Arca-swiss f classic - query about format conversion from 4x5 to 5x7

[Bernice Loui]

One of the oddity accessories Sinar made that might prompt the question, why was it ever made?

Some time ago, the question was posted about using a view camera as part of a video production system, which camera might serve for their needs. Turns out the view camera system that they ended up using was a Sinar with a P rear with this camera adapter for the video camera mounted to the Sinar P rear standard. This allowed the remainder of the Sinar rail system to meet what they needed to get did for their video production.

LeGo_ed up this example, eventually they ended up with something similar. What other view camera system could do this using off the shelf parts.



Bernice

I got this just backwards. This is actually a device to mount some sort of customization onto a Sinar P standard. (See photo above.)

[Drew Wiley]

Color emulsion coating quality control is far better than in the "good ole days", and monitoring controls on big lab E6 and C41 automated processors is distinctly better. What has changed is a diminishment in volume, which means that not only are less machines in routine operation, but less skilled personnel available to operate and daily monitor them. The selection of color sheet films is also considerably less, but some the new versions are arguable the best ever. 5X7 color sheets have always been hard to consistently get in this country. Volume batch orders is how it's best still done. Keith Canham is your best source for special cuts of Kodak film. Finding clean affordable 5X7 holders is getting more problematic.

And it's entirely feasible to make projected color prints in a home darkroom as good, and even better, than anything in the past. Doing so from chromes is a bit involved and takes some advanced skills; but there are superb RA4 papers available from Fuji, and Kodak makes some excellent color neg films available sheets. A Durst 138-series floor-standing 5X7 enlarger with colorhead has a relatively small footprint and can be fine-tuned for the highest quality applications. But just like any other acquired skill, doing high quality color printing has a learning curve and requires persistence and practice.

[aruns]

Thanks much for sharing your insights and experiences, Bernice, Neil, Andrej and Drew. appreciate it very muxh.