Hi everyone,
I've just realised I did not introduce myself as a new member. I've been involved with cameras most of my life - used to know a guy who was a member of Edinburgh Photographic Society so we used their darkroom. I'll be 64 in December - after dabbling with a couple of Hasselblads that I picked up quite cheaply on a well known site I decided to try LF with an entry level (I think?) Cambo SC that came with an English Wray Lustrar 184mm lens (probably from a military MPP?). It's now got a Super-Angulon 90mm f8 to go with it.
Anyone have experience of the Wray lens?
I restore old cameras - finished a Gundlach-Manhattan Criterion View recently. It came with a huge Orthopanactinic lens made by an English maker out of Liverpool.
Made it new bellows, released seized tracking and cleaned it up (I don't do anything with the wood or varnish). I was very pleased when it sold for little more than I paid for it, to a guy down south (England) who is doing a great job of teaching wet plate process to students of photography in Manchester University. It's not done for profit (I can hear my wife sighing "More's the pity!") - just because I love it.
Now working on a Century Grand 5x7. That's a lovely piece of workmanship! Did you know, when they left the factory, they didn't get past Quality Control unless all screw heads were aligned? That involved re filing the threads a lot of the time. I'm careful to keep details of where the screws come from so that they go back to their original screw holes.
Nerd? Yup!
Great advice here - keep it up.
Anyone want to swap endless stories about restoration, I'm your man.
Slainthe, from Scotland. ( Gaelic for Good Health ) Lang may yer lums reek - rough translation "may smoke rise from your chimneys for many years" - long life.
Gordon
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