iamjanco
22-May-2009, 19:35
Hi all,
My name's Jan, and I hail from a place called Saranac Inn, smack dab in the middle of the northern Adirondacks in New York. I'm a long time aficionado of everything obscured by the camera, having cut my baby teeth on Mirandas, Minoltas, & Nikons back in the early '70's. I've been shooting Digital (Nikon D300) and MF for a while now (RB67), and I did some time back in the second half of the '80's with a Technika I picked on the cheap while living in Germany. But I haven't used a view camera since those days and had been feeling somewhat incomplete as of late. So, I started to do some research a few months back with the goal of recapturing a little of what I lost in my youth, so to speak.
Anyway, given what my photographic interests are (just about everything, *I mean everything*), I decided a Technikardon would just about suit all my needs, even if I might have to compromise a little here and there. And I was just about to spend a lot of money on a used copy, when lo and behold, a mint 4x5 Norma caught my eye. Gears ground and crunched, churned, then started to mesh somewhat seamlessly, and to make what could be an incredibly verbose story short, I bid low, sniped high, and won the auction for $475.
It should be here in about a week.
Now I've got to decide what I want to do about a lens. I'm tending toward something like a 150mm Sironar S if I decide to blow my current budget on one lens; or going with something cheaper and picking both a 90mm and a 210mm (maybe a 240). Decisions, decisions, decisions.
I should also mention that in addition to the camera, the fellow that sold me it is also sending me a 30.5" extension that he had a machinist custom make for the Norma. And though I had to pay extra for that one, it'll definitely come in handy making little things big.
Anyway, just wanted to introduce myself, say hi. Looks like I'm going to be here for a while. From what I've seen of the forum thus far, it's certainly a wealth of knowledge, founded on the many years of its users' experiences.
Jan
My name's Jan, and I hail from a place called Saranac Inn, smack dab in the middle of the northern Adirondacks in New York. I'm a long time aficionado of everything obscured by the camera, having cut my baby teeth on Mirandas, Minoltas, & Nikons back in the early '70's. I've been shooting Digital (Nikon D300) and MF for a while now (RB67), and I did some time back in the second half of the '80's with a Technika I picked on the cheap while living in Germany. But I haven't used a view camera since those days and had been feeling somewhat incomplete as of late. So, I started to do some research a few months back with the goal of recapturing a little of what I lost in my youth, so to speak.
Anyway, given what my photographic interests are (just about everything, *I mean everything*), I decided a Technikardon would just about suit all my needs, even if I might have to compromise a little here and there. And I was just about to spend a lot of money on a used copy, when lo and behold, a mint 4x5 Norma caught my eye. Gears ground and crunched, churned, then started to mesh somewhat seamlessly, and to make what could be an incredibly verbose story short, I bid low, sniped high, and won the auction for $475.
It should be here in about a week.
Now I've got to decide what I want to do about a lens. I'm tending toward something like a 150mm Sironar S if I decide to blow my current budget on one lens; or going with something cheaper and picking both a 90mm and a 210mm (maybe a 240). Decisions, decisions, decisions.
I should also mention that in addition to the camera, the fellow that sold me it is also sending me a 30.5" extension that he had a machinist custom make for the Norma. And though I had to pay extra for that one, it'll definitely come in handy making little things big.
Anyway, just wanted to introduce myself, say hi. Looks like I'm going to be here for a while. From what I've seen of the forum thus far, it's certainly a wealth of knowledge, founded on the many years of its users' experiences.
Jan