Re: 4x5 camera suggestions

[v.bromfield@xxxxxxxxxx (Vaughan Bromfield)]

Bob (and others)

Bob wrote:

>   ... But for regular pictorial work I missed the wonderful
>"bloom" of the Ektar, which is slightly soft and much more poetic by
>comparison to the Optar.

My very first photo job was with a little company in Sydney that
photographed horse and greyhound races, and they used Graphics and
hand-coloured their b+w prints right up till the mid 1970's! I got there in
the mid 1980's, after they changed to Pentax 6x7s but any and all cupboards
were filled with heaps of Graphic stuff (Speeds and 4x5 reflex), those
large format panoramic Circuit (sp?) cameras and even a Leica IIIg. In the
carport (yeah open to the weather) was a gorgeous wooden full-plate camera
with holders, tripods and all just wasting away. I offered to buy some of
it but he wanted unreasonably huge amounts of money for it. I guess he
threw it out when he sold the business...

Anyway, I dug out one of the old Speed Graphic cameras and found a 90mm
wide angle Ektar lens that had its shutter stuck. I used in on a 4x5
graphic for some architectual work (after I scraped off the fungus from the
lens surfaces) using shutter speeds longer than 2 seconds 'cause the lens
only worked on Bulb. ;-)

By all rights the image from that lens should have been terrible, but it
had a certain "glow" (what Bob calls bloom I suspect) that combines with
nice sharpness to make the image a real charmer. Sharp, yet soft... perhaps
"gentle" might be a better word to describe it, with todays hi-res
hi-contrast super lenses approaching "brutal" in comparison.

>Actually, the focal-plane shutter of the Speed Graphic was the most
>problematic element in it.  I really had to lean on the camera shop to
>get them to send it to Graflex for a repair that would stay repaired.
>And today--many years later--the "feel" of the focal-plane shutter
>doesn't inspire confidence that it's working correctly any longer.

There are some examples of "old technology" that are better off left
behind, and I guess the Graphic's non-self-capping focal plane shutter is
one. All nostalgia aside, it really is quite primitive. A huge area to
cover yet it has no real compensation for acceleration of the curtain over
the film plane.

Another example of similar old technology might be old Synchro Compur
shutters with the US-style shutter speeds on them (nothing personal y'all)
they just can't seem to stay in tune.

Vaughan



------------------------------