I lucked into it at a fleamarket a lot of years ago, all covered in dust and the front lens has a couple of small scratches, but it seems to work well enough. I am not enough of a photo pro to discuss it in any depth.
John Bartley what kind of lens is that?
It is a Ross 20" F6.3 aerial survey lens. It came mounted to an aluminum cone about 18" long x about 8"? dia at the camera mount.
My 11x14 Arca-Swiss/Sinar hybrid in action at Cheddar Gorge. The extension back was made by Mike Walker and was originally an accessory he made for a 10x8 Sinar P2 marketed through Teamwork, London (in the early 1990s I think).
The basic configuration is an Arca-Swiss Monolith, with a the 11x14 back and a custom made front spacer with Sinar front standard (makes using lens shade and Sinar shutter easier). I'm about to add an AWB wind stabilizer kit for use with longer lenses.
Beautiful, Phil; it looks extremely stable, almost impervious to wind.
Very nice- Arca Swiss is a really good platform for an extension.
Have you taken it down the new Wookey Hole yet?
I've only been to Cheddar Gorge once, a memorable spot...
Pretty happy with how I've optimized my small travel kit lately. This is for some rough and wild canoeing trips I've got planned (including tomorrow, er, today!).
The case is a little heavy but it has some rigidity and rudimentary rubber gaskets so if it goes overboard it won't leak too much hopefully. I fit all of this into the 14x18 inch case:
Chamonix 45n1 in soft case
58mm XL, 90mm f/8 Nikkor, and 150mm APO Schneider lenses
Filters - R25, Polarizer, ND, GND kit
4x Grafmatics w/ T-Max 100
6x DDS holders w/ Velvia
Loupe, Pentax digital spotmeter,
Rolleiflex w/ a bunch of misc. 120 film
GoPro Hero4 Silver
Peanut bars for protein/energy
In my other hand will be the little Sirui tripod w/ short center column and a black jacket for a dark cloth.
We'll see how it works out. I could probably fit my 300mm f/9 Nikkor in there. I'll have to see what I need/don't need as I go (last time I took smaller lenses and never used anything but a 90mm Angulon, but I decided to pack better lenses this time).
Hi Phil, that looks great and rigid. A few years back I built a 11x14 horizontal only back based on a Fidelity holder for my 8x10 Agfa Commercial View. The Agfa has beefy components which I thought could handle the enlarged back. I did away with the original back tilt for extra rigidity. The 7.5" square lens panel is big enough to allow offset mounting so at zero position the lens could be on axis and for my wide angle settings I could mount both my Protar V and Dagor together and rotate them around. At long end, it can handle the 23" cell of my Protar VII with the built in extension track. This was fairly manageable in the field, but has been on a hiatus unfortunately due to lack of darkroom space since my move to the UK. But hopefully not for much longer!
I would not trust that case to remain waterproof. I'd put it in 1-2 pelican cases or clones of pelican cases. If you can't change to another case at least put everything in a ziplock bag. If a canoe tips, the case is going to be in the water for a while. (Been there done that, on purpose)
Bookmarks