fred_de_van

<p>You can find the manual for the 9000 and other Minolta film marvels <a href="http://ca.konicaminolta.com/support/manuals/film-cameras/film_af_slr/index.html">here</a><br>

http://ca.konicaminolta.com/support/manuals/film-cameras/film_af_slr/index.html</p>

 

<a href="http://www.freddevan.com/StarTrails.html"> Meteor showers 2002</a>.

4X5 GranView, 65mm Schnieder S.A. 5.6. Ektachrome 100.

The chrome "J" shaped tube allows you to adjust the bulb for the most even illumination. It moves in all directions. The front panel motor controls have two speeds, just touch the focus control lightly and it slows to a crawl. When provided with enough light before you go dark, the front controls will lightly glow, but time may have ended this capability. If you have the companion table very large prints are easily done. Use a level to set the center points for negative stage and lens platform. Both adjust via those little red knobs. If you can find them both the coldlight and Besler/Agfa heads are supurb. The more modern heads such as the Beseler/Minolta do fit.

I was told yesterday that the Salton area is suffering an outbreak of West Nile. Check the local news.

This may or may not explain the film notches if 4x5 is really the format being used. Somewhere on this forum is a posting that a lady was using a Littman to shoot the pols at work. The very odd and unwieldy Littman used vertically would need the film holder to be inserted from the bottom to prevent the foucus knob from being above the shooters head. The film was upside down relative to being used in a real camera. I had an assistant once who would load holders with the notches at the top. drove you nuts if there was a need to duck into a darkroom to check what film was in the holder, or when unloading, that would produce the same effect.

Jean-Louis: I cannot argue with anything you say about the Linhof, I love them also. Dismounting a 135mm Planar or a few other special mount lenses would be a nightmare, but it can be done. Most normally mounted lenses should pose no problem at all. I interchange my GranView lenses to my Cambo with no problem. The cones for lenses longer than 135mm are indeed bulky but the tradeoff is worth it. The cones for the short lenses are not bulky at all. It is a different way of thinking than to have a bulky camera and board mounted lenses. The Granview body in the size of a couple of holders, and costs very little. The cost is in the cones and focus mount, not the bodies. What you get in return for the cones and their bulk is a camera that is impervious to wind and weather. The Ruggedness is incredible. You actually can wash a GrandView if you are so inclined. Wind has no effect at all. GranView even has protective devices for the lens and shutter in inclimate weather. The cameras need no protection, beyond common sense. GranView used to have a video where they kicked one down a hill, with their sealed protective lens cover in place, with no ill effect. Not something I would recommend, but as they say S*** happens. They are so light that you will take them places where you would not willingly lug a Linhof or most other LF (or MF) cameras.

The 200 is a head that fits an 8x10 deardorf like a glove. It is a clamp fit on the D&S Airlift and the center pole is well over an inch in diameter. I just measured it at 47mm, The platform is 7X9 inches. The 200S has a smaller platform but still is made to clamp fit the 47mm column. The support weight rating of a Davis & Sanford Airlift A or B is 35 pounds.

 

The D&S info can be found at http://www.tiffen.com

take a look at Foto Care Ltd., 136 W. 21st Street, NY, NY 10011

http://www.fotocare.com/

I have been using D&S tripods for 30 years. Have 200 heads and just bought another 200S yesterday. You will not find a better tripod. I doubt that the heads fit many other makes. I swear by my Davis and Sanfords. Like them even better than my big Gitzos.

Jean-Louis

 

I fully concur with your assesment of the Linhof Technika having owned one since the 70's. I could add more but that would be (accurately) taken as an attack on what I see as the very flawed idea of a Littman. Most of the attributes you apply to the Linhof can also be found in the GranView. http://www.granview.com I have two of them. They are lighter than either of the two other cameras. Cost a fraction of a Littman. Take nearly any lens. (I have a 53mm Biogon and a 65mm 5.6 SA mounted for mine) Are in current production. Will accept the Linhof finders. Accept any film or roll film back with aplomb. And best of all, like the Linhof, in use, they make sense.

The quality LF dealer to the pros is foto Care. The web site does not reflect it but they have specialized in LF for 30 years. The original owner, Norbert Klebert imported many of the cameras we covet today. Probably the only place in the US with a 8x10 Granview in stock. I bought an Ebony and Ironwood 8x10 Szabad from them many years ago.

http://www.fotocare.com

If you can find one, (mine are definately NOT for sale), the Acer Scanprimo ST is an excellent 11x17 unit. These have a built in transparency unit. It is capable of of up to 8x10 transparencies at high resolutions. Massive file sizes and has a 48 bit driver.

 

These were being sold as discontinued NEW, on the Benq web site recently for around $600. The were originally $2000. The are SCSI, came with a card, relatively fast and performed very well. May be more scanner than you need, but if the price is right....

 

Frankly, I cannot imagine anybody selling one, they have yet to be eclipsed by anything, but when I go to E**** and see someone willing to pay many tens of thousands for a Leica I purchased new for $165, I have come to understand that little, if anything, makes sense if the E**** kulture is applied.

The original mounts were complete arial cameras. Those lenses weigh a ton, and are reportedly radioactive. I had one in a custom made mount the fit Hasselblad 1000f,and Minolta. I don't miss it much!

