Awesome, Hugo! What format, and what’s that big honkin’ lens?
Awesome, Hugo! What format, and what’s that big honkin’ lens?
810 Alpinist X camera with a 375mm Hermagis Eidoscope lens mounted in a compound V shutter.
2022
This is what I love about Crown Graphics. Light weight. I prefer mine with a coupled viewfinder for handheld work. You have a nice setup for the street.Originally Posted by Michael Roberts
Naked Crown Graphic--a stripped down version of the classic press camera. (I didn't make up this term, but it seems apropos for a stripped down camera).
What I bought--camera body, no lens, no back, no rangefinder, no optical viewer, no leather handle, no infinity stops, no flash, body shutter release inoperable; basically rescued from the trash heap. Bellows with pinholes. Original Moroccan leather dry, cracked, peeling and with copper oxide blisters. Modifications: finished stripping the leather and refinished the mahogany underneath (sanded, applied clear coat finish), patched bellows pinholes with a mixture of Elmer's glue and ashes from my fireplace plus tape inside and painted the outside with glossy black fabric paint from Michael's craft store, found an old Graphic spring back and installed, removed the steel plate for the body-mounted shutter and filled in the hole and covered that and the door/base with kidskin leather from Tandy. I also modified the lens board frame, twisting out the aluminum light trap and lining the inside with felt so I could use my own wooden lensboards, added a top leather handle as a throwback to the 1920s "top handle" Speed Graphic design. It's rugged, works fine for its limited capabilities, and I don't mind shooting with it in urban settings where I might not feel comfortable with the flashy Ikeda Anba, above.
I love that it's much lighter weight than the fully equipped versions--weighs less than 3lb w/o lens, I can keep a lens on it so it opens and sets up fast, and I can shoot hand-held with the wire sports viewer. It's just useful, and it works. Also, press lenses are good quality, cheap, easy to find. I can carry 3 or 4, including 90mm, 127, and 203 for a good range of composition options.
Lockdown has helped me sort out a box with an old Scovill basic Waterbury-type whole-plate camera with destroyed bellows and no ground glass to be restored (and to which I fitted an Iris-type lens mount to hold a Voigtländer Heliar 24cm 1:4,5 lens) as well as a truly wrecked J. Lancaster & Son Instantograph camera with brass so badly tarnished I took it to be rusty steel, bellows with wood-borer holes and much fraying, a totally missing back, and a front standard that had been crudely filed in a half-hearted attempt to fit an unbranded c.1880's Petzval lens.
I also purchased a second Thornton Pickard half-plate "Imperial" triple extension camera in reasonable condition as parts backup for the one I restored last year, but ended up restoring that as well (the shutter still needs new curtains, though). All three are now in working order, having made brackets and fastening clips for the J. Lancaster camera to hold one of the Thornton Pickard backs. So my time wasn't wasted, and I'm enjoying using all three cameras now, having also made an extension lens board to fit a Rodenstock Apo-Ronar 360/9 lens for infinity focus without corner vignetting on the whole-plate Scovill.
J. Lancaster & Son camera, during and then after completion, having temporarily repaired the bellows with hockey tape until I get around to making new bellows:
Scovill:
Thornton Pickard:
Awesome job, Alan! The Lancaster and Thornton, in particular, are beauties!
Gorgeous collection Alan.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Improved Seneca Whole Plate camera...Wollensak 9 1/2" f 4.5 Raptar in Alphax #4 shutter.
Recent KEH Ugly 5X7 Burke & James Rembrandt Home Portrait Model 1 1951 non folding
Came with 3 backs, 2 XENAR f4.5, 240 & 180 mm with caps and working Packard Shutter, factory installed with Sync. Even quick release mounts for the Packard enabling a fast repair. (I have NOS spare, just found on eBay)
A very practical modern box with metal GG Frames, locking focus, fine pitch gearing, rear rise and tilt only. It can handle any portrait lens as the front standard is thick wood, double bolted to the bed
Shot all images with camera and subject same distance, slight refocus for each back
The 2X3 slider back is fast to use, focus, shoot Grafmatic Film Back 6 shots very quickly or use roll film
The 5X7 Slider shoots 1/2 the 5X7 film, slide the back and shoot other half. Really quick and often catches the sitter in a better expression
5X7 Back rotates
Big 6" lens boards will carry heavy Portrait lenses
Xenar f4.5 240mm by TIN CAN COLLEGE, on Flickr
5X7 Back 2 Rotateable by TIN CAN COLLEGE, on Flickr
Setup 5X7 by TIN CAN COLLEGE, on Flickr
3 Backs by TIN CAN COLLEGE, on Flickr
2022
2X3 Slider by TIN CAN COLLEGE, on Flickr
5X7 1-2 Frame Slider Hood by TIN CAN COLLEGE, on Flickr
2022
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks