Eastman View No. 1 Acquired & Looking to Refurbish it but I'm A Newbie to Lg Format

[Jac@stafford.net]

Is the Eastman View No. 1 the same camera as the Century 1?

[Tin Can]

I think not but not sure. I was looking at Century boxes a couple hours ago.

The Eastwood 2 is far bigger as stated. Mine is 8X10 and 7X11.

Is the Eastman View No. 1 the same camera as the Century 1?

[HoopsMcGee]

You asked about the lens. That's a fine old lens and should work very well, and it's correct for the camera (same era) although that doesn't matter much. It is a triple convertible. How that works is it focus's about 13" or so with front and rear groups on it together how it is now. If you unscrew the front group and just use the rear by itself it becomes a 20" + or - lens. Then if you take the back group off and put the front one on the back it becomes something about 26". It's written on the aperture scale. You have all 3 scales there for you. Rapid Symmetricals were a bit weak in the corners, but by using the next bigger size, (which the previous owner did) that gets minimized. It's a great lens to start out with. Don't take the shutter apart. Those Regno's usually end up in a pile of parts on the floor . . . on their way to the trash can. Try to work within it's limits. The Xray film is pretty slow so when you stop down, most times, you'll be up around 1/2 second to 1 second which you can do with a hat.

The difference between the Kodak #1 and the slightly later #2 is huge. Like going from Model T to Model A. In Vaughn's picture of his 2 you see a third slot at the bottom of the much larger stronger rails. That was for a sliding tripod block that balances the weight of the camera over the tripod. Huge benefit. Plus the #1 is a bit spindly. Everything got bigger (and a bit heavier) with the #2, and they didn't have to change again for about 55 years.

6.5X8.5 is a wonderful size. Contact prints that size on a sheet of 11X14 paper with a clean white rebate are lovely. Keep going. You'll get there.

Superb info, especially on that lens. It cleaned up nicely at least in regards to the glass so it has that going for it. Thanks for breaking down how it functions. Lenses for LF seem to be the biggest thing to get a hold of technically and what works with what so I appreciate it immensely.

Yeah, the camera itself is perfectly described as spindly, lol. I had to reglue the lower bellows rails as they split so we'll see how that holds up (fingers crossed). Getting the short gear plate that sits under the rear frame to operate smoothly is proving to be a hassle. I think the wood is swollen up so it doesn't ride smoothly which in turn makes the gears lock up. It'll need some more evaluation. Most of the bits and bobs are back together otherwise.

As far as the shutter, any recommends for a better one that fits this lens that may be newer to this century?

[Tin Can]

Packard shutter new or used, but the smaller the better.

At first I had a hard time with them.

But now love them.

[Jim Galli]

Packard shutter new or used, but the smaller the better.

At first I had a hard time with them.

But now love them.

Exactly right. Mastering a Packard shutter opens up a whole world of cheap old barrel lenses to play with.

And no, the threads on the Regno are unique to it, nothing else is a match. 50 years later things started getting standardized. Clean clean clean on the grooves, and a little wax is your friend. If it's "skipping" over the top of the gear teeth, you can carefully take the gear part out and cut paper shims to raise it a bit.

[HoopsMcGee]

The reassembly has been cumbersome and mistakes were made, but it's mostly back together. The biggest issue, is that the gear teeth at the extension base (the long rail ones) are misaligned so I have to do some fine tuning which I am not looking forward to.

[Jim Galli]

The reassembly has been cumbersome and mistakes were made, but it's mostly back together. The biggest issue, is that the gear teeth at the extension base (the long rail ones) are misaligned so I have to do some fine tuning which I am not looking forward to.

What if you take one side out and flip it end for end?

[HoopsMcGee]

I've done some fine tuning but I can't see to get the rail adjusting stick to maintain equal alignment. The right side inevitably will be slightly more forward to the left.

[HoopsMcGee]

What if you take one side out and flip it end for end?

Not sure what you mean by "side?"

[Jim Galli]

There are two rails, one on each side. If you take one out and flip it and put it back in, does alignment get better? It would have been correct when it left the factory. Something changed.