Greetings from Portland, OR. I've shot 4x5 for over twenty five years but made my first leap into the 8x10 arena last week. The circumstances were pretty ugly, but the results were spine-tingling!
Here's the scene: A friend recently bought a well worn Century 8x10 studio camera without a stand, so he improvised with a shopping cart, some plywood and a couple 2x4s. I brought my giant B&L Aero Tessar 24" f/6.0 that I friction mounted between two sheets of stiff corrugate. We propped it up on a cardboard box so that it would be approximately centered and taped a black plastic skirt around the border as a light baffle. A bungee cord provided some small degree of security. Add some halogen work lamps (the kind on the bright yellow stands), umbrellas to soften the light and we were off and running. Black cowboy hat used as a shutter.
Exposure time was ~ 1/2 sec at f/6 but should have been 1/4 sec. Moving that hat to and fro is not a speedy operation.
T-Max 400 processed in HC-110 dil. B in a Cibachrome Mark II print drum for 6 min. @ 68F degrees.
Attached are a couple of behind-the-scenes shots and my one-and-only (so far) 8x10 portrait.
I can tell you there's no turning back--I'm hooked!
Jonathan
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