anthony_j._kohler

No idea, but I've got a Tachihara 8x10 to 4x5 reducing back I'd like to find a home for, if you're looking for one.

One advantage to the plate burners is that many of them incorporate a vacuum frame, which eliminates the need for contact printing frames. Good frames will certainly run your costs up in a hurry, too.

 

But even living out in the hinterlands, I found a lightly used plate burner for $500 delivered from Chicago. Buying a flourescent unit would cost as much, plus delivery, for 11x14; this unit will handle anything I could get film for.

 

And it doesn't take a lot more space than a decent-sized flourescent unit.

Ron Wisner is still offering a new-made 84mm Hypergon which he says will cover (barely) 11x14. On 8x10, that should roughly equate to about a 14mm lens on 35mm. Of course, it's not cheap.

 

I doubt that anything shorter is being today for 8x10.

The 4x5 goes into a LowePro Photo Trekker AW, which has gone on several lengthy trips with me - in the overhead of the plane. This was before 9/11, though. That bag holds the camera, about 20 film holders, 5 lenses on boards, meter, filters, darkcloth and a few miscellaneous tools, with the tripod on the outside.

 

The 8x10 goes into an older Super Trekker, along with ten film holders, three lenses (two of them screwing into the same flange - that board travels on the camera), meter, filters, darkcloth and a few miscellaneous tools, with the tripod on the case on the front of hte backpack.

 

If you're concerned about setting it down on nasty ground and getting your back all messy, carry a sheet of heavy plastic to spread out and set the backpack down on.

 

Tony

Haven't tried anything like this on a Kodak Master, but I had to do so on both of my Zone VI's (4x5 & 8x10). It's not really a matter of another tripod socket, but something to stabilize the plate. I drilled a hole into the bed and (carefully!) screwed in a threaded brass insert with 1/4-20 threads inside. They're a standard hardware item; they have coarse threads on the outside to screw into wood with machine screw threads inside, and you can get them in a wide range of sizes. Works like a charm, and very little splintering of the wood.

 

A bit of advice if you go that route: the inserts have a slot for a screwdriver. Don't use it. Take a bolt of the appropriate thread, add a couple of nuts and washers to hold the insert near the end of the threads, and use this to drive the insert into the wood. And apply plenty of pressure to a well-supported bed so that the outside threads actually bite into the wood rather than splintering it. The inserts are cheap; practice on scrap wood first.

 

It's almost harder to describe than it is to do it.

 

Tony

The .45 ACP in one nightstand (Silvertips) and the .44 Spl. (also Silvertips) in the other are very comforting, as are two big - and noisy - dogs. But when we had our alarm system put in, we had a sensor put on the door of the storage closet I use for (among other things) all of the camera gear worth mentioning. That and a lock on the door should tend to keep it intact.

 

Side benefit - when we go out of town, the room created by removing whatever photo gear we are taking with us can be used for other items from the house.

 

The big safe is nice, and I keep the guns in it, but it's in the garage. This being Arizona, the garage gets a tad warm in the summer. I figured it was better to keep camera gear where the air conditioning could keep it relatively cool.

 

Tony

Been using a Jobo for many years. It processes 35mm, 120, 4x5 and 8x10. The 4x5 on reels can even be done with roll film, if I've got small amounts of each. Wouldn't be without it.

 

In fact, I never learned tray processing. Got the Jobo used when I first got the initial 4x5 - there was a serious second-hand camera store in Denver - and just went from hand agitation on roll film to the Jobo with lift for everything.

 

It's a pain to store. It sits in the garage when it's not in use, and it's big and bulky. It takes up a serious amount of the kitchen counter when I'm using it. But I don't have a darkroom here, and it's the only thing that lets me photograph as much as I do.

 

Tony

Do I CARE about the damping of a tripod at -20Deg C? I am NOT GOING OUTSIDE at temperatures like that; I live in Arizona for a REASON, and that is NO MORE COLD! :-))

 

Tony

Don't have a picture of this, but I doubt that it would add anything. I get my Zone VI 8x10 into an older Super Trekker, the one with the tripod case on the front. One divider - the camera is below it, with two film holders on top of the camera. Eight more take up the upper half of the pack, with the spotmeter fitted into the slight bit of 'room' created by the curve of the top of the pack. Lenses (wrapped) and filters go into the outside pockets - I'm VERY careful not to let it fall forward! I use a flange for the lenses, which lets me keep them in smaller packages than if I had to wrap up lensboards with them.

 

Not a lot of extra room, but it works.

 

Tony

And just for the record, my recommendation of a Zone VI as an alternative to the Wisner was not for the Ultralight, but for the original Zone VI 8x10.

 

Tony

And if your target is a Wisner Traditional, don't pass up a good Zone VI. They are quite similar - although the Wisner has a better handle.

 

Tony

Since I use a Gitzo 325 and A-S B-1 with a Zone VI 8x10, which is very similar to a Wisner Traditional, I'd say yes.

