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Any Gandolfi users out there?
Hello. New to the forum.
I'm a professional photographer who uses two size formats (4x5 & 8x10) Gandolfi's.
I'm currently wrapping up a book project of 8x10 portraits.
Would love to share and resource information concerning the Gandolfi wooden field cameras. Thanks
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
I'm here!
Three Gandolfis - 10x8" Precision, 7x5" Traditional, 5x4" Universal. That last one is from around 1930, and came to me in pristine condition with an uncut lens board...
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
Since I left England years ago It's been difficult, when discussing formats, to switch the numbers around.
In the late 60's and early 70's, Fred Gandolfi custom built my two cameras and they've always had a special place for me. I use my 8x10 more often, particularily with my personal projects. What a beautiful camera.
On occasion I might need some minor repair or even an additional lensboard. So stay in touch and we can discuss the use of the camera or any particular projects.
Take care and thanks for responding.
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
Some pictures...
First the little old 5x4" Universal, next the 10x8" Precision (which, when I opened it contained a newspaper clipping with Fred Gandolfi's obituary), and finally the 5x4" Variant which I no longer have. I took some good pictures with it, but it got replaced by a Carbon Infinity...
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
James, Nice to hear another (expat) Gandolfi user. I use a 8x10 Precision and a 4x5. I have some correspondence with the brothers before the accident. They were short of seasoned wood and brass fittings.
Did you notice that an 8x10 Sinar lens-board fits the Gandofi? I glued some felt to the rear of the board for a tighter fit. Also he big Gitzo low profile head matches both tripod holes in the 8x10 base-board. Two screws are better than one.
How do you centre the lens-boards horizontally and keep them centred?
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
5x7 Gandolfi here; of unknown vintage. It takes Technika lens boards in what appears to be a factory front panel.
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
CJ - When setting up, I center only by eyesight. With a 360mm Schneider and shooting mostly portraits, it doesn't really become a factor. The schneider has tremendous coverage. What's in the ground glass is what is ultimately important.
Back in the mid 70's I picked-up a new Majestic tripod (massive), used a sheet of thin rubber, glued to the head-base and only need the one 3/8" screw to lock it down tightly.
I did not stay in touch with Fred after the mid 70's - so what was the accident? I basically do my own thing and do not keep up with current events. Anyway those guys were the sweetest. I too have many correspondences with the shop - particularily Fred, as he updated me constantly about the 10x8 build. Before I left England, and telling him I was moving back to the states where he finally shipped it to me - he was always excited about his camera being used in the good ole' USA. Many hand typed letters. I believe my total invoice back then was for around 335 english pounds.
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
Ole - Your 10x8 is almost identical to mine except for some minor things. I asked Fred for some leather bellows and some extra minor details. We spent a day at the shop where he and I picked out some special Cuban mahogany that his father had air-dried years before. Our concern was the humidity in the tropics. And, I have traveled back to Cuba with that camera several times - back to where that wood had originated.
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
A personal project I did a few years back for the family. A few portraits shown.
http://www.blurb.com/books/67451
Currently working on a large book of portraits - hopefully to be published soon.
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
Hi James
here's a link to Arthur Gandolfi's obit - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/pe...i-1481232.html
and a link to some very interesting family history too - http://www.gandolfi-film.co.uk/index.html
regards
andrew
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
I'm in too..
Have 6 Gandolfi's
a 4x5 - a half plate Louis Gandolfi stereo - a 5x7 black - a full plate - an 10x8 and a huge 12x16...
Ole: I'd like to buy your 4x5 - (don't have that model...):D
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
Andrew - thanks for those bio's and old photos. Looking back, it was a special time.
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
I own a black 10x8 Gandolfi complete with full plate, 5x7 and 5x4 backs and sinar lens panel. Also own a Fogg bag that was designed for it. I use to know Brian who owned the company but he died a few years ago after taking it over from the Gandolfi brothers. I use to sell the cameras to camera shops for a short while if they were interested in them. Also did a Focus trade show at the NEC with Gandolfi. Use to regularly go up to the factory as it was only a 20 minute drive. Also did the first light test at the factory of the Gandolfi Variant a few days before it launched at the show. Quite a nervous wait as the Polaroid developed! Everything was fine though. After Brians death the factory moved to near Salisbury where is remains today. I see now though they only do repairs and lens boards. Think that happened this year. The person who runs it now was one of the guys who was making the cameras when they were based at Andover. Brian use to say he was very talented at his job and had a real feel for it.
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
Love to hear about these cameras and the history behind...
I have two images with my cameras - I really must go make better images of them! they deserve it...:(
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
Stu - now that you mention it, I vaguely remember that the black version was an option. I do remember, at the shop, seeing the black tri-pods. Another unique thing, with my 5x4, Fred threw in a used hard leather case that he said was made at the shop years earlier.
I don't see the attachment click for photos but, when I do find it, I can post a shot.
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
James B. McCourtney
Stu - now that you mention it, I vaguely remember that the black version was an option. I do remember, at the shop, seeing the black tri-pods. Another unique thing, with my 5x4, Fred threw in a used hard leather case that he said was made at the shop years earlier.
