LF in France

[bruce_schultz]

I plan to travel to the French Riviera in May for a few days. I would love to take my Deardorff but I can't imagine the difficulties involved. Would anyone know of a LF rental service in Nice, France? Other suggestions?

[hans_berkhout]

Use this trip for reconaissance: take only an Mleica with fast film

or- if you insist on being "serious"- with a light weight tripod and

TMX100. Have the camera on your body at all times, also during travel

to Europe. You will (dis)cover more photo locations, no equipment

loss/burden/hassles.Plan a follow-up trip to the same area with your

Deardorff for another time. Check out the camera stores in Nice.

Maybe you can borrow mine (or carry it for me) since I'm there as

well, in may.

 

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Enjoy your travels!

[luc_regnier4]

Hey Bruce ,

I am french and I think it should be difficult to rent a LF at Nice !

At Paris , you would can find much better , but it is not so easy

also .

You can try to send an E mail to www.lemoyenformat.com (Paris)and

ask them .( if you stop to Paris before to go to Nice )

For me , the best way is to travel with your LF , and I do not see any

difficulties to take your material .

The most difficulty is to find sheets , so take it with you .

Au revoir

[luc_regnier4]

Hey Bruce , me again

Sorry , I make a mistake about E mail address , it is a web site !

The real address is :

Le Moyen Format , 50 Boulevard Beaumarchais . 75011 . Paris . france

Phone : 33 1 48 07 13 18

Fax : 33 1 48 05 23 18

Bon voyage !

[nze_christian]

Hi bruce

 

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I also live in france. And i just can say that if you want to rent a

field camera as your deardorff it could hard to find even at the

moyen format store at Paris. You could rent a sinar or other studio

camera without problem.

You planned to come with an 8*10 or 5*7.

Because depending on the format it could not so easy to find film.

There is only 3-4 store open to all, in Paris which have large format

film in stock.

 

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finally as I am aslo a large format user and get in the usa, in greece

in many country of africa with my 8*10 I would just say take your

camera with you, there is no problem to do this.

[jean_marie_solichon]

Bruce

I am living 20 Km from Nice and cannot advice anything else than :

bring your camera and film!

[jean_marie_solichon]

Bruce, I gave it a second thought : I know a shop in Nice which sells

used (and expensive) LF gear. You may ask them if they are willing to

rent. Their fax number is + 33.4.93.13.89.73. In the phone directory

I also found an adress in the section called "cinema and photography

gear-renting" give it a try : Agence Top Images Productions fax n° +

33.4.93.89.90.90. As far as film is concerned : bring it with you; LF

film is rare and expensive here.

Are you interested in photographing cities or backcountry nature? You

may find useful info and links if visiting my (modest) web pages :

http://perso.monaco377.com/soliroca/.

[guillaume_zuili]

Bruce,

If you go to Nice, you will have anyway to stop by Paris.

Go to PROPHOT ( www.prophot.com ), they are Rue Condorcet in the 9°

arrondissement.

This is "The Shop" where you can find any sheet film, BW including

Bergger, Color neg or E6 in 4x5 to 5x7 and of course 8x10. They are

very competent and friendly.

I take there my Bergger film in 8x10 and 4x10. So you really have

whatever you want.

 

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On the same street, you have an excellent rental shop who rent field

(4x5) or studio 8x10 and any lense you want.

It's Claude Rigal's Shop. I can give you more infos on that, but.

 

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But it's going to be difficult for you to rent.. because you

need "caution check" and bla bla bla...

It's better to bring your Deardorff,rent the tripod (it's cheap so

you can deal for the caution) and buy film there.

 

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Feel free to contact me.

Regards

[qtluong]

Prophot is indeed the only place in Paris where I was able to find

Polaroid 55 film in 4x5. This tells you about the scarcity of LF

resources. The film was twice as expensive as B&H.

[guillaume_zuili]

The problem of price is simple : VAT at 19,6 %...

Yes, you can be scared !

[dominique_cesari]

The place in Paris to rent LF is Claude Rigal's shop as mentionned

above. It's name is Compact Photo Pro and its URL is at

http://www.compact-photopro.fr/uk/index.html

I mention a lot of other hiring shops (Bip Photo, Abdon ...) in Paris

at my page

http://www.multimania.com/cesarigd/photo8.htm (in French, a training

for your tour?)

But, you are going to the French Riviera. I can't suggest anything,

but there surely are retailers there.

[james___]

Has anyone from the US gone to Italy lately? I am going next fall and

was wondering about the X-Ray problems during customes and traveling

alone in southeast Italy. Do they hand inspect and take your word

that film is the only thing in the boxes? Or do they insist on

opening them and ruining $200 worth of film? I am planning on bringing

my 4x5 and 2 1/4 cameras with all the film I am planning to shoot.

What were your experiances? Any problems? Anyone living close by that

would like to meet and shoot together? James

[qtluong]

James, in the US, FAA regulations entitles you to hand inspection

of film, but even though, I've often heard "we have to be able to

see it, otherwise we'll x-ray it". In Europe, in several countries

you cannot even require hand inspection of film, so don't expect

them not to require you to have your film boxes X-rayed. On the other

hand, nobody will insist in opening them as long as they go through

the X-ray machine. If you're

concerned about that, you can try my method, which so far has been

successful: remove the foil to avoid setting the metal detector, and

just carry the film boxes with you, preferably under your clothes.