Show off your Large Format camera!

[Ulophot]

Ron, quite the collection, and some fine work, on your site.

[Ron (Netherlands)]

Ron, quite the collection, and some fine work, on your site.

Many thanks Philip for visiting the site, glad you liked it!

[Mark J]

This is my 5x7" Gandolfi.
I don't know if they had any different models and how they were named, so if anyone has any more info on this camera, let me know.
It doesn't have front swing, it just has generous slotted tabs on each corner of the rear standard which allow about 25mm+ of movement.
Focus range is quite good, it has the rear and front focusing, which allow a range from around 105mm to 420mm.
Lens here is the 150mm Schneider Super Symmar HM.

[Conrad . Marvin]

I have one of these from the 1990s that I bought new. It has served me well and I have made some modifications (my camera is pictured in this same thread under the Bail back section). The bellows were originally made by the Custom Bellows folks and they have the original measurements if you ever need to get them changed, but mine have held up fine.

[Conrad . Marvin]

When I ordered this camera, I was able to customize it some an I ordered it with front swings and shift and it will work with a 19” lens. I do think that the S and S mechanism causes a bit of instability in the front standard, but I do use it.
I also fit an adapter in the front vertical sliders for a Technica board which gives me lots of flexibility with lenses.
There’s other stuff too…..

[Mark J]

Aha, so the camera is a fairly late model, then ?
Interesting what you could ask for from new.
I customised the ground glass with a fresnel from Knight Optical, cut in our glass shops - it has made the composition easier with the 150.
The only fault of this camera is that the rear standard is stabilised square by a rather short length & a pin that fits in the slot on the RHS of the baseboard ( the pin is about 2" in front of the focusing knob on the short trunnion ). The pin has worn over time and could do with replacing. I will use the camera (more) this Winter and Spring, but might ask someone local to have a look at refurbishing that pin based on the exact slot width.

Ps. I have a 4x5" reducing back, and have just bought 2x boxes of Rollei IR film before it becomes totally unavailable !

[pgk]

This is my 5x7" Gandolfi.
I don't know if they had any different models and how they were named, so if anyone has any more info on this camera, let me know.

Hi Mark

Yours is a 'Precision' which Gandolfi supplied in mahogony with brass fittings or black painted mahogany with dull chromed fittings from at least the 1940s until they finished production. They supplied them to many working photographers and even photographic colleges in the 1960s and then production probably (there seem to be few definitive records) slowly tailed off. In their heyday I have read it suggested that procution may have been in the very low three figures per year and it probably reduced over time. Many Gandolfi cameras were built to order and finished to the customer's requirements so many are non-standard although yours appears to be very much as 'standard' as they were built (no additional frills). I have the 10" x 8" version which is simply a scaled up copy of yours. I think that you will find that yours is the same as the half-plate version which would have been supplied with a different back. Spare backs are very rare indeed.

[Tin Can]

Try to find the DVD about them
Some here bought the family history like i did

Aha, so the camera is a fairly late model, then ?
Interesting what you could ask for from new.
I customised the ground glass with a fresnel from Knight Optical, cut in our glass shops - it has made the composition easier with the 150.
The only fault of this camera is that the rear standard is stabilised square by a rather short length & a pin that fits in the slot on the RHS of the baseboard ( the pin is about 2" in front of the focusing knob on the short trunnion ). The pin has worn over time and could do with replacing. I will use the camera (more) this Winter and Spring, but might ask someone local to have a look at refurbishing that pin based on the exact slot width.

Ps. I have a 4x5" reducing back, and have just bought 2x boxes of Rollei IR film before it becomes totally unavailable !

[pgk]

Try to find the DVD about them

Unfortunately, fascinating as it is, the DVD doesn't really help with models and suchlike.

I have several Gandolfis and have owned others. These range from early tailboards in mahogany and teak (the latter is un-named but almost identical to a 'signed' one) to Precisions, along with a variety of others some which might have been one-offs. They made the Prison Cameras and all sorts of variations on the themes of all these. And then many were adjusted or modified to their customer's wishes. I have yet to find anything absolutely definitive although the article in Photographica World 142 2012/14 is pretty close and covers many models (especially the variety of earlier ones and some specials).

[Conrad . Marvin]

I also needed to rebuild the rear stabilization system (pandemic project). It was necessary to add an additional bed lock on the right side. The knurling was lucky an the knob looks original.