I don't see the attachment click for photos but, when I do find it, I can post a shot.
I have two gandolfi triposa, and also a very well made leather case for my 10x8..
I can take some pics
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
I think I figured it out.
Notice the lens box that Fred made, and not in the photo, my wooden numbered holders with additional back.
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
James B. McCourtney
I think I figured it out.
Notice the lens box that Fred made, and not in the photo, my wooden numbered holders with additional back.
that looks beautiful!
My leather case hasn't room for lenses, but for cassettes and/or my 4x5 reducing back...
Come to think of it, I also have an ancient (imperfect as it is missing the lid) leather case for my Lois Gandolfi stereo camera - and room for the 6 cassettes...
edit: sorry for the really crappy digisnaps...
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
I'm now a proud 10x8 Gandolfi owner of less than a week.
I've shot two sheets so far and looking forward to shooting much more.
I've sent mine to Eddie Hill for a service and can't wait to get it back.
Will post some photos later...
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
I just bought a Full Plate camera right before Christmas (through the For Sale column on this forum), but I'm going to have to sell it. I knew the bellows was not good, but I thought that I could patch it up. Unfortunately, it is way beyond the patch it up stage and will have to be replaced, and I'm not in a situation to do it myself or have it done locally.
What a magnificant work of art those cameras are.
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Bill_1856
...I'm going to have to sell it...the bellows...will have to be replaced, and I'm not in a situation to do it myself or have it done locally.
...
Noooo, don't sell, after you wanted one for so long! Contact Richard Ritter for advice on how to proceed. There's got to be an affordable path to new bellows.
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
Sal can Richard repair the Variant? I have one that although working, might benefit from some repairs.
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
I referred Bill to him because of his reputation for custom repairs and modifications on all types of cameras. No idea whether there's anything special about the Variant that might make it different; an email to Richard will provide you that answer.
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
If you still have the camera and want to sort out the bellows the originals were made by custom bellows and as they are still going just get in touch with them and they can supply you an exact replacement http://www.custombellows.co.uk/index.html
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
aluncrockford
If you still have the camera and want to sort out the bellows the originals were made by custom bellows and as they are still going just get in touch with them and they can supply you an exact replacement
http://www.custombellows.co.uk/index.html
Apparently not -- they wanted the frames sent in order to size it. Like you I presumed they could/would supply the correct size from patterns on hand.
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Greg Blank
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote."
Well said, Greg! :-D
/zenny
---
Support http://thehumanape.com
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
I didn't get to buy the fantastic cuba mahogany 4x5 version for sale here earlier....
So I just went crazy!
I am now the (maybe) proud owner of a fine quarter plate Gandolfi camera made before my father was born....
I didn't know they had made these small ones, but I am anxious to get it and see it up close.. It will be a nive addition to my growing numbers of Gandolfi's..
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
New bellows fitted by Jim Ormond makes it a real whole plate treasure, and the shutter repairs at Flutot are the iceing on the cake.
I still havent made any pictures with it -- I'm sure that I never will. Got to get around to listing it one of these days.
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
I have a 5x7 Gandolfi Field camera, for which I also have a 4x5 reducing back. I could not afford a 10x8 Gandolfi so a few years ago I made a 10x8 reducing back for a 10x12 Vageeswari camera utilising an orphaned 10x8 Gandolfi camera back I managed to find. So what I have now is I suppose partially Gandolfi. In terms of quality of construction their is not a lot between them. The Vageeswari is very well made. Earlier in this thread their was a discussion on the lens board sizes on Gandolfi cameras. Mine has a really strange size it took some doing but which I have now identified the size as being from an MPP Micro Press camera. Presumably the original owner had an M.P.P Micro press and asked for the camera to be made that way so he could swap lens boards between them. It is a bit of a PITA because it means I can not also do that unless I also use a Micropress. The MPP boards are the same size as those on a Pacemaker Speed Graphics but thinner. The Pacemaker boards will not fit. So I make my own lens boards but it also means I have to have a set of lenses exclusively for use on this camera.
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Roger Hesketh
The MPP boards are the same size as those on a Pacemaker Speed Graphics but thinner. The Pacemaker boards will not fit. So I make my own lens boards but it also means I have to have a set of lenses exclusively for use on this camera.
Not really wanting to hijack a Gandolfi thread but the MPP MicroPress front standard is identical to the Pacemaker Standard, the MicroPress is a Speed Graphic in a Celestion made casing with a British rangefinder. So that's strange as all my Pacemaker boards fit one.
Ian
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
Hi Ian
Attachment 83438
On the left M.P.P. board On the right Pacemaker Speed Graphic board
Attachment 83439
M.P.P. board fits camera
Attachment 83440
Pacemaker Speed Graphic board sadly does not
Attachment 83441
Homemade board not pretty but it works.
