I recently picked up this 1968 Super Technika V from Linhof Studio. It has been fully serviced and has new bellows and ground glass. Product shot by Linhof Studio.
I recently picked up this 1968 Super Technika V from Linhof Studio. It has been fully serviced and has new bellows and ground glass. Product shot by Linhof Studio.
I suggest leaving the Cherry, and just giving it a nice clear coat.
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.
Last edited by Michael Roberts; 18-Sep-2020 at 07:57.
My new toy.
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.
Tin Can
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!
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