What camera to shoot with out in the field when using HEAVY lenses?

[Cameron Cornell]

Here is a 10” Wollensak Vitax on an 8x10 Kodak Master View. The camera is solid as a rock.





Here is a 13” Wollensak Vitax on a 7x11 Eastman View No. 2. This setup works fine, but I had to knock together a support for the lens. Overall, it isn’t as steady as the Master View.



Here is a closeup showing the lens support...



Cameron Cornell
Washington State
www.analogportraiture.com
www.instagram.com/papacornell

[tmcsweeney]

Its a KODAK 2D, Looks to be in pretty good condition. I have had some older field cameras where the bellows were roached beyond repair. It tested the bellows with a flashlight and they seem good.

[tmcsweeney]

wow.. awesome setups

[Jac@stafford.net]

[...]

Simple, elegant, profound. I'm going to copy your #2 solution for my own use. (I can engrave your name on it) Thanks for your contribution.

[Cameron Cornell]

It’s $13 in materials from the hardware store and a piece cut off the top of an old oak chair that I found broken on the side of the road.

Cameron

[Two23]

I'll add that when using my heaviest lens, I center the LENS over the tripod support and focus the camera by sliding the back on the rear rails.


Kent in SD

[Dan Fromm]

Um, about crutches, I use several. For a Cambo monorail, a Cambo standard with the function carrier -- this is the square piece that accepts lens board, bellows, back, ... - milled out. It supports a very heavy 900/10 Apo-Saphir. For a 2x3 Pacemaker Speed Graphic, a piece of acrylic that was, by chance, the right thickness on the front standard's crossbar. It supports a heavy 12"/4 TTH Telephoto. For my catastrophe of a Baby Bertha, an inexpensive lab jack. It sits between the rail -- 1" square Cambo SC -- and a 2x3 Graflex RB Ser. B. Many are the ways.

[Greg]

Very long time ago (if my memory serves me right) used an 8x10 Sinar Norma with a front 5x7 Sinar standard. 5x7 lens board custom made. Lens was a 16" f/3.8 Wollensak Vitax (Petzval) in a studio shutter. Whole camera/lens rock solid on a Linhof Heavy Duty Tripod. Always regret getting rid of that optic, but at the time a 14” (350mm) f/7.7 GOERTZ DOUBLE-ANASTIGMAT in a #5 Ilex more fit to the subject matter that I was shooting.

[Mark Crabtree]

I did something sort of similar to Cameron's approach on his Eastman. But I had a Deardorff and new 16" Vitax I wanted to try. That is one heavy lens, way heavier than a Dallmeyer 3a. I made a support bed out of a piece of plywood with a block of wood shaped to support the lens out at the end. This bolts to the tripod head and is effectively the mounting plate for the camera. It worked out better than I could have imagined and was just scrap wood I had laying around. The only cutting I did was shaping the support block for the lens. Ideally I would have made the bed a few inches longer, but this piece of plywood was just sitting around and very close to the perfect size.

I do regularly use this setup on location (portraits), but would not be hiking with this gear, even without the bulky bed.

[tgtaylor]

I regularly use a 14" Wollensak Veritar which is a front loading lens on my Toyo 810MII field camera without any problem at all - just make sure that the tilt locks are firmly set.

Thomas