gene_e._mccluney

As long as the film is still in a sealed foil pouch inside the box, then you should get

acceptable results. If you are contact printing, the grain is of no concern. SuperXX has

very nice tones. I recently opened a package of 11x14 superXX from 1982, and it is just

fine. I use HC-110b in trays for that size. Kodaks HC-110 developer is known as a very

clean working developer that minimizes age fog.

The Agfa/Ansco with front tilt was the "Commercial View" model. The bellows is directly

attached to the tilting part. These are not uncommon at all, in fact they are rather

common cameras. I suggest you try to find one complete and use it if you want front tilt.

They were sold under the Agfa/Ansco name, and also just the Ansco name. All the Agfa/

Ansco models have rear swings and tilts, though, and you can approximate a moderate

front tilt by tilting the camera down, then tilting the back vertical. Does the same

correction.

Of course it will work. Will it cover the format at infinity? Probably. Will you be able to

use tilts and shifts? I would think not very much.

Since paper mounts have, and are still being made for medium format slides, one would

assume that they can be used successfully. I would expect that it would be more the

design of the projector as to whether the slide would "pop" and warp out-of-focus. Since

medium-format slide projectors were always very expensive, it would make sense that

they had a pre-warm flow of air to allow the slide to pre-"pop" thus avoiding this issue on

the screen.

Yes, absolutely, medium-format slides can be projected in all the popular medium-format

slide projectors without glass mounts.

You have the "hard part" which is an original camera box. Finding a suitable contemporary

lens is the "easy" part, relatively speaking. There are more surviving lenses than there are

camera boxes from that period, and even a slightly later lens will still be fairly authentic

and look good, and work on that camera box. I seriously doubt you will find glass

elements to fit your lens tube, but you can find almost identical looking Petzval formula

lenses that would look good mounted to your camera box.

E-6 chemistry is made by several vendors. All slide film available today (except

Kodachrome) is E-6 compatible. Fuji slide film is E-6, they just call their version of E-6

by another name. E-6 will not go away today, or tomorrow. You can always process slide

film at home, you don't need a darkroom if you have a changing bag to load film into

light-proof tank for processing. I still use around 100 sheets of 4x5 E-6 per month, and

process it myself.

I operate my studio in a small mid-west community where zero film supplies are available.

I regularly (like every week) order 4x5 Ektachrome from the east coast for next day, or 2nd

day delivery and in 20 years of doing this I have never had any film arrive damaged or

fogged.

Any Auricon camera you find that was used up into the 1970's would have been converted

to magnetic sound. To re-convert back to optical sound, you would not only need the

original optical parts that expose the soundtrack in the camera, but the external optical

sound amplifier used to drive the sound recording bulb in the camera. The recording

amplifier used for magnetic sound would be different.

The reason the Auricon cameras found popularity in super 16 low-budget film production,

of course has nothing to do with their sound recording abilities, which wasn't used, but

rather they were "self-blimped" cameras, absolutely noiseless, and they were cheap.

Since this camera is being sold to you by someone you know, and are in contact with

locally, then you will probably be OK. The Kiev 60 has a somewhat delicate film wind

mechanism that can easily be put "out of comission" by careless handling. Let him show

you how to handle the camera. The lenses, in general, are quite good for the price, and

will also fit the Pentacon 6 camera, as well as the most recently manufactured Kiev 88

cameras. I have almost all the lenses and both Kiev 60, and Kiev 88 cameras, and the Kiev

88 is a much more robust feeling camera, however you need to make sure you are getting

a freshly manufactured one, as they have made many improvements in the last few years.

You could use a neutral density filter in front of the projector lens to reduce the light

output, however if you see overly light washed out highlights with little or no detail in your

slides, then you have overexposed the film when you took the pictures, and no amount of

light reduction will bring back detail that wasn't recorded on the film.

