4x5 Film motordrive?

**jbenedict** · 26-Jan-2016, 18:46

Originally Posted by Rob Rothman

Pardon my ignorance, buy why in the world would anybody want to shoot 4x5 at motor-drive speeds? If one really needs to shoot lots of frames of fast-moving action, there are plenty of good 35mm cameras on the market. To me, working slowly and carefully, investing a lot of time, energy and thought in each sheet of film, is what makes LF so attractive. Burning film like a 35mm motor-drive freak defeats the whole reason for choosing this medium.

Oh, Rob. You're such a killjoy.

**Drew Bedo** · 26-Jan-2016, 19:29

What about a motorized Grafmatic?

These are days of robotics. This should not be that big of a deal.

**Mark Sampson** · 26-Jan-2016, 19:33

...and just think of what such a device would mean to film manufacturers and photo labs. Business up by a factor of 10!

**Drew Bedo** · 26-Jan-2016, 21:32

All joking aside . . .a powered Grafmatic should be possible.

**jbenedict** · 26-Jan-2016, 23:40

Yes, a motorized Grafmatic is possible. Buy yourself a 3D printer and get busy... Maybe you can get a gubberment grant.

I'm not sure what types of long roll film is still available but Aerial film was available in 5" and 9" wide as well as other sizes.

**A_Tabor** · 27-Jan-2016, 07:16

Personally I could have a fair bit of fun with a 4x5 motor drive. Not something to pull out every day and use for every last shot you take, but anyone who can't think of something fun to do with such a tool clearly has some kind of failure of imagination.

**Bob Salomon** · 27-Jan-2016, 07:52

Originally Posted by Drew Bedo

All joking aside . . .a powered Grafmatic should be possible.

It was. I belief it was named Wolf but was only around for a year or two 25 or so years ago. Of course there are 5" 50' aerial roll backs that pop up now and then that will fit a Technika IV or later model. If it is the motorized version of the back then a minor modification has to be done to the back to trigger the film advance on a Technika. If used on the 45 Aero Technika EL then the modification isn't needed as that body has the internal contacts that tell the back to advance the film. That is the body and back used on the Space Shuttle for their 45 imagery.

**Bob Salomon** · 27-Jan-2016, 08:03

Originally Posted by Rob Rothman

Pardon my ignorance, buy why in the world would anybody want to shoot 4x5 at motor-drive speeds? If one really needs to shoot lots of frames of fast-moving action, there are plenty of good 35mm cameras on the market. To me, working slowly and carefully, investing a lot of time, energy and thought in each sheet of film, is what makes LF so attractive. Burning film like a 35mm motor-drive freak defeats the whole reason for choosing this medium.

Well, maybe you are flying at 18,000 mph in orbit on the space shuttle and want to shoot 45. That's what NASA did in the Shuttle program. Or maybe you are flying aerial reconnaissance and need to shoot a designated length of ground at a designated flying speed. Or maybe you are the National Archives using 45 to copy rare, old documents and want to do hundreds of frames in the least amount of time and with the least contact with the camera. Or perhaps someone went on a climb and discovered an ancient corpse buried in the glacier for millennium and want to do photogrammetical shots of the corpse, once it is exhibited in an ice room at a museum, and they don't want a person to touch it for measurements or too even be near it too long. So they used that very same 5" Linhof roll back on a Linhof photogra metric body and got the required shots.
Or maybe you would like to shoot portraits of a large group of couples in as quick a time as possible on 45. Just pose them and focus and compose with the Linhof Technika and this back and fire away. On thin base film up to near 100 shots on 45 without reloading or re-inserting and removing a ho
Dear or a dark slide.

**EdSawyer** · 27-Jan-2016, 08:48

Good luck finding 5" roll film these days. It would be nice....

**LabRat** · 27-Jan-2016, 08:49

But for more practical purposes, being able to load a 50 sheet box of film into a automatic holder for a commercial shoot would have been great. If it was known that many sheets would need to be shot, and possibly more shots would be added, it would be ready... And only this holder would be needed (or some more if many more sheets of a different emulsion were needed)... As I remember this holder being demo'ed, the exposed films were in a second pile, so they went off to the lab, and the other unexposed films could be returned to the box later... (And there was a way to change the type of films fairly quickly with these...) And there was a digital counter on the way...

The down side (to me) was something (usually color chromes) was often shot on 2, 4, or more sheets, and the holders were sent to the lab with instructions to develop one side of the holder (or boxed), and hold the others for possible push/pulling, but with films in the stack loader, this would get difficult...

But if you had to shoot 50 shots on the same set-up by just changing the product, this would be great... Would save a lot of time/effort/handling with all those film holders... Less holders to clean, and lug around all day...

Steve K