john_kasaian2

Gary,

I believe that in order to use the pack film, you need a graflock

back on your camera, or at least that is what I remember being told

back when I bought my 545i sheet film holder. Good luck!

Thanks to all of you! The leather handle isn't such a big problem as

there are cobblers and saddlemakers who could make the leather for

me, but the rivets are going to be a problem. I just came across

two names of people who work on large format cameras in my area---

Jim Galvin and J. Albert. Has anyone had any dealings with either of

these two gentlemen?

Hello! I didn't find this in old messages, so I figure I'd better ask the experts. The leather handle on my 'dorff is getting rather elderly, but what really has me concerned is that the rivets that hold the metal straps that in turn hold the handle on are loosening up. Can anyone recommend a place to take my camera to for repairs on the west coast? Some place where you've sent your own camera in for repair? While its in the shop, I might as well send my lens in for a clean& adjust. Is there any place you care to recommend on the west coast or would I be better off sending it to S.K Grimes? Its in a no.5 Universal shutter. By the way, in an old thread I read the Ilex shutters are not supposed to be lubed. Is that true? and is it common knowlege or should I specify this when I send it in? Thanks for all the great advice the forum provides.

Tony,

I can't comment on a case for shipping your camera by air.

Since I started shooting 8x10 I can't afford airfare, but for general

transport by automobile, my camera rides in a nondescript igloo

cooler along with my film holders, light meter and lens. I duct tape

the whole thing shut and it can be rapidly opened with a carton

cutter or pocket knife in case I need to make a quick snapshot like

if I'm driving by a Krispy Kreme and see Elvis at the drive-thru.

Leaving the old pieces of duct tape on is a security measure as in

general thieves aren't attracted to things wearing multiple wraps of

gnarly looking duct-tape. The cooler is insulated so well that it

keeps my film holders from frying in the California sunshine. The

downside is you don't want to leave it in your car if you go to

Yosemite. The bears there can read "Igloo" perhaps Ansel Adams

taught them? Anyway, the price is right.

Andrew,

The crud on the type 55 p/n film can get pretty stubborn to

remove if you let it sit without doing something. The sulfite

solution isn't really anything I'd like sloshing around in the field

as it tends to get kind of ouchy if it gets on your skin. You might

try getting a tupperware type of container filled with water to keep

your negatives in until you get them home. You could remove the

packet after exposure without breaking the chemical pod, then run

them through your polariod back to develop when you get home. Or you

can get a yankee developing tank with a snap on lid---I think Calumet

has them---or a clearing bucket that polaroid makes especially for

clearing type 55p/n and take your chances. Good luck!

Jim

I recall that in a past Freestyle Catalog that the paper you"re

looking for was referred to as 111( I think, I don't have the catalog

anymore since my bride insists that I throw things out on occasion)

which would seem to indicate that it is an Agfa product, as 111 is

one of thier product codes( I had an old Calumet catalog that

described the Agfa product codes but that went to the same place the

old Freestyle catalog went to)Good Luck!

Jim,

I recall that in a past Freestyle Catalog that the paper you"re

looking for was referred to as 111( I think, I don't have the catalog

anymore since my bride insists that I throw things out on occasion)

which would seem to indicate that it is an Agfa product, as 111 is

one of thier product codes( I had an old Calumet catalog that

described the Agfa product codes but that went to the same place the

old Freestyle catalog went to)Good Luck!

Erik,

I agree that if you"re working commercially at it, digital is

where the smart money is, but if your passion is the print then

consider which method gives you the most satisfaction to work with.

It sounds like you're taken with digital so thats probably where you

should be right now. If you enjoy the wet darkroom like many do,

then thats fine too. If you want to scan traditional negatives, then

by all means go that route. What I'm trying to say is that you'll

get better results and be happier if you do the things that give you

the greatest satisfaction. If getting a print out of a printer gives

you the same creative charge as pulling one out of the soup then so

be it. You can catch just as big of fish with spinning tackle or a

flyrod. It certainly doesn't matter to the fish, but the fishermen

sure do have opinions about which gear to use. IMHO that applies to

photography, too. Use the tools you love.

Hello! I just logged off your website and thought it was one of the

best. What impressed me was that it was that it seemed very well

thought out, easy to navigate with excellent graphics, and the size

of your images were enjoyable to view, giving justice to your

excellent photographs. Too often it seems like the photos a person

uses to exemplify his or her talents are reduced to munchkin size

that tend leave the viewer somewhat mystified as to the clarity of

the actual prints(my opinion)Congrats and good luck with your new

site!

