First Light With New (To Me) Camera

[tgtaylor]

Hi all,

A couple of week ago I finally scratched an on-again/off-again itch and bought a beautiful used Toyo-View 8x10 camera in excellent - close to mint - condition with a new bellows:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5065/5624605973_60e8084216.jpg

This is a big camera - weighs 19 lbs so I won't be doing any hiking with it. As it turns out two of my lens for my 4x5 kit will work with it so I won't have to buy any lens and my Manfrotto 475B tripod and 329RC4 head are perfect for it. Here's the cameras first light taken with a 120mm lens (17mm full frame 35mm equivalent):

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5303/5625174286_06bed2e03d_b.jpg

It's shown contact printed on 8.5x11 Ilford MGIV RC paper (the negative (8x10) was placed on the oversize paper a little crooked). It's going to be fun finding those perfect views to justify hauling the big camera out to. Film for it is not cheap: $3+/sheet for B&W Ilford Delta and $9/sheet for color negative but then again I will be shooting only those "special" shots with it.

The cost was pretty reasonable also - less than what they were selling for when I first started looking several years back - and E-bay sent me a 10% discount coupon off the purchase price! I don't even need a case as it came with an absolutely indestructible fitted case for it that weighs 30 lbs.The only thing that I had to buy for it was 2 film holders that together will hold 4 sheets of film which is plenty for my planned purposes.

I'm looking forward to the occasional B&W and Color contacts I will be able to make with it.

Thomas

[Vaughn]

Congrats and have fun with it!

[darr]

Super shot Thomas! :)
Ah, the beauty and the potential ...

Cheers,
Darr

[Brian C. Miller]

Tom, my advice is this: don't justify anything! Just go and do it, and have lots of fun!

-- Brian "happiness is a larger negative" Miller

[tgtaylor]

Thanks everyone! I L O V E this camera and promise to use it to its maximum!

[Michael Cienfuegos]

This camera is proof-positive that you HAVE to scratch that itch every now and then. :p

Wonderful camera, you don't need to justify hauling it out. Save up for a few more holders and you can shoot more film.

[Frank Petronio]

I bet you made a good deal on the camera too ;-) Yes the film is too expensive but you are shooting the ultimate capture media.

[dsphotog]

Size DOES matter....
There are plenty of great images not far from the car.
(Like New Idria;)

David Silva
Modesto

[E. von Hoegh]

Thanks everyone! I L O V E this camera and promise to use it to its maximum!

There's no going back......

[Brian Ellis]

Nice photograph, especially for your first try, I'm impressed.

I'm even more impressed that you got a 19 pound camera out of the car, on the tripod, and ready to shoot while it was still daylight. : - )

[tgtaylor]

Thanks again everyone.

Yes, the price was right. My winning bid was $560 - a 10% eBay coupon that I received. So the net cost to me was $504.00 plus $44.50 FedEx shipping (48lbs) for a grand total cost of just $548.50.

The camera arrived in practically mint condition - just a couple of very small and minor scratches on a couple of the edges only visible upon close inspection and a brand new bellows. Even the original owners manual was included! Although this camera is the G and not the newer GII, it's finish is black as the newer GII and not chrome as I had thought all G's were. So this must have been a late model G just before they replaced it with the GII. The specs for both models are identical and the only difference that I can see is that the newer GII has hard rubber knobs instead of plastic like the G. I read somewhere on this forum that Toyo offered an upgrade kit of knobs for the G.

Besides film, the only items I had to get before I could start shooting with it was a couple of film holders. I looked around on e-bay, the forum, craigslist, and spent $3 for admission to a local camera swap but nothing was available. The local calumet store had several new 8x10 Fidelity Elite holders available and I bought a two pack. The price on the box was $76.99 for each holder so I was expecting to pay over $150 for the set. But the price on the invoice was $62 each or $124 for the set! I guess that Calumet forgot to change the price in their system but I didn't ask!

I'm glad that I finally bought an 8x10 camera and that the camera I bought is in the condition that it is in and has the black finish that I like. All the other G's that I saw were chrome. It looks good set-up on the tripod and with my earlier purchases of tripod, head and lens, I won't have to spend money outfitting it. It also has me re-reading my Ed Weston/Brett Weston photo books as they also contact printed using an 8x10 camera.

Thomas

[tom thomas]

Beautiful shot and camera too Tom. I like the way you accidentally scanned the negative crooked. Gives your final photo an "antique" look that adds to the mystique of your photo.
Tom

[tgtaylor]

It's amazing how light weight the smaller camera becomes when you move up to a larger format!

I've been out prospecting with the Toyo ROBOS - no lightweight as it weighs in at 12lbs - but compared to the 810G its weight is almost insignificant. Of course it's case doesn't weigh 30 lbs like the 810G's does and it will carry 4 lens and extra bellows in addition to the spot meter, cleaning kit, cable release...etc - everything except the film holders.

I had the same sensation when moving up from the Pentax K1000 to the Pentax 67II. Suddenly the weight of the K1000 kit became insignificant compared to the 67.

Am I alone in this or was your experience similar when moving up to a larger camera?

Thomas

[Brian C. Miller]

Well, I started with a Pentax 6x7, but it did make my point & shoot seem like nothing. I found that my Pentax 6x7, Graflex Super Graphic, and Toyo 45AX all weigh about the same. My Cambo C-3, which is very similar to your 810G, makes everything else I have seem so dinky. I think the C-3 by itself weighs 18 pounds, but I don't have a custom case for it.

[tgtaylor]

Looks like the natural progression is from smaller format to larger format. At least that was the progression in my case: 35mm ->6x7->4x5->8x10.

I've always bit the bullet and bought cases for all my gear whether binoculars, telescopes, or cameras. storing your gear in hard cases when not in use preserves their appearance and condition. If I put a camera in a backpack, I wrap it with a Domkey wrap to protect it from brassing. I'm not rich but I like nice equipment that looks good!

Thomas

[tgtaylor]

Nice photograph, especially for your first try, I'm impressed.

I'm even more impressed that you got a 19 pound camera out of the car, on the tripod, and ready to shoot while it was still daylight. : - )

Thanks Brian!

In re-reading this thread I realized that I failed to mention the difficulty I had in shooting the image above.

Getting the camera and case out of the trunk and setting it up on the tripod was the easy part. There was a fairly strong wind blowing constant out of the north and I found it difficult to keep the focusing cloth from blowing off my head. I would put a little back tilt on the rear standard to bring the immediate foreground into sharp focus and then use the micro focus to bring the rest of the image into focus only to discover that the foreground was now out of focus! This went on for at least a half hour and I was seriously contemplating giving up before I realized that I was not locking down on the rear standard before using the micro focusing knob and that the pressure that I put on the focusing cloth, to keep it from blowing off (which it kept doing), was probably tilting the rear standard out of focus. Locking the rear standard before using the micro focusing quickly solved the issue.

Another lesson I learned from this first outing is that my focusing cloth is too small for the 8x10 format. I have Toyo's focusing cloth which I purchased with the Toyo 45CF. It works with 4x5's but is too small for 8x10. I'm considering purchasing a larger Harrison cloth that has an elastic band so that you can attach it to the back of the camera and "crawl' in.

Finally, and not withstanding the preceding, the only reason that I was successful in taking this picture was that nobody decided to drive down the road the whole time that I was set-up in its middle. i found that pretty amazing considering that every other time that I was similarly situated an engine would come bearing down behind me.

Thomas