Give my creation... LIFE!!!!

Howdy Folks,

Some of you may know that I've been working on a 7x17 camera based on an ARCA-SWISS F-Line monorail for the past several months. Well as of about two hours ago, the Franken-ARCA LIVES!!! (bonus points if you can name the source of the quote I borrowed for the title of this thread - come one, it's an easy one).

Sorry to be such a tease, but I won't be posting any photos of the creature until next week. It will make it's public debut at the Large Format Conference in Rockford later this week. Hope to see many of you there. If not, watch this space next week for some digisnaps of the Franken-ARCA.

Kerry

"Young Frankenstein" Do I win a copy of the first contact print you make?

From Mary Shelley's book.

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Originally Posted by Jack Flesher

"Young Frankenstein" Do I win a copy of the first contact print you make?

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Jack wins! Too easy I suppose, but I love that movie. It still cracks me up everytime I watch it.

Sorry, no contact print prize. But since you were the first to identify the source of the quote, if you send me your email address, I'll email you a couple jpegs of the completed beast as a private preview to it's public unveiling in Rockford.

Kerry

But seriously, Frau Blucher aside, why the size 7x17? The arcane 8x10 from book plate sizes, etc. I 'understand' multiples of 8x10 up and down the size charts and accept the arbitrary nature of them and even the "golden proportion" ratio 1:1.618 (approx.). Why this size?
(Thanks for all the info you share on lenses, etc.) I'm a fan...
Michael

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Originally Posted by Michael Daily

But seriously, Frau Blucher aside, why the size 7x17? The arcane 8x10 from book plate sizes, etc. I 'understand' multiples of 8x10 up and down the size charts and accept the arbitrary nature of them and even the "golden proportion" ratio 1:1.67 (approx.). Why this size?
(Thanks for all the info you share on lenses, etc.) I'm a fan...
Michael

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The 7x17 size goes back about a century. Out of the standard banquet sizes (7x17, 8x20 and 12x20) it is the most manageable. I'd love to shoot 12x20, but the thought of carrying the camera, holders and lenses up and down steep mountain trails is daunting.

There are mini-banquet formats (4x10 and 5x12), but I wanted something larger for contact printing. I do shoot 4x10 in color, but for black and white, 7x17 seemed like a good compromise that is "small" and "light" enough to carry, but big enough to contact print.

For 7x17 I already had a few lenses that would cover the format, and then I traded another lens for a couple holders earlier this year. Then Kodak and Ilford started their special order film programs and suddenly my fate was sealed.

Kerry

Congrats, Kerry - won't be able to make it to the conference this year, but I'll look forward to seeing your snaps of the critter...

Congrats, Kerry. Are you handing out e-cigars? ;)

OK, thanks. That explains the practicality of the size, but is there anything beyond that practicality of "lugging" upslope? Contact printing is understandable--that is the standard of quality. As a sometimes student of Art History and Esthetics, I often wonder at the choices for the particular sizes that are chosen. Mine for 35mm, 4x5, 5x7, and 8x10 are generally driven by the easily available equipment and film, rather than by the esthetic considerations. I work following the conservative philosophy of choosing a camera, lens, film, printing method and materials, and then try to work within those constraints. I'm pretty "strait-laced" in that regard. As such, I often wonder why others choose the ways they do: is it for practical reasons, what is available, or is there some other reason? Thanks for your comments.
Michael

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Originally Posted by Michael Daily

As such, I often wonder why others choose the ways they do: is it for practical reasons, what is available, or is there some other reason?

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Michael, I've never been able to get comfortable with 4x5 and 8x10 - they're just too square, and rarely fit the way I see things. Maybe it's because I grew up in 35mm. Anyway, discovering that mismatch set me on a long odyssey among ever more exotic formats. For a while now my favorite has been 6.5x8.5, though I still tinker in many others, including long panoramic formats. If I had my druthers, rather than 4x5, 5x7 and 8x10, the formats that survived in regular commercial use would have been 3.25x4.25, 6.5x8.5, and 7x11.