I have of course considered fitting longer screws and then washers behind the sliding plates to stop them wobbling about but came to the conclusion that it would it would not be so tight and I would not gain much from using Pacemaker boards as I tend to use barrel lenses on Graphics anyway conversely it is generally more convenient to use shuttered lenses on the Field camera.Thank you for your input. Interesting that Pacemaker boards will fit your camera. It would appear that the Gandolfi brothers tolerances were tighter than M.P.P's.
Thanks
Roger
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
I understand now Roger, the MicroPress can use Pacemaker lens board (it is a Pacemaker standar after all) but your Gandolfi has been made to take MPP's own version of the lens boards which has a different edge.
The PicroPress is a strange collaboration between MPP/Celestion (same owners) and Graflex and shrouded in some mystery. However the shutter, shutter release, complete front standard, focus bed, bellows are all Graflex made. The original teeth for the focus are machined off and a new tracks fitted. At the time the MicropPress was released there were severe Import restictions in the UK and virtually no Imported cameras, this appears to be a way around the restricions for Graflex.
Ian
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
Stumbled over this film about the Gandolfi cameras...
Thought you should know... (Swedish page, but the film is in english..)
http://www.fotosidan.se/cldoc/tv-dok...a-gandolfi.htm
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
Whole Plate.
Brad, where in Florida?
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
gandolfi
Stumbled over this film about the Gandolfi cameras...
Thought the bit with the lady under the hairdryer was odd. Kind of reminded me of a piece about some other brothers, Doug and Dinsdale.
Not quite an action thriller, but very interesting nonetheless, both for the subject matter and for the directorial style. The fascination is in the details.
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
How FRUSTRATING!!!
Now there's an interesting (for me) Gandolfi police camera with 11 cassettes for sale on that auction site...
And the owner is afraid to ship to Denmark (from UK), as she(?) once lost a Hasselblad in the post....
I would LOVE to have that camera... so now I am frustrated..
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
The film's gone now from the fotosidan site. Drat!! I'd wanted to see it again. Does anyone know if it's for sale anywhere?
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Will Whitaker
The film's gone now from the fotosidan site. Drat!! I'd wanted to see it again. Does anyone know if it's for sale anywhere?
Sorry - I can't help you here..
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
Just got Gandolfi nr9...
A beauty of a 4x5 tailboard one but with more modern spring back...
(BTW: I don't understand why this thread is in this forum?)
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
Just press the "black triangle" and ask
the moderators (nicely!) to move it to the cameras thread. I do it all the time!
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
thanks
Now it feels like home...
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
I just got this Gandolfi Whole Plate camera and need some help with identifying the model and the approximate age.
This model has black paint and nickel chromed hardware. It has the ivory colored Gandolfi label. The screws on the base are all aligned perfectly, the screws for the rest of the camera hardware are not. Looks like the leather handle and hardware are not original. It has a 5 x 7 back that has matching black paint and chrome hardware. The 6 1/2 x 8 1/2 back is missing. Weight with no lens or lens board is 7.75 lbs.
Thanks,
Scott
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
Definitely not an original Gandolfi handle. Often times there is a number stamped on the inside of the back or rear standard, which I believe indicates the year of manufacture.
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
The only number I can find is stamped on the bellows frame, after taking off the GG back. A No. 1 is stamped on there and that is it.
I am thinking this Gandolfi camera is from the 1950's or 60's. But with the No. 1 stamped on there it's anyone's guess......
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
I looks just like mine - I have 9 Gandolfi's and no one has any number anywhere, so I think Gandolfi's are notoriously difficult to date...
However I was told mine (probably) was from the fifties....
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
Any reason Gandolfi made this camera in black and chrome instead of the traditional French polished mahogany and lacquered brass? Medical, police or government order perhaps?
I was guessing mine was from the fifties or sixties. The black finish is in excellent condition, the nickel chrome finish is wearing off in places.
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
no idea...
You see mine looks a lot like yours... (My all time favorite LF camera so far...)
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
Gandolfi, your black & chrome model is in beautiful condition. Not bad for a 50 to 60 year old camera. A 5 x 7 I assume with a vintage Tessar mounted.
One question I had is the front focus knob. There is no smaller tightening or tension knob for the front focus knob as there is for the rear focus knob?
My front focus knob shaft is bent and will need to be straightened before I can rack the front standard out. A minor problem, the rest of the camera is solid.
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
gandolfi
You see mine looks a lot like yours... (My all time favorite LF camera so far...)
A very handsome camera indeed, has a grand piano look ...
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Re: Any Gandolfi users out there?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Scott Sharp
Gandolfi, your black & chrome model is in beautiful condition. Not bad for a 50 to 60 year old camera. A 5 x 7 I assume with a vintage Tessar mounted.
One question I had is the front focus knob. There is no smaller tightening or tension knob for the front focus knob as there is for the rear focus knob?
My front focus knob shaft is bent and will need to be straightened before I can rack the front standard out. A minor problem, the rest of the camera is solid.
beautiful indeed - 7x5 back but I use metric film (13x18cm)...
And it was a good 240mm Heliar on the front...
No - there is no extra tightning knob on mine also - it is not needed onmine, at the front focusing mechanism is tight enough by it self...