I have several different storage systems (which I really need to change, someday). Some 35mm slides are in boxes, some are in drawers in a cabinet, and all medium and large format are in pages in books. Each one is scanned into the computer and roughly standardized to something close to a full screen - but full frame for certain. The negative or slide is numbered to show its location. 35mm slides may be, e.g. D14-28 (the 28th slide in drawer 14) or B1-17-10 (tenth slide, 17th compartment, box 1) - but only 35mm slides will begin with 'D' or 'B.' 35mm negatives and other formats are identified by the initial numbers, i.e 35N, 6X, 45P or 8X (no real reason for the distinctions beyond format size) and followed by the page number and, for smaller than 8x10, the number of the transparency or negative on the page, always counting from upper left to lower right. The images on the computer are then organized by subject. Once I have the image file name, I know where the film is and can lay my hands on it right away.

Art, do you mean 4 inches by 5 inches - or 4 FEET by 5 FEET?

 

Tony

Marshall, I had a Deardorff I was going to have restored, and sold it in favor of a Zone VI, which I love. Not to tell you what to do, but to let you know why: The Zone VI has a triple-extension bellows and focussing rack, while the Deardorff has only a double. This may or may not impact your decision, as you do not indicate what lenses you intend to use. But I couldn't get studio shots with a 19" Artar with only a double-extension camera, and that is why I chose the Zone VI.

 

Tony

Steve, it won't fit the Luna-Pro F. The SBC has a set of jacks under the plastic strip below the incident light slot on the end of the meter where it plugs in. The Luna-Pro F (at least the one I used to have) has that plastic strip glued in place, and no jacks under it.

 

Tony

Witold, the two points I would offer are first, bellows length. I've settled on triple-extension bellows as the length I need, given the lenses I use and what I do/try to shoot. I won't even consider a double extension camera any longer.

 

Second, zero reference marks vs. detents. The detents are nice when setting up the camera - but they then block out a small portion of potential movement right around the detent, when the movement wants to 'snap in' to the detent. I would go for reference marks any time.

 

Tony

The suggestion of a Zone VI is a good one, but it needs some clarification. There have been several different versions of the Zone VI. Several of the early ones were made with only double-extension bellows. Make sure it has both focussing tracks and you should be in good shape. They are solid cameras, and the triple-extension versions would do very well.

 

Tony

I'm - let's see, two from seven, carry the . . . I'm 54, for almost

the remainder of this year. While I had some forays into photography

as a kid (I still remember 620 box cameras), I only got into it on an

ongoing basis while in Vietnam. Shot half-frame and full-frame 35mm,

then came home and did some experimentation with various cameras.

Shot some 116, and some Rapid, then had a ball for a while with a

Miniature Speed Graphic. Settled down to 35mm until about 1994 or so,

when I first got really into 4x5. Got the 8x10 almost two years ago

and have been a committed LF shooter since. Sold all my 35mm stuff

about a year ago, and now my 'small' camera is a Mamiya 7. The 8x10

is my real baby, though.

 

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Tony

Well, I DO photograph 'groins;' I shoot nudes (primarily B&W

abstracts and semi-abstracts) and landscapes, both the 'grand'

landscapes and what I'd call 'medium' landscapes, i.e. buildings and

the like. Haven't gotten much into some other areas, including the

macrolandscape, which I notice but normally don't (yet) photograph.

 

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And I admit to shooting the occasional flower. I've got some critters

in the yard I'd love to get on LF, but neither the lizards nor the

hummingbirds want to hold still long enough. Unfortunately. I think a

good full-frame portrait of a hummer, even perched, would be fabulous.

 

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Tony

Actually, I've been looking for an excuse to relate this here, so

this thread is very welcome.

 

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It wasn't actually WHILE I was shooting, but . . .

 

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We were staying at a veyr nice B&B outside of Ghent, Belgium, last

year, and across the street was a very nice, pretty pond. I went out

one morning, set up the camera by the street and shot the picture of

the pond as I saw it. Heard the next morning from Ingrid, who ran the

B&B, that her next-door neighbor, a lady who was, shall we say, not

entirely right in the head, had called her father, absolutely

indignant that this %^&*( MAN was out in the street, photographing

her through her window! Her father (who lived in the next house down)

looked out his window at me, and came back to his phone to tell his

daughter (rather dryly, as we heard it) that the camera was pointed

the other way.

 

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Tony

The only real answer to 'what is the best camera for . . ." is the

one you have at the time the shot is there and with which you are

comfortable. If you don't have the camera when the shot is there, it

doesn't matter how 'good' the camera is. If you are not comfortable

with it, it isn't the 'best' - FOR YOU, which is all that counts.

My 'best is not somebody else's. Having my camera when I see the shot

is a LOT better than seeing the shot with empty hands and wondering

which camera I would have if I had my druthers. If you get caught up

in the 'what _____ should I have' neurosis, you will never be taking

pictures because you'll spend your time figuring out what you 'ought'

to have to capture the shot that is disappearing in front of your

eyes.

 

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Tony

"You can get a thingamajig with two clips and a flexible arm for

pennies at Staples. I think they're made to hold copy. You put one

clip anywhere on the camera or tripod, and put a dark slide in the

other. It's cheap, simple, weightless, and brings hours of fun."

 

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David, if this gives you 'hours of fun,' I worry about you. You

really need to get a life. <GG>

 

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Tony

http://www.stephenshuart.com/

 

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Tony

Check with Steve Grimes.

 

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Tony