LITTMAN 45 SINGLE VI front standard struts.

Drew, there`s no need.....The Polaroid converted camera has all the necessary refinements in its standard form. It is very lightweight, has a parallax corrected finder, a sharp lens and low cost.

 

Noah has perfected the ultimate system, that of removable lenses in a bayonet mount...now that`s a really great idea as it saves having to unscrew the front element each time you shut the camera. I tend to favour the Fujinon W 150mm f6.3, a little slow, but blindingly sharp.

 

My own camera runs a very compact Rodenstock Geronar 150mm, with the finder modified accordingly. It also allows closing without any removal of the front element. For the wide view, there`s nothing better than a Schneider Angulon 90mm f6.8, also on the slow side but captures a lot of real estate.

Lens speed isn`t a problem, unless you have to use a ground glass, that`s way too slow.

 

The 90mm set up has been used considerably and has a great DOF. With the rangefinder modified accordingly, it`s a really good combination. I never even bother with a ground glass screen anymore, as the finder remains accurate. Just in case it gets misaligned from impact, I overcame this problem by simply drilling an access hole corresponding to the mirror adjusting screw, you can then bring the finder into line with the G/G in seconds.

 

A final touch was to remove the useless red switch, in the past, used to help release a sticking film. With the use of 4x5 film it`s now only an annoying decoration that spoils the line of the camera.

These improvements result in a fine camera that`s a joy to use.

"Now the demonstrable difference in tangible terms is that Ruddy's picture is perfectly

sharp on the first try while Andrews picture is soft . Andrew also said he didnt mint he

didnt need better and that his was a toy camera."

 

So, one can draw conclusions that my camera has focus issues because of the picture in

question (poorly scanned BTW), but one cannot make judgements of Mr. Littman's camera

based upon the fact that somone using it chopped his subject head off? Selective logic.

" the age old front standard tilt problem" and" The parallelism problem with folders goes back over 100 years" I have to add that the front standard struts on the Polaroid 110 series was one of the weakest of its kind if not the weakest. therefore " The parallelism problem with folders goes back over 100 years" was / is a definite concern sufficient that it led me to have to put it in writing/ requiring a contract for each sale because experience with these affairs told me the day would come when people would try to flip the issue around and say" why weren't we told about this?". or say it was a figment of my imagination /deny it was present /required and that it was just another excuse on my part to raise prices.

We find ourselves here almost 6 years after I started testing methods to address this old age problem and everyone can see people are trying to compete by representing it never existed and would not be present on a camera with the weakest front standard in relationship to its weight.

I think before I waste time making hotshoes which are a mouse click away I spend my time solving an old age problem while these people are still trying to represent it is negligible. The most important aspect of a camera is not negligible and solving it is not making a whole lot about nothing.

Here are some examples showing pin sharp pictures taken with a Littman. Sharpness can be expected of any camera while composition and spontaneity are not always as easy to include. so I'm offering you all three

http://marianovivanco.com/

 

if your browser has pop up blocker you must hold down the ctrl key to activate the site

once inside go to the( editorial )section and

the following stories are shot with an L45s

1)CITIZENS

2)ALTA QUOTA

3)RUGBY RAGE

 

I could direct you to tens of thousands of pages but havent the time to compile that now again they will soon be posted in our galleries as soon as i have any time at all !!.

This is just for those who think that the picture is in poor taste. DJ.

I went to the South to do a story on the culture of the African Americans living in the South. While there I was spat at by white folks while having a breakfast at the omnipresent Waffle House. My one month experience there solidified the conclusion that while it was very different from New York or San Fransisco, Jim Crow is alive and well in the South. This young man Joseph Priest is a symbol of what I think still permeates the air and lives of young black men in the South. "Young Black men are still being hung, whether by the system, the politics of the region or by themselves." Now whether you agree with the picture or not, is of no care to me. The line was deliberate and it helps to punctuate my story.

BTW I also did not set it up

I have three other pictures showing me trying to evade the string. It was Joseph's idea to do this final picture and when I looked through the viewfinder and saw how it was composed I just snapped:-)

His picture was stronger than my other three composition. So was this a spiritual moment or a picture shot in poor taste.

