desertrat
4-Jun-2010, 21:28
I've been a member of APUG for 5 years, and have tinkered with LF on and off for about 7 years. After a couple of years of not doing anything in photography, I'm about to start using my LF gear again.
I figured I could do no better than to join the best forum dedicated to LF I know of. I'm not quite a newb, but not an old hand at traditional photography, either. I prefer to search forums for answers to questions, and try not to ask any that have already been answered.
Most of my LF gear has been acquired over the years through bottom trawling expeditions at the Great Auction Site. Since my budget isn't large, I stick to the lowest cost stuff I can find.
My collection of stuff includes a Seneca Competitor View and a Seneca Improved View, both 8X10 and both made around 1910. The Competitor is reddish stained wood finish and the Improved View is black. Both cameras still have their original bellows, now stiff with age, the numerous pinholes in the folds and corners well patched with black fabric paint by their current owner. Add to that a bunch of old ratty wood and metal film holders, about half of which are currently usable. The tripod is an old short stubby affair with a metal tag attached that reads, Bruneau's Pneumatic Tripod. I can't find anything pneumatic on it, that must have been an accessory.
My lens collection consists of a well worn uncoated 12" Dagor in a betax #4 shutter, and unmarked f6.3 lens in a Wollensak Auto shutter of about 9" focal length that covers 8X10 nicely when stopped down, also uncoated, and an umarked brass Petzval portrait lens with a fixed diaphragm in its own rack and pinion mount of about 9.8" focal length. It doesn't cover 8X10 completely, but I plan to experiment with it any way. I managed to score all these items for more or less bottom dollar. I made the lens boards out of eighth-inch birch plywood from the local hobby store, and painted them flat black.
I was shooting panchromatic sheet film a few years ago, but my immediate plans are to shoot some APHS litho film I've had in storage for awhile. In my last experiments with this film a couple of years ago, I was working on a low contrast developer using just metol and sodium sulfite that was beginning to show promising results. I plan to pick up where I left off on this. Hope to have some images to post in the next couple of weeks.
Cheers!
I figured I could do no better than to join the best forum dedicated to LF I know of. I'm not quite a newb, but not an old hand at traditional photography, either. I prefer to search forums for answers to questions, and try not to ask any that have already been answered.
Most of my LF gear has been acquired over the years through bottom trawling expeditions at the Great Auction Site. Since my budget isn't large, I stick to the lowest cost stuff I can find.
My collection of stuff includes a Seneca Competitor View and a Seneca Improved View, both 8X10 and both made around 1910. The Competitor is reddish stained wood finish and the Improved View is black. Both cameras still have their original bellows, now stiff with age, the numerous pinholes in the folds and corners well patched with black fabric paint by their current owner. Add to that a bunch of old ratty wood and metal film holders, about half of which are currently usable. The tripod is an old short stubby affair with a metal tag attached that reads, Bruneau's Pneumatic Tripod. I can't find anything pneumatic on it, that must have been an accessory.
My lens collection consists of a well worn uncoated 12" Dagor in a betax #4 shutter, and unmarked f6.3 lens in a Wollensak Auto shutter of about 9" focal length that covers 8X10 nicely when stopped down, also uncoated, and an umarked brass Petzval portrait lens with a fixed diaphragm in its own rack and pinion mount of about 9.8" focal length. It doesn't cover 8X10 completely, but I plan to experiment with it any way. I managed to score all these items for more or less bottom dollar. I made the lens boards out of eighth-inch birch plywood from the local hobby store, and painted them flat black.
I was shooting panchromatic sheet film a few years ago, but my immediate plans are to shoot some APHS litho film I've had in storage for awhile. In my last experiments with this film a couple of years ago, I was working on a low contrast developer using just metol and sodium sulfite that was beginning to show promising results. I plan to pick up where I left off on this. Hope to have some images to post in the next couple of weeks.
Cheers!