Ted,

My lovely Bride made mine for me as I am downright dangerous with

sharp things like needles and scissors. It has three thicknesses;

two of black clothe one white 4'x5' for my 8x10. It works just fine

and we can modify it any number of ways to suit the need. If velcro

works for you then by all means use it. I like snaps since velcro

can pick up debris(I shoot outdoors alot)but that is matter of

personal preference. A black sweatshirt sounds like a great route to

go with 4x5, but might get a little claustrophobic with an 8x10

ground glass in there with you. If you"re going to get a tailor to

knock one out for you have it made larger that you think you'll

need , you can always cut it down if it is too unwieldy and see if

you can get something called 60/40 clothe. They used to make parka

shells out of it BG(before Gortex) Its a cotton blend with

synthetic. The idea is that the cotton fibers swell when wet keeping

moisture (Rain) out while the synthetic keeps the whole thing from

becoming a soggy mess, and it breathes. You miight be able to find

it at REI. Lead wieghts in the corners , IMHO, is a bad idea. Good

luck!

Sal---Good point! I think its time to gather some negatives

together, buy a good selection of graded fiberbase papers from as

many manufacturers as I can(except Zone VI since they're out of the

graded paper game) and see which one I like best---including Galerie

and it's alter-ego from Freestyle. Probably something I should have

done some time ago. Thanks for all the excellent input!

Thank you all! I'll definately give Bergger,Forte, Luminos, and

Oriental a try and hold off using Galerie for my current project

until I feel comfortable with Ilford's commitment to continue

production.

Hello! I just got off Ilford's website and low and behold no Galerie!I did a search and Ilford's site acted like the stuff never existed. I even tried spelling it Gallerie but to no avail. Does anyone out there know if this paper is gone for good? Calumet's ironic copy about all cold tone graded fiber base papers falling off the face of the earth is hard enough to take with the cancelling of graded Brilliant Bromide. There seems to be plenty of Galerie at places like Freestyle and B and H, but if its been discontinued, then for the sake of continuity I'll have to use something else. Has Galerie slithered into the tar pits like all the other dinosaurs? Any suggestions for a replacement? Thanks.

Pete, I don't have any experience with the pocket view, but I do have

another model Gowland camera which I purchased new from Mr. Gowland.

I would suggest going to Peter Gowland's website www.petergowland.com-

--fun website by the way---and contact him directly with your

questions as he would surely know more about his own designs than

anyone else. He's a great person to talk to on the phone and is a

wealth of information. You can get his number from the ads(or is it

adds?) in Shutterbug but you can also contact him through his

website. He is legendary in the field of glamor photography, but

after all, topography is topography and its all pretty much

undulating terrain!

The Artar is an astounding lens. I've got a 14" American Optical

Artar in a compur dialset. I've also heard three different theories

on the red-dot vs. Apo arguement(all artars are Apo I've been told)

Difference No. 1:It's a marketing ploy to get more money for the

premium red dots(McBroom') Difference No. 2: red dots are coated

lenses, Apos aren't coated(View Camera article from Wisner)

Difference No.3: Apos are adjusted for best performance at 1:1, red

dots are adjusted for best performance at 10:1 to 1:1 depending on

focal length and when it was manufactured(John Sparks, More on

Classic lenses, an old thread on this forum) They all sound good to

me but take your pick! Whoever you agree with, you've got a great

piece of glass if it's in good condition. The 14" is the minimum I'd

want for an 8x10, so your 12" should cover any of the smaller large

formats with plenty of movement. Enjoy!

I didn't mean to sound like I was down on digital, but I agree that

this is a golden age for traditional LF. Many castoffs of the now

digital graphic arts industry and commercial studios are useful to

LF shooters and are available at pennies on the dollar. Thats the

good news. The disturbing news is that materials will probably become

scarce without the demand of those same labs and studios driving

production.IMHO, there will always be a place for quality art no

matter what the process and the creative 'bug' will always drive

creative people to experiment with either cutting edge technology,

traditional, or historic processes (or all of the above)to find thier

own creative niche. I found mine with big pieces of black and white

film and stinky chemicals, and although I shoot for my own pleasure I

think traditional LF will remain a viable art form. Many sculptors

still carve wood and stone with chisels and hammers and often command

comparable, if not higher prices for thier art than those artists

using power tools. Right now, digital is "in" so I guess I'm "out"

but I'm really too busy with problems like "Do I ski or snowshoe out

to the mountain ridge where I want to shoot star trails?(and what do

I do for six hours besides freezing?")Or, "How do I get this !@%#@!

studio shutter to work?" to be too concerned about not having a

$30,000 digital back .

I shoot 8x10s with a Deardorff and aerial 8x10s with a Gowland.

Mostly landscapes and whatever else strikes my interest. I use Tri-x

and tray develop in HC110 or D-76. Mostly contact prints or

enlargements on an old,old Elwood using fiber based graded paper---

I'm currently experimenting with different brands. Ilford seems the

easiest to obtain. Kodak AZO for contacts.