Again I am going to say, this energy being expended over cameras is foolish. The Razzle and the Littman can co-exist. Canon and Nikon did for years. And I am sure both put out patents claiming that this cog was theirs and oh this special screw was theirs.

Truth be told, I have never heard anyone talk about the Razzle except for Darkroom guy who I met just last week. But I know there are people who will continue to promote the Razzle likewise there are photographers like Bruce Weber, and Walter Chen from whom I learn't about the Littman, who will continue to talk about their relationships with their cameras. Two different worlds with enough space for both to co-exist. So can we move on to talking about pictures and leave camera struts to photokina.

Ruddy:

 

I'm sorry, I got so caught up in laughing at Mr. Littman and his nuerotic obsession over

patents that I forgot to compliment you on your quite strong photo. Very engaging and

very powerful. You should be proud!

 

Andrew

I thought they were talking about pictures when people trying to advertise services they assaulted Ruddy creativity He appears to mind when he responds

and I like Andrews picture. As you can see Ruddy bought a camera from me and that doesn't mean that he believes in Patents.

 

I don't believe people starting threads to taunt and mock and deny the requirement for utility demonstrates these people are imposing a

heavy toll on my schedule intend to coexist and a great dear of unfairness since it appears the problem was always required. I like Ruddy and respect him and his opinions but I have to do what is required to ensure that these slug fests don't disrupt my work any further.

I like Andrews picture and do not wish to re start old battles but remind him and another person were in a thread titled after My product and Jones showed up and got both sales making assurances.that products were equal or his was better and mine was overpriced while he discredited my character

The first instance turned out in a way that Andrew referred to as " one bad Apple" he then turned his experience as a means to demonstrate that wasn't the case and stepped right into the middle of a legal argument and the last thing I ever thought is that I would find myself bickering with another photographer over a camera. But I have patented a photographic convenience and there is no way that I am going to be deterred from my rights because those who use my products or those made by others are photographers. you patent a golf thing and you will have to sue golfers.

 

When I was actively photographing professionally I had one instance where one of my agents went on to pursue a career in photography using first hand knowledge of my work after coming to the sets seeing my lab bills hiring my assistants and then holding my portfolio .happens all the time

 

. Years later when I saw his book it was a carbon copy of mine. everyone had been telling me that was the case so I finally decided to check and could not believe my eyes. The funny thing was that while all my other agents kept me extremely busy with work this particular one said he could never get me a job but went on to make a name for himself with imagery which was a carbon copy of my work.

 

Years before I had developed a new style and photographers know how expensive it is to try new things and I had spent almost 25g in that project which was so great that I risked another 4 to make a trip to Europe to show the work.

 

In the meantime a fellow photographer calls me that there is this guy in town for a couple of days and needs an assistant and if I could help out. the job was fun and after we had coffee and I had my book and he asked to see it and asked me how I had done the technique

and because he was such a pleasant guy and a charmer I never thought my project was at risk until I showed up at the magazines who absolutely loved the work except they couldn't hire me because they said someone else had just shown up with work that was very similar/ not as creative but they had already committed the budget to those stories and because editorial work must show variety the chance that I would get to use that technique or be recognized for it was remote.

 

A few months later that technique took off and resulted in tens of millions of dollars in revenue for the guy who was very grateful and called me to thank me for the great tip. I told him that I had shown him my work in trust and that he agreed that if it was shown to him he would not utilize it.

 

I have had all kinds of experiences with photographers most are marvelous and some are less and from my own experiences for over 30 years in the business plus many more as a child and teenager growing up at My grandfathers studio that I learned to separate the business from the human being and the artist.

 

As an artist my heart goes out to all photographers as is the case as a person and therefore must ensure that a few don't hide behind the beauty of photography to instigate commercial interests and resort to the kinds of battles of the past. Ruddy is correct in insisting these are two different worlds and I insist it is incorrect that people trying to compete on the threads are allowed as businesses to misrepresent that by insisting otherwise.

 

I love photography and I love photographers and Ruddy and others who have met me can confirm that I bend over backwards and I am a hard working person on behalf of my fellow photographers . People see things differently only when it happens to them. and I believe it is in bad taste on anyone's part to imply an expectancy that I would waive my commercial interest and to use the beauty of photography as leverage. not cute at all

for an explanation of what constitutes inducement of infringement

you can refer to the bottom of the following page

 

http://members.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=littmanphotodesign

 

 

After all that, it might be better to avoid the whole scenario and save five grand.

