Handheld using movements? No.
Handheld using movements? No.
"I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White
Looking back, I got my Horseman setup in 2006. I guess that is quite a while ago.Originally Posted by Tin Can
I last used my Busch Pressman's rangefinder for a impromptu group photo. Frame, focus, shoot (after cocking the shutter of course.) Otherwise, I use the ground glass and the few movement it has as needed.
My $ 0.02 worth:
Bobab, you say you think you want to get into LF in 4x5. First gigue out if that is really what you want to do. Do some general photography with some 4x5 camera and see if hauling around the kit works for you; if handling the film holders and shooting slowly (compared to roll film formats or DSLR) suits you and waiting on the film to be processed , by you or a lab. The whole creative process is different from other formats.
With that said: If street photography (no tripod) with a range finder camera is what you think you want to do, take a look at either (or both) a press camera and a Polaroid 110 conversion. There are versions of the Graphic family with range finders, coupled and uncoupled. I don't think either will handle a 300mm lens in 4x5 though. Both have been used for fast paced street shooting or fashion photography. Both have cult followers that sing their praises and ardent nay-sayers who do not. Both can be set up to use a 6x7 roll film back. Both are conveniently self-storing when folded up.
As has been pointed out by others, the Graflex family of SLRs are what works for spontaneous shooting with longer lenses. They are older cameras and need care.
If there was a serious demand for cameras of this type in the LF world, one of the major manufacturers would be making them as new products. No one make new Geraflex cameras or top RF Speed Graphics. The Polaroids are shop built conversions of consumer grade first generation instant cameras. Gowland's TLRs were always low-volume nitche products.
However, I would say to you, GO FOR IT! If any of these suggestions facilitates your creative vision, get one and do it. Then tell us what you are doing, post pictures of your gear and the images you have made.
Cheerrs
Drew Bedo
www.quietlightphoto.com
http://www.artsyhome.com/author/drew-bedo
There are only three types of mounting flanges; too big, too small and wrong thread!
The 4x5 rangefinder has been done. It was THE media press image making camera before 35mm took over that image making goal. It is also why the 4x5 graphmatic film holder was made, to allow burning sheet film with a range finder camera in rapid succession, similar to a roll film camera.
That said, rapid image succession is not always what sheet film image makers are interested in.
One of the most significant advantages of a view camera is the ability to apply camera movements to adjust and change the image projected to the image recording device be it film or electronic image sensor or etc.. This is a feature mostly removed from the way an image maker would used a range finder camera.
It goes back to any individual image maker's print goals are. Once the image goals are solidified, then lens, camera, film, post film exposure processing and the print making process can be assessed then put together as a system.
As mentioned many times previously too many focus on the camera alone without consideration to print making or image creation goals. More often than not, the camera is not as important as most would want to believe as it is merely a single tool to be used in the image creation process.
Bernice
Thank you for all your responses so far. It has all been very informative. The point about rangefinders was not a complaint. Rather curiosity. Having never shot LF before, I just didn't understand why you just wouldn't want one on every camera and what it was about LF that made them either not possible or not useful. It sounds like it is a combination of the issues with movements and incompatibility with a rangefinder system, and just the general slow paced approach to LF photography.
I don't think shooting handheld is a huge deal to me. Given the cost implications, I would probably not be using LF for huge amounts of spontaneous photography. I can develop my own black and white at home, but it is nevertheless a time consuming and expensive process, and I just could not face the amount of failures I have with a 35mm on LF. In any case, I am happy to try a "different way" of shooting (not necessarily a different subject matter) with LF, and leave 35mm and MF to do what they do best.
If based on that, the general view is that I should look past rangefinder cameras as my first camera, I would do that. And perhaps add one later down the line in a supporting role rather than my main camera. I was wondering though how compatibility works across the systems. Can I use lenses and lens boards from one camera with another (I know there seem to a few exceptions where they have their own proprietary system, but wasn't sure whether that applied to all components or just the lens board, and whether this had any interaction with other components on the system).
As for why the 6x6 back is important, well I was hoping to utilise the lenses on the LF to give me some flexibility shooting medium format, as at the moment my only MF camera is a rolleiflex, which although I enjoy using, is limited with focal length and I really don't want to add another MF system to my collection.
Does any of this narrow down my choices? And do you suggest I look for one of the new cameras like the Chamonix? Something second hand? And is a rangefinder / press camera still even the right choice given their limits (I have never used movements so I don't really know what I am missing, but I loath to give up on such feature of large format). And someone in the thread mentioned "technical cameras". I tried to read up a bit on them, but don't think I quite understand how they are a different category of LF (which I had assumed was limited to monorail and field).
Bernice, I sold the US Navy the Linhof Aero Technika 45 EL cameras that were used on the Space Shuttle.
What NASA told us was that with their Hasselblads on the shuttle they could see that something was there. With the Linhofs they could tell that it was an escarpment.
One of the major uses for that 45 image (with the Aero Technika 45 EL, 5x5”) was the far greater image detail then from smaller cameras. The 45 EL does not have any movements other then focus and film transport.
Yes, most here want camera movements and need a tripod. Someone else might want to be able to shoot rangefinder coupled 45 with lenses from 72mm to 360mm and still be able to shoot with movements from 45mm to 400mm on a tripod and all without changing bellows or carrying extra rails. That is why the Master Technika is still produced and sells. Especially as it folds into a very compact metal box. Something no Sinar or Arca or Cambo or Canham can ever do.
A number of other makes use Linhof Technika 96 x 99 mm (I think that's the size, could be mistaken) boards. Some others use 4" x 4" boards. Others, for example Cambo, which I have, are proprietary. There are adapter boards that accept foul alien unclean boards.
Lenses don't care which camera they're mounted on, as long as the camera's minimum and maximum extensions will let the lens be focused to infinity (minimum) and usefully closer (maximum).
Standards and rails are, for the most part, proprietary.
Backs are, for the most part, standard. Spring/bail backs accept insertion type film holders (sheet film holders), Graflok/International backs also accept clip-on type roll holders. Some non-Graflok backs, Mentor and Plaubel for example, accept proprietary roll holders. There are a few other exceptions, e.g., Graflex SLRs with Graflex (that's a type as well as a make) backs, that will accept only film holders made for Graflex backs.
There are clip-on roll holders for 6x6, 6x7, 6x9 and 6x12 that will attach to a 4x5 camera's Graflok/International back. There are 6x7, 6x9 and 6x12 insertion type roll holders that will work with spring and Graflok backs.
For most of us, the first LF camera turned out to be the wrong LF camera. The only way to know what suits you is to try things out. Calumet CC- series, Cambo SC and Sinar monorail cameras are all highly capable and relatively inexpensive 4x5 cameras that will teach you what suits you. Get one, use it for a while and then if it doesn't suit sell it and use what you've learned from it to buy a camera that suits you better.
These are all monorails right? I assume you are suggesting these because the price is better? What would be a good price to pay for some of these? For example I saw a Sinar Norma for £399, but wasn't sure if that was too expensive. Didn't come with any accessories other than ground glass. Is it usually cheaper to buy a set than trying to put a kit together?
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