I've been very happy with my Argentum 5x7 I received last year. My other 5x7 is a reducing back for my Svedovsky 11x14.
I've been very happy with my Argentum 5x7 I received last year. My other 5x7 is a reducing back for my Svedovsky 11x14.
FotoD, I had one for a while and used it as a back up to my old Deardorff. I liked it a lot. Light, relatively small can take a 4x5 back. I default to landscape composition frequently and don't shoot many images in portrait orientation. I didn't find it too aggravating to tilt the Ries double tilt head i use.
I have been doing this with a light-weight 4x5 rail camera in the field since the early 80s (but less as I moved up in format). Changing the orientation on my camera was not easy -- removing screws in the field is a disaster waiting, speaking from experience (screw into the creek!) It is easier to turn the head 90 degrees to get the other orientation...other than the lens is now a foot or so to the side of where it is for a vertical. Sometimes not an issue.
Depending on the camera, if the body only has front rise/fall and no shift, you will not have front rise/fall turning the camera 90 degrees...and so forth. For my camera's movements and design, it was easier to have it set up for vertical orientation, and then flip the head 90 degrees for horizontals.
Swing becomes tilt and all that -- one gets use to it. I found whatever orientation I had the camera set up for was what I tended to see the most! You might find your work would start to trend towards 80 to 90% horizontals almost subconscienously.
"Landscapes exist in the material world yet soar in the realms of the spirit..." Tsung Ping, 5th Century China
Thanks Greg and Vaughn for your comments! It sounds workable enough. And I agree with you Vaughn, the strengths/quirks of the camera really affect how you "see" and expose.
Counterpoint
What is the best, largest, heaviest, most intractable 5X7?
I submit my Deardorff Studio Camera which I bought with only a 5X7 back
The old box was sold to me completely dismantled from a storage locker with at least 3 of them, I got the reject. I spent 5 times the purchase price to make it good enough for me, not counting a lens
A challenge to assemble. repair. To make it fit my 12' ft tall studio, I cut 5 ft off the top
I have shot it fully extended as shown, which is 75"
4 years ago I moved it 300 miles with the help of member Peter DeSmidt!
5X7 Deardorff S11 New Bellows by TIN CAN COLLEGE, on Flickr
Tin Can
...great way to mitigate bellows-induced flare!
I don't imagine I would have ordered a 5x7 back for the camera if I had bought it new. The camera included 8x10 and 5x7 backs which have proven fun and useful. Primarily in studio portraits and still life pictures experimenting with utilizing the generous bellows extension. Also I have been using 11x14 direct positive paper and I'll sometimes shoot a sheet of 5x7 to test lighting before using an (expensive) 11x14 sheet.
My teacher from the early '80s passed away a few years ago. His teacher was Gerta Peterich who died years before and who left him her papers and equipment.
My teacher's daughter and some of my peers decided I should inherit her equipment, as and I quote "You're the only one stupid enough to want it" and, I will add, use it.
The best 5x7 camera is the one you have, it seems. Mine is a Kodak 2D that came with two Wollensak lenses and a 36cm Nicola Perscheid f4.5.
Also included was a 4x5 Graphic View set up that I gave to a friend's daughter who was very interested and who shows a genuine skill in portraiture. Pass it on.
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