5x7 to 4x5 reducing back revisited ..

hi there

not sure if anyone else is in this boat, but thought i would mention this.

i shoot with olde portrait lenses on a 5x7, and rather than shooting film and not

having any way to "proof" i thought of some wacky way of reducing my 5x7 back to

4x5. since i use a camera with a fixed 5x7 back ( it is a szabad camera) there is no

way i could use a standard reducing back, so i poked around here and there, posted a

question here a few months ago, and tim atherton turned onto a product that toho

makes. it is sort of hard to explain what it is, but here goes - kind of a sheet of

metal that is the same size as a 5x7 film holder. there is a 4x5 cut out, and spring

back that a 4x5 film holder slides into. it also fits readyload holders too.

( a picture is worth a thousand words :))

http://www.toho-machine.co.jp/Reducing.htm

it looked like exactly what i was looking for, and if need be, i was going to send the

whole thing to sk grimes to have them work a little magic on it, so it would accept a

polaroid back (either 545 or a 500, it didn't matter to me since i use both).

i ordered the puppy from badger graphics and it took forever and a day to arrive, but

after about 3 months it arrived (slow boat) :)

i ended up modifying it myself to use a polaroid back - i just needed to

file about 1/32 inch off of 2 little pieces that are on the spring back ... little did

i know the polaroid holders are a little bit wider than a standard filmholder or a

readyload holder.

if you had thought about one of these reducing backs, it is worth the wait.

needlesstosay the folks at badger graphics are top shelf!

have a nice 4th

john