Hello from the US midwest

[MikeMGB]

I don't think I posted here before but if I did I need to update anyway.

As a teenager and young adult I always dreamed of owning a LF camera but never actually got round to buying one. Fast forward a while and last year I finally bought my "starter" LF, a Speed Graphic 4x5 with a Wollensak 162mm lens. It was set up for ground glass viewing only and I've been having fun with it.

Then a few months ago a friend found a Gundlach 5x7 in a junk store and sent me a photo of it. I made a deal with the junk store owner over the phone and my friend picked it up and shipped it to me. It came with 2 lenses, a 105mm and a 135mm both of which started their lives on a 6x9 folder. The 105mm had a stuck shutter so that is now in a speed graphic board. The camera had no back so I built a 4x5 using a graphlex spring back and have used it this way a few times.

Fast forward a while and I found an original 5x7 back for sale in the classifieds on here, it was missing the ground glass but I have just ordered that and it should be here in a few days. This of course left the problem of the 135mm lens that I was pretty sure wasn't going to cover 5x7.

That was solved this last weekend. A local friend called me and said he was clearing out all his old camera equipment and would I like to take a look?

First, I now have two 4x5 enlargers, one of which is going to yet another friend. In addition I now have a Bausch & Lomb 1905 210mm lens in immaculate condition for the Gundlach.

I also picked up a Rochester 8x10 view camera from the early 1900s. It is complete except the lens board is missing. It came with 4 plate holders and a Gundlach 12" Radar lens in a Betax shutter, also in immaculate condition.

So that's my story.

[Tin Can]

Good story.

Watch out you will be finding LF gear everywhere in the Midwest.

I live in the middle of the mid.

[fj55mike]

Hi Mike, welcome. Seems to be some overlap between wooden cameras and British roadsters . I too am a disciple of Lucas, prince of darkness.

[MikeMGB]

Excellent! I have a 1971 MGBGT and a 1979 MGB with a Buick 215 V8 up front.

There's something about hauling a vintage camera out of a vintage car at your chosen photo location.

[Jac@stafford.net]

Excellent! I have a 1971 MGBGT and a 1979 MGB with a Buick 215 V8 up front.

There's something about hauling a vintage camera out of a vintage car at your chosen photo location.

Ah, you only need a Deardorff V8 now. (No Turbo Rocket Fluid required).

Welcome, Mike. Good to see you here.

[John Kasaian]

Welcome aboard!

[Mark Sampson]

Welcome! If you like British cars, there are British lenses; by Cooke, Dallmeyer, Wray, and many more. And if you can find one, a Gandolfi, the Rolls-Royce of wooden cameras. Ilford film & paper. And many British photographers, from Fox Talbot forward. (look at Fay Godwin's work).
But since you're from the Midwest, look up the work of David Plowden, who has used LF at least some of the time.

[MikeMGB]

Welcome! If you like British cars, there are British lenses; by Cooke, Dallmeyer, Wray, and many more. And if you can find one, a Gandolfi, the Rolls-Royce of wooden cameras. Ilford film & paper. And many British photographers, from Fox Talbot forward. (look at Fay Godwin's work).
But since you're from the Midwest, look up the work of David Plowden, who has used LF at least some of the time.

I'm actually a Brit, just been over here for a while.

I'm in the printing industry and in the mid 80's I printed Fay Godwin's book Land, I've liked her work since.

[Jim Noel]

How lucky can you be? Enjoy the equipment. By the way, Iford's annual special order for sheet film of all sizes just opened.

[MikeMGB]

I saw that, I'm looking at their list.