Showing off new acquisition Horseman FA

[Brooklyn45]

Managed to do a backroom deal with an auction site dealer and scored this beauty for 850 from Japan. Arrived in 3 days in original packing with all papers and manual.. the protective plastic on the focus scale is still in perfect condition.. I think this camera is new old stock..

I have a 90mm Angulon that I am starting out with also a couple of Tessars, 135 and 150, older lenses but interesting. I am thinking of saving the money for a used Sironar-N 135 as I hear it is an excellent lens.. also am in the hunt for an Ektar 203 in a compur shutter.. all of these lenses will fit inside the Horseman..
Any other recommendations accepted.. Is there an alternative to the Rodenstock or should I just wait till one turns up.. ??

Here he is.. I think I am going to call him Frank Adams.. FA get it.. Ansels younger brother.. Yea I have names for everything..

crappy cell phone photo..

[Brian Ellis]

Nice camera and great price. These went for over $2000 new IIRC. I'm not sure about your name for it though. Frank Adams was a well known columnist back in the early 1900s and forward who went by the initials F.P.A. and wrote a famous column called "The Conning Tower." I guess there's nothing wrong with naming a camera after a long-ago newspaper columnist but I wouldn't name mine "Walter Lippman" or anything like that. : - )

[MyronL]

> I am thinking of saving the money for a used Sironar-N 135 as I hear it is an excellent lens.. also am in the hunt for an Ektar 203 in a compur shutter.. all of these lenses will fit inside the Horseman..

I assume your concerns are: 1) optical quality; and 2) size that allows closing the camera with the lens still mounted.

Symmar-S and Apo-Symmar 150mm lenses will fold or close in a 4x5 Linhof if they are on recessed boards. The 135mm versions manage on flat lensboards. I don't know how the Horseman compares, but it may be similar.

The Fuji LS 210 (a Tessar design) as well as the Schneider 210mm f/9 (?) are also "foldable" in the Linhof. They are both extremely fine lenses at f/16-f/22.

Good luck. It looks like a sweet camera!

Myron

[chassis]

Congrats, nice camera.

[Brooklyn45]

Hmmm Frank Adams was a football player in the 1930's. he played for Bury St Edmunds.. Frank Adams was n English Mathematician .. The camera is not named after your Frank Adams or these guys either.. and his initials are not FPA .. so I am sticking with Frank for now..

Yep its a totally sweet deal in brand new shape.. Yes to the question about foldable... I read a ton of stuff in these forums about what will and won't fit inside this camera. One "Authoritative" poster stated that shutters needed to be 0 or 00.. Patently not true..

Seems like everyone likes the Sironar-N lenses . so thats why its my first choice.. and 135.. since I do quite a bit of street hand holding the angle of view is more handy..

[Sal Santamaura]

...I read a ton of stuff in these forums about what will and won't fit inside this camera. One "Authoritative" poster stated that shutters needed to be 0 or 00.. Patently not true...

Which lens in a size 1 shutter have you found that fits in a closed Horseman FA? Which Horseman lensboard is it mounted on?

[Sal Santamaura]

...I read a ton of stuff in these forums about what will and won't fit inside this camera. One "Authoritative" poster stated that shutters needed to be 0 or 00.. Patently not true...

Which lens in a size 1 shutter have you found that fits in a closed Horseman FA? Which Horseman lensboard is it mounted on?

OK, since your comment was a swipe at my attempts to be helpful in this thread

http://www.largeformatphotography.in...or-Horseman-FA

and you haven't identified the lenses in question, I took out my FA and did some checking. In order to mount a Copal/Compur 1 shutter on the FA, one must use this lensboard:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...board_for.html.

Slight extension is necessary so that shutter controls won't be blocked by the camera's front standard. Although Chinese sellers offer flat 80mm-square lensboards drilled for size 1, I don't see how those boards would permit use of the shutter's controls, particularly the preview lever.

Since I'd never closed my FA with a lens mounted on the above board installed (way too large diameter front cell), I just set up the camera, removed front and rear cells from the size 1 shutter, installed the board/shutter and attempted to close the camera. No way; the base can only get within approximately 3/8-inch of closing.

I remain interested to find out which size 1 shutter you've found that can be closed inside an FA and which lensboard you've mounted it on.

[rich815]

Very nice and congrats. Let us see some work done with it later. Have fun with it.

[Richard Wasserman]

Sal knows what he is talking about, there are not many lenses that you can keep on the camera and fold it up. I have an FA and don't fold it with lenses mounted. Why is that so important? It only takes about 30 seconds or so to stick a lens on the camera. No lenses that will work on this camera are large, so they don't take up a great deal of space in a bag.

[konakoa]

Wow, there are more FA owners here than I would've thought. If we're showing off, here's my modest contribution. I've added a solid metal curved bracket that threads into the tripod socket of mine. Two nice foam grips on the side for two handed use--and since the original Horseman viewfinders are impossible to find, I've added a Fotoman with a matching mask for my lens on top. Altogether it makes a wonderful handheld camera.

Can't help with any lenses that fold up in the FA. All I could say is that they'd have to be incredibly tiny.