a strap is a pain after more than 2 hours but even shooting 6x9 on the Press I still find myself missing large format. I'd love some more information about this camera if anyone has any, can find any, or at the very least point me in the right direction. Books, magazine articles, websites, people to email or write to or call. Anything really as I'd love to shoot some large format street work and would like to be different from the Graflex crowd. I respect the Graflex cameras and a Speed Graphic has tempted me more than once but there's something utterly and completely charming about this camera to me. I'd love to know more about it if you guys could help.
Thanks
Paul