First pictures from 5x7

Here's my 1st image from the 5x7 Seneca view camera I recently

purchased. Picture is my back yard using Efke ISO 100 film devloped

in Rodinal 1:50. Original is from contact print. The upper corners

are out of focus - not sure if it was me playing with the backtilt or

the old Ilex Paragon anastigmat that came with the camera.

You will have to do another shot to find out for sure.

On first glance it looked like the lens caused the blur at the corners, but i just noticed that you were messing with tilt.

Please note the fence on the far right... at eyelevel it appears in focus, but the top of the fence softens as it approaches the corner.

-A better target would be something flat, like the side of a building.

Assuming you'rew using something like a 210mm lens, could it be that you have tilted the rear standard back about 10 degrees? It looks like you have placed the plane of sharp focus on a plane from the ground beneath your feet to the gable bit of the building. The "wedge" of acceptable sharpness either side of this plane is insufficient to include the top of the fence panel. See:

http://www.trenholm.org/hmmerk/FVCADNDM.pdf

If you don't have the first clue what I'm prattling on about, say so and lots of people will chip in to help explain!

So, Wally, after an initial use, how do you like 5x7? I've been quite happy with 4x5 for twenty years, but now the sheets are seeming a little small to me. Maybe I should try 5x7 and contact printing.

Keep us posted.

Ken

So far the 5x7 is great. I have used 4x5 for about 1 year and still like it. I bought a 8x10 Cambo intending to get it outside but have found it too heavy to easily carry around until I find a lightweight case for it. I got the 5x7 mainly because I want to try contact printing and found 4x5 too small, and while the 8x10 contacts are great, I've only made 4 pictures with it since I've had it.

The 5x7 is an improved Seneca view. I love the light weight, but alas, it has no front tilt. I am trying to practice using it in the back yard to figure out how to use a combination of aiming the camera down and using back tilt to effect front tilt. I'm not sure how good of a lens the Ilex Paragon is. It seems to be in good shape, but I have a 150 W Fuji and 250 Fuji I really want to use with it and have not, since the front lens board is screwed into the front and does not have the sliding board-holder brackets to easily add and exchange lenses.

I like the 5x7 contact prints and as a bonus, I can also enlarge them with my 5x7 Beseler so I have the best of both worlds.

I have thought about converting the 8x10 Cambo as an enlarger and later purchasing a wooden 8x10 field camera.

Thanks for your interest and as a comment to the LF group here, I have really appreciated your posts and comments here that I feel have helped me grow into this LF thing.

Hi Wally, Are the corners of your negative out of focus or just in the contact? If corners in neg are sharp then I'd bet neg is not in tight contact with the printing paper. I had this problem with my 8x10 negs...thought it was me all along! The contact glass was too light. I also use Canham's 8x10, the light weight version. I carry it around in an f/64 pack. Hope I've been of some help.

Andrew O'Neill of the Great White North!

Wally,

Another possibility other than those that have already been mentioned

is that maybe the edge of the image circle is causing this. I noticed that the bottom corners appeared to be pretty much in focus.

Did you use front fall or back rise on the camera? If you didn't do it intentionally, you may want to check to see where the front standard / lensboard should be at a "neutral" position (and the back, too, if it has rise and fall).

Hope this helps.

DG

Welcome to the exclusive club of 5x7"er's, Wally!

Looking at your scan, I see that the center top is reasonably sharp, while both top corners are unsharp. Also notice how the unsharpness occurs outside a 45° line in both corners. The bottom corners seem to be very slightly affected by the same softness. Conclusion: Your lens doesn't quite cover, and is mounted (a) slightly below center or (b) with a slight upward tilt.

Try the same scene with max and min aperture, that should show the difference! Better yet, try a different lens ;)

In my opinion, it is extremely difficult to get three planes into

sharp focus. Lenses only focus on one plane and stopping

down the lens helps a little but does not do miracles.

Get all you can with the camera movements and the stop down

considerably. Remember that with the bigger you can stop down

quite a lot before getting into serious diffraction.

What-ho Ole!

You could well be right, however the trees at the corners of the image appear to be closer to the camera than the (sharper) one on-axis. They will therefore be in a narrower part of the "wedge" of acceptable shaprness and so back tilt on the back standard may still be the answer.

It does need a test shot with everything centred, i.e. lens plane and film plane upright and parallel and the lens axis perpendicular to the centre of the film plane, to check.

The trasition from sharp to totally gone is very rapid, more than I would expect from a mere focus difference. Also, I've seen that kind of radial fuzziness before - when I've overestimated the coverage of a lens...

My vote is for the lens ;)

Wally, thanks for your kind words. I think you are off to an exciting adventure with your 5x7. I have an 8x10 which I rarely use. I have come to realize that I prefer to make prints which are somewhat smaller than 8x10, regardless of negative size. 4x5 contacts are a little hard on my bifocalled eyes, and 8x10 prints crowd 11x14 mount boards. I like being able to hold the mountboard in my hands when looking at the print. So, 5x7 contacts would fit quite well. You have inspired me to dust off the 5x7 back of my 8x10 camera and give it a try.

I think your Seneca camera would be a good candidate for a new homemade lensboard. Baltic Birch plywood is an ideal material for lensboards. It has more plies than regular plywood, and the outer plies are birch, so they are smooth. It comes in thicknesses from 1/8 to 3/4". The standard size is 60"x60" and should cost somewhere around $20 a sheet. At that size and cost, if your seventh attempt works well, you are still ahead of the game.

The trick is to make an adaptor lensboard to use your 4x5 lensboards on your 5x7 camera. Then you just leave the adaptor board screwed onto the Seneca. (You could also do the same thing with your 8x10 camera.) A friend made a 4x5 lensboard for me out of plywood. He happens to be a harpsichord builder, but any woodworker could make the board. The adaptor board is outside the scope of this posting, so if you e-mail me, I would gladly help you design one.

Regarding no front tilt, I think we adapt to what we have and don't have. You know what you want and how to lower the camera slightly when you need the back to be plumb. Not having front tilt isn't ideal, but adapting will become second nature with practice. I did the opposite operation with a Busch Pressman which lacked rear tilt.

I also have a 5x7 Improved Seneca View (it was my grandfather's camera) and I think you'll find that the lens board is not "screwed in". Can you push it up slightly and then lift it out from the bottom? That works on mine, anyway.

Boards for the Seneca are very easy to make, once you take the orginal board out and get the dimensions, etc.

Good luck - 5x7 is a great format!