As someone who has shot news with a 4x5 (and liked it), and also covered 5 presidential campaigns and conventions, (using Leica RFs, Leicaflexes and Minolta SLRs) and a one time owner of many Polaroid 110's, I sincerly hope one of the few remaining manufacturers of real 4x5 camera get a clue and donate this poor soul a real camera with a set of lenses.

 

I cannot imagine how she can even hope to do a credible job with the limit of a single somewhat wide angle lens, on a hard to handle, vertical challanged, Kludge box.

 

Even a polaroid 195 or 600SE with #665 film would be a better and more responsive choice.

You may wish to investigate the 6x12 GranView, your posting reads like ad copy for that camera. Light, rugged, takes any lens, hand hold if you want to, roll film, sheet film or Quick Loads, and has a little rise and fall. I have a 53mm Biogon and a 65mm Super Angulon 5.6, on mine. Works for me! Take a look...

http://www.granview.com

 

Fred

Kris,

If that is what you use it for, why not use a real camera like a Linhof Press? I have used the various Polaroid 110a, 110b, 180, 195 constantly over the years, and found them all so lacking that even if they did use regular film as they came, I would never use it in them. These cameras were intended to make quick and dirty polaroid lighting tests, while using a real camera for film. The original other use of the 110 was to explore the then novelty of Polaroid while having a lens faster than f9.5. I.E. Low light "bedroom shots" with 3000 speed film. Eric Solomon approached similar subject matter to Henri's using a Ermonox. Have you tried a Ermonox or Plaubel Makina?

Give me some time to think about it....

There is a third, and more elegant option. Either 4x5 GranView.

 

Very light. Indestructable. Designed for this application. Use any lens you like. Highly usable with normal sheet or roll film. But not as Cheap.

 

http://www.granview.com

The MCRX has an adjustable baseboard. Beseler make a base, the adjust-a-table that the MCRX fits into and your existing board will go down to about 2 inches from the floor. The base used to be fairly cheap. The lens you have is the best one for 4x5 but a 135mm will work. The base should cost less than a new lens. You can easily make one for even less but the beseler base is sturdy and really worth the price.

 

My memory is failing but you should be able to make 16x20 without lowering the baseboard with a 150mm. (I switched from a Beseler to a Durst) Are you cropping a lot? Check the Beseler web site.

 

PS.. the upper bellows has no effect on how high it will go unless your ceiling is low.

There are 2 Calumet 4x5 camera series. One based on the Kodak View, AKA Orbit, this is the Calumet 400 series these are all gray and take a 4x4 lensboard. The Calumet you have (Black and uses a 162mm lens board)is a rebranded Cambo and the parts are the same.

I too grew up with the Garphic View, Crowns and all the rest. If it is nostalga you want and a glipse at out distant past pains they are sufficent, but a used Cambo will give a lot more for just a little more cash. It will grow with you, and not need to be replaced if you get a nice modern wide angle or a longer focus lens. They are much less likely to have holes in the bellows, stripped gears, need re-corking or any of the common details that fail on the Graphic view or Calumet 400 series cameras. The differance in cost is minor, the increase in flexability and capability is major. BTW... GV is the current trademark of the GranView cameras. www.granview.com Very nice, special purpose, 4x5 and 8x10 cameras.

I have never understood why anyone would want one of those, nor why anybody would bother making one. Any crown graphic at 1/4 that price would do more. The 110b will not focus very close. the 127mm lens is wide and the only one possible. The focus knob is at best, awkward. etc, etc.

 

This thing is a terrible introduction to large format, really terrible. If anything would make you change your mind about larger format photography this will do it. It has a field of view of about a 30mm lens on a 35. A locking cable release is required to use the ground glass. The viewfinder is for a smaller format, and unless something has been done to it, was originally crudely parallax adjusted. It offers no advantage over a real camera and builds in a few shortcomings all its own. It certainly is not worth that price either.

 

BTW, the yserex lenses are pretty good, worth $50-65 tops on Ebay.

You may find the almost secret, never advertised, standard of the NY pros exactly what you want. It is the Davis and Sandford Airlift. There are fancier, and sexier things made, but there is not a better tripod.

I have a late model L-1200 and a 501 head and it is supurb. Make sure that what you buy is as complete as you need it. The bits and pieces are sometimes hard to find and very pricy. The wall mount gives incredible flexability but mounting it takes a lot of pre planning. Anticipate your future needs and get as complete a unit as you can find. You will not regret this choice. The parts for the two different negative carriers (one marked femoneg AM) are not interchangable. The AM allows seeing the edges of a 4x5 neg. No other differances.

Sally, I am in a way happy to report that I have never seen a worse nor more inaccurate piece of bad information than that which was delivered above by Jason Antman. Disreguard every word of it. Nothing could be more inaccurate. Almost all enlargrers that handle anything larger than 35mm are NOT limited to only their maximum format size. Most of the prints ever made in the past 40 years or so from 35mm were made on 4x5 enlargers. Astron is one of the few enlargers I have no knowledge of so I cannot tell you what components you are lacking, in additon to the 50mm lens which you have. Loose the concept of "converting" it. With the proper parts, it was probably intended to do exactly what you wish.