New here and looking for lens advice

[Califmike33]

Well i guess 20x24 is probally as big as im going anytime soon.

[Alan Klein]

I still remember the stunned look on people's faces when they would enter Grand Central Station when Kodak was showing 60 foot slides on the galley made from 35mm Kodachrome 25.

Apparently different films and cameras and huge processing pools used to produce the final display. I remember the few I saw when traveling through Grand Central Station. Always amazing.

From a Giant Banquet Camera to a ‘Tiny’ Nikon
The last Colorama Montanus shot was of a Cheetah in Kenya, Africa, in 1989. In those 30 odd intervening years, film emulsions had become much thinner and sharper, and it was possible to enlarge it to 60 feet even from a one-and-half-inch wide 35mm transparency.


The transition from a 25 lb. behemoth of a banquet camera in 1960 on an equally heavy tripod to a handholdable 35mm was incredible. Also, Montanus could quickly jump back in the truck when the cheetah “loped over to investigate.”
...


The Cameras, Films, Lighting, and Printing of Coloramas
“Also, later in the program, Coloramas were taken with the Linhoff Technorama [panoramic images on 120 film] camera,” adds Jim Montanus. “A few were shot with a Hasselblad.

“The Coloramas were shot on formats starting with 8×20” to 35mm film. They were all [except for one] shot on color negative film. VPS 120, Vericolor type S. At least one was shot on 35mm Ektar film. One was shot on 35mm Kodachrome. Also, some used the center cropped section of an 8×10 VPS Negative.

...

“My Dad used early electronic strobes to do the shot [Christmas Carolers],” Jim says. “Ascor 800 flash units but used photofloods for focusing.

“The Coloramas were first printed on Ektacolor print film, then later on Duratrans print material. Depending on what year it was made, there were either 20 or 15 vertical strips [printed in sections and then glued/taped together] in each Colorama.”

On the sixth floor of a Kodak building (B28) was a swimming pool that was never filled with water, and here the Colorama transparencies were dried overnight. The pool bottom was also used to display and check the full transparency before being trucked out to Grand Central Terminal for the installation in the middle of the night. A small light panel was moved under the transparency to “proof” and see how the image would look when it was finally backlit.

“The print itself cost $30,000 to make,” Jim Montanus says. “The costs to shoot it varied wildly. One photographer shot one on his desk. While others traveled to far-flung places around the world.”
https://petapixel.com/neil-montanus/

[xkaes]

Well i guess 20x24 is probally as big as im going anytime soon.

Is that because of the size of your easel or wallet or processor or ?

16x20" is usually the place I start -- even with 35mm. I've got 24" rolls for any size panorama I can fit in my darkroom. I assume they are still made. Maybe not!!!

[Califmike33]

I think the limit at the dark room that I'm going to be going to is 20x24. Anything larger I would have to have a lab do it.

[Califmike33]

I was able to find the zero point on the rise and fall on my intrepid camera it's a tiny little Mark that they make it basically you need a magnifying glass to see it. I'm going to find a gauge or something that has 0 10 mm 20 mm something like that and put it on there or I may just paint a line across at the zero point.

[xkaes]

The ZERO mark on my cameras are two small red dots -- easy to overlook. Why the heck they didn't make them bigger is beyond comprehension.

[Vaughn]

I still remember the stunned look on people's faces when they would enter Grand Central Station when Kodak was showing 60 foot slides on the galley made from 35mm Kodachrome 25.

Like painting a wall, increasing viewing distance hides a lot.

[Tin Can]

Fine Art, my 8X10 MK3 comes today

Tomorrow my improvements begin

I customize nearly anything

Bed tapes just arrived

I was able to find the zero point on the rise and fall on my intrepid camera it's a tiny little Mark that they make it basically you need a magnifying glass to see it. I'm going to find a gauge or something that has 0 10 mm 20 mm something like that and put it on there or I may just paint a line across at the zero point.

[Califmike33]

Beyond me why they did a lot of things on this camera a lot of corners are cut to present this camera at $333.



I have a lot of modifications intended for this camera basically when you flip from the landscape to the portrait mode on the back there's really nothing to stop it. To get it to line up perfectly vertical or horizontal I mean it's not loose but there's no kind of stop. I'm going to make something that will stop them at both positions.

Yeah a Red Dot is not enough I'll probably get some silver paint or some white paint mask it off make a make a line paint it and then pull the tape off I got to have something. The front tilt they made a zero point it actually clicks into position why they didn't do anything for the rise and fall I know now.

The back on the camera only does forward tilt and backwards tilt and there is no 90° lock there's nothing to lock it there are bubble levels on it that are the size of a pencil eraser that you need a magnifying glass to see I'll be fixing that also it's just a lot of little things. The bellows are actually made very well. T

The lens board is loose there's slight movement I'll be addressing that also they're on the 5th version of this camera you would have think by now they would have it refined but they don't.

[xkaes]

It seems like all the things they left OFF would not have cost much to include -- and sales depends on reputation/reviews in a niche market like LF.

Makes no "business sense" to me. Maybe that's why I'm not in "business".