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Tim Kimbler
25-Jan-1998, 13:28
Looking for information on the best books for three different subjects.

1. I have Using the View Camera, Ansel Adams 1,2,3, and have ordered View Camer a Technique. Are there any others that cover the use of the camera better?

2. I have no books on setting up a dark room. What are the best selections on designing and selecting equipment? Need to understand the various types of equi pment, there good and bad characteristics, especially enlargers, light source, j obo, the type of paper and chemicals the equipment is design to work with.

3. I have no books on dark room technique. What are the best books on printing ? I need to understand the methods and equipment needed for different papers an d chemicals. I had planned on using VC paper and filters, Kodak.

Thanks for the help...........

Rob "John Henry" Rothman
26-Jan-1998, 11:03
As far as large format technique is concerned, Stroebel is the bible. Other, le ss comprehensive, books are by Steve Simmons and Harvey Shaman. I believe that there is another book out there (I haven't seen it), also by somebody whose name begins with the letter S (there must be a rule that only people whose names beg in with S can write about view camera technique). Kodak also publishes a book o n view cameras.

As a landscape photographer, the real problem I have with all of these books is that they seem to be geared to the studio photographer who shoots cereal boxes o n a tabletop. The practical problems faced in landscape work are very different , and I haven't yet found a book which covers this subject adequately.

Stuart Goldstein
26-Jan-1998, 13:15
The other S book is by Jim Stone. I've read the Stone booka and the Simmons book . The Simmons book is clearer and the writing is clearer.

Brian Ellis
6-Feb-1998, 01:20
I have the Shaman, Simmons, Stroebel, and Kodak books. I didn't find the Shaman book to be very useful. The Simmons book was good and the Kodak book was o.k. bu t too superficial I thought. The Stroebel book is by far the most thorough of th e four but it is quite technical and the writing style is dry to say the least. If I had to own only one of these books I would own the Stroebel book if I was v ery serious about large format photography and the Simmons book if I was slightl y less committed. One particularly nice thing about the Stroebel book is that it contains an appendix with extremely detailed specifications for virtually all v iew cameras currently made. I found this to be very useful when purchasing a cam era. One slight warning however. If a particular specification is extremely impo rtant to you, try to confirm with the manufacturer or the distributor that the s pecification shown in Streobel's appendix is correct. I purchased a Linhof Techn ikardan for a lot of reasons, one of which was the fact that I wanted a revolvin g back and the Stroebel appendix indicates that the Technikardan has a revolving back. It doesn't.