After all that it may be better to start with the obituaries and save everyone the grief of reading the rest since at the end they always say the good thing is these threads will hurt my sales.and these people have admitted to photo.net they are associated in a connivance when they told all of you a long time ago that "we're just trying to stop him. Or at least keep him busy." by resorting to these instances; therefore it is defamatory to propose or insist that people should not consider associating with someone/withdraw their allegiance insist people should make a decision based on an incomplete picture. much pivotal evidence was deleted from this thread that is a fact and it is false to imply that my clients would face Any such scenario and in any event what has been presented here is not the whole scenario. and the guy who posted before me joined yesterday. and that is his first post...

When this unfair attack was imposed upon us where we did not yet have the findings to report as to the extent of involvement required by a user if there were a future need to adjust the parallelism on the front standard.

 

We now report the following; The L45s parallelism issue has been tested thoroughly and here are the findings.

 

1) Setting up the front standard is a dedicated and involved effort on our part and require special tools to verify that the back and film plane are parallel within 50.000 of an inch tolerance. after which a linear measurement is determined.after that the user will never have to worry or require the use of complicated tools, expensive repairs or expect any downtime to his enjoyment of the camera.

 

2) in the event the struts would extend somewhat the owner user is provided with this 4 digit linear measurement i.e. 82.12 mm THE NUMERIC VALUE DISPLAYED IN THE PICTURE IS FOR DISPLAY PURPOSES ONLY and not the actual measurment which is information which belongs to the actual camera owner who ordered the unit . Each owner gets the numeric value inscribed in the camera interior and we keep it in our records. and all he has to do is take a digital caliper which costs 9.99 on eBay and open the jaws until this number is displayed in the dial and lock the thumscrew (A).

 

 

3) using this caliper with the linear measurment locked by thumsbscrew (A) the user measures the specified length. A) if there is a perfect fit the front standard is 100% parallel to the film plane and nothing is required. B) if the measurement locked into the caliper is smaller than the actual size in the struts all the user has to do is loosen the screws and allow the measurement to be contained by the tips MARKED IN THE PICTURE BY THE LETTER (B) of the caliper which act as if fingers/ tighten the screws with the caliper in place and repeat the operation on the other side. C) the whole operation takes less than 5 minutes and the error expected is less than 50.000 of an inch. D) you may be able to do this faster but even if it would take 1/2 hr a a couple of times in a lifetime it is absolutely effortless/ foolproof and 100% accurate.

 

 

E) The flip side of this is that arms which do not have this protected improvement act in the following manner; when you bend one side to achieve proper length the other side is affected as well and this yo-yo effect compounded with the spring like response to bending metal results in inadequate and imperfect parallelism and the more you mess with it the worse it gets. creating this method for the users maintenance of the 100% parallelism required for the rangefinder to remain at Littman standards thruout time took a few weeks over the holidays and all pending cameras were required to be tested simultaneously and we report the following finding; Once the arms were identical in length while the front standard was parallel to the film plane we determined that all 30 cameras currently tested were absolutely parallel with the arms being at identical and symetrical lengths and as explained in a previous discussion the tool we use to measure parallelism is caliper like and if you lock it and you use it to measure distance between back and lens board and both sides are identical while perfectly square then any previous considerations pertaining to the L45s being a " brickolage/ conversion / based on old cameras is fully dismissed as the final assembly exceeds the parallelism performance and accuracy of anything else out there.otherwise a camera is camera obscura/ nothing but a box / enclosure and what counts are the precision/ internal/ external mechanisms which go to make it easier to use and more responsive. The pictures posted here are taken with a cannon digital.

 

 

I dont have the time or funds to allocate to using 4x5 for such purposes nor feel there is a need for better pictures. We have not yet been able to allocate the time to introduce the L45s VI on our website nor update it as a result of these threads.

 

We would gladly perform this adjustment for those owners who do not wish to bother with tech issues like that and the turnarround would be 1 day . the cost negligible and the conventianal repairs require infinity adjustmant and or/rf recalibrationsand or cam adjustment / time consuming unreliable and expensive.<div></div>