Ansel Adams(dare I say it?) equated the negative to a musical score

and the print as the performance. I see digital stuff akin to a moog

synthesizer or Roland keyboard and my Deardorff as a Steinway(one

that looks like its been dropped off a three story building, but I

digress) A good musician, I feel, can get good music from either

instrument, but some compositions sound better when played on certain

instruments. A classical symphony might be amuseing when played with

digital instruments for awhile, but they tend to remind me of

elevator music. Likewise a cello isn"t going to be found on an

Arrowsmith album anytime soon. Digital, I feel will be useful in

certain areas certainly, but in art I think it will be more limited

than most believe. Certainly anything thats going to be produced in

large quantity will go digital somewhere along the line. Commercial

work, assembly line portraiture, even family snapshots and probably

wedding photography(if the colors don't shift like photographs are

prone to do---are your wedding pictures orange?)will no doubt benefit

from digital. However art is another matter. A silver or platinum

print kind of has a soul. Each one printed by hand. Each one

slightly different. Each one a vision in it's own right. I'm not

slighting digital artists. It takes skill and talent to twiddle with

all the opportunities that photoshop affords, but after the image is

put on a disc, what happens? You punch out ten, twenty, or a hundred

duplicates? In an earlier thread, someone observed that Ansel Adams

later prints were darker, moodier than his early "performances" of

the same negative. This is what seperates digital from traditional.

Just as photography never really made painting obsolete, I don't

think digital will make traditional photography obsolete. They are

really two quite different approaches to making images. I am

concerned that traditional sources might discontinue many of the

products I enjoy using(Kodak giveth and Kodak taketh away) but I'll

bet there will always be somebody somewhere who will recognize a

market that needs to be filled. Well, thats my 2cents(hey, theres no

cent symbol on my keypad?)

Graded papers do not exist in Fresno California(where the raisins

come from)so for me it's a mail order proposition. I admit this talk

of manufacturers discontinuing graded papers got me as uptight as a

long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs, so I punched up B

and H in NYC and found plenty of graded papers! There was even a new

(to me) offering from Agfa! Low and behold, my beloved AZO is

available as well! Me and my Elwood will sleep well tonight. Happy

printing.

If you marinate whooping crane in either buttermilk or ginger ale,

you'll get rid of the gamey taste. I don't know if this works for

bald eagles or spotted owls.

Thank you for all your replies. My concern about static electricity

come in part because the aircraft(all aircraft actually) need to be

grounded before refeuling, and static charges have "cooked"

ungrounded aircraft during refeuling in the past. Perhaps I'm being

overly cautious, but if an airplane could accumulate enough static

electricity from flight to cause a discharge, then would my plastic

film holders be subject to the same sort of thing? I haven't had

trouble with them when I use them on the ground. After a flight I

can't go around shocking unsuspecting people like I did the last time

we got a new carpet, so I'm not storing static electricity. Perhaps

I should load up all my holders, wood and plastic, and rent a bigger

plane then see what I pull out of the soup? Do people get Grants for

this kind of stuff? Julio's comment were especially interesting. I

think I read something somewhere about static charges possibly being

a problem(Ansel Adams?) but I don't think it differentiated between

plastic holders or wood. Thank you once again for your interest &

advice!

Thank you for your advise! I'll stick with my Liscos for aerial work

and take your recommendations regarding removing the darkslides

slowly and using an antistatic cloth. Thanks!

I am working on a series of large format aerial photographs. I am using Lisco plastic film holder because they wiegh less than my wooden ones, however I am concerned that the plastic ones will be more apt to be charged with static electricity which might effect the negatives. So far, no problems but since this is a rather costly project I want to stack the cards in my favor. I thoughtI'd better ask for input from the Experts. Are plastic film holder more prone to static electricity than wood in aerial photography? Thank you for yopur opinions and Happy New Year!

Hello Wayne, What part of the world are you going camping in? Alaska

requires very different gear than the Everglades or the Mojave Desert

for example. There are as many gizmos for backpackers as there are

for fishermen(or photographer) and I suspect many are worthless. The

rangers in charge of the 'neck o' the woods you want to explore

usually have the latest info. For minimalist camping, a tarp can

work quite well. For an overnighter MREs available at army-navy

surplus stores and survival type places are pretty good, and there

are catalytic heaters for them so you won't need a stove. If youre

short on time, you might consider having a packer pack you and your

gear to a base camp and back. That way you can spend more time

shooting and less time traveling and take a heck of a lot of film

holders with you to boot! About the MREs : don't buy old ones, there

was a scandal a few years ago about some of them making the troops

sick. I believe they were made in Corpus Christie, but I'm not

sure. And if you're headed for the High Sierras or the Rockies,.

don't buy the ones with beans! My Sweetwater purification system has

worked well for me. Happy Trails!

I have the versalab model 16x20. I'm happy with it. They make an

adapter for 20x24 but I haven't used one. Versalab is a real value

for the money.