The only company still operating (other than Leica) that has extensive experience in

making "M" mount RFDR cameras is Cosina. Cosina, of course makes the Voigtlander line

of 35mm film RFDR cameras, as well as supplies the Zeiss designed "M" mount bodies to

Zeiss under contract. They also provided the mechanical parts to Epson for the RD-1

digital "M" mount rangefinder marketed by Epson. Epson installed the digital bits

themselves. The owner of Cosina has publically stated that he does not like digital. It is

unlikely that he would invest in the extensive engineering required to produce a digital

RFDR camera all on his own, but he may not be opposed to again supplying the

mechanical body parts to another entity for the production of a digital RFDR. The "M"

mount is in public domain. Anyone "could" offer an "M" mount camera. In the case of

Zeiss, the unknown question is..who would produce the digital parts and install them?

I'll bet that Leica feels that the cameras they sell that are made by Panasonic fill the niche

that a "digital CL" would fit in.

The only models we have to compare are the Epson RD1, and the Digital Module R Leica

SLR digital back. In one instance an "M" mount rangefinder, and in the other instance, a

Digltal camera back made by Leica. How are they doing in the used marketplace?

Konica/Minolta is gone, their DSLR cameras were taken over by Sony. It would be up to

Sony to decide this. Zeiss do not make any camera bodies themselves, just lenses. Their

35mm RFDR film bodies are built under contract by Cosina. Cosina also supplied RFDR

body parts for the rather sort-lived Epson Digital Rangefinder camera. Cosina just

supplied the mechanical parts. Since Zeiss would have to contract the manufacture of the

Camera Body out, and the manufacture of the digital bits out to probably another

company, this could get difficult.

95% of my studio output (product photography) is produced on 4x5 transparency film,

which I either deliver direct, or scan and deliver a digital file as well as the transparency.

I have my own in-studio lab for E-6 so I am quite prompt in my production.

If you shoot film, you are future-proofing your work, as a scanned LF original can provide

much more detail than the average digital capture.

There should be no difference in Efke and Foma branded film and their Arista equivalents.,

except price.

I am realtively happy with the quality. My lens is not in perfect shape lens coating wise,

but it shoots nice photos.

Getting the cap off may require having a screwdriver handy, but getting the whole lid off is

easy. Just fill the tank up to overflowing with water (after your fixing step), and the water

will help you pull off the lid. Also, as mentioned above, you can get generic plastic lids

and caps that fit, even though the tank was designed for a stainless steel lid.

The film (as all films do to some extent) has reciprocity issues when exposed for longer

than 1/8th second. What that means is that you will get color shifts (if color film) and

exposure will not correspond with what your meter says (if your meter will read in that dim

a light). Usually the exposure shift requires you to expose for a considerably longer time

than indicated on an exposure meter. As the shutter speed goes longer, the film becomes

less sensitive to light (or so it seems).

YES, you can fully use the Komura 75mm on your Crown Graphic 4x5. Since this is a

retrofocus wide angle, you will not need a recessed lensboard. I use mine a lot. Actually,

you don't need a recessed lensboard for any wide-angle on the Crown, as the Crown has

articulated focusing rails that allow you to leave the front standard very close to the film

plane (inside the frame of the camera box) and still focus. However the 75mm Komura due

to its design, will alow you to extend the front standard out onto the main portion of the

focusing rails. You won't get the frame rails in the photo with the Komura and the Crown,

however if you use a Super Graphic with the revolving back, when you shoot verticles, you

might see the frame rails in the bottom of the image, unless you tilt the focus track down,

and then compensate by tilting and raising the front standard back to vertical.

I have been shooting "slide" film for over 45 years, and I have been a professional

photographer for over 35 years. I have never had a problem with a few weeks of high-

temperature effecting the quality of slide film. Fresh film, processed as soon as possible

after the trip.

If you have no competition, and you are shooting on speculation, hoping to sell prints

after you have shot them, then you may be OK, but if you are taking assignments, then

you need to use equipment that will give you results comparable to other professional

aerial photographers. This almost always involves using medium format equipment, and

also gyro-stabilizers, as the vibrations from a small private aircraft are difficult to

overcome with just a high shutter speed. I have also found that the vibrations from small

aircraft are hard on cameras, with screws falling out over time and other worries.

I think your best best for spare parts would be to purchase a spare machine, and take

parts off as needed to keep your operating machiine going. These should be available

rather cheaply now.