Possibly wanting to get into LF...

How stunning do your kidneys look? :)
 
  1. Not enough mate, not nearly enough. :D
 
I don't get the wooden fetish thing if you must limit yourself with a field / folder I guess I could just about live with metal camera porn


For people looking for a cheap start there is a lot to be said for suitable monorails for one they are half the price.

The Rittek / toyo field cameras can by all accounts be highly useable but you do have to be a bit careful of the 5x7 / half plate backs sometimes they require particular non standard holders.

On the subject of holders there are grafmatics that hold six shots at once and I guess what srichards would have liked would have been the now discontinued quickloads.

If anyone wants to play in the south east I can drag various varieties of Sinar along and as mentioned before can lend a scruffy F to people.

With regard to lenses most of the more common 5X4 focal lengths will cover 5x7 general purpose 150mm and 210mm will 90mm F8 will but just whereas a 90mm F5.6 will have room for movements.

Sometimes B&H have Porta in 5x7 when a bulk order has been organized with Kodak, but mostly if you want colour you are cutting down 10x8.


As we all know anyway 5x4 is too small really ..... you know you really want a 10x8 ....
 
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Thing is that for me the aesthetics are equally as important as other more technical considerations. I had two Fuji GW 690 which were stunningly good but I sold them because I found them unnatractive and soul less. Same goes for the big 'uns, if they ain't pretty they don't get to play.:D

Andy
 
So, the one Stephen linked to is body only but nearly half the price of the complete kit I linked to.

Which would be the better buy do we think?
 
In one of his rare moments Mr Rockwell says the camera does not matter.

I could care less if anything was pretty its much more important what you can do with it.

The one Stephen linked too

The lens is not worth all that much five double darksides and the darkcloth are not worth the extra and the polaroid back is only really any good as a doorstop.
 
abbandon said:
In one of his rare moments Mr Rockwell says the camera does not matter.

I could care less if anything was pretty its much more important what you can do with it.

The one Stephen linked too

The lens is not worth all that much five double darksides and the darkcloth are not worth the extra and the polaroid back is only really any good as a doorstop.
Click to expand...

Each to their own, I fully understand that for you its all about the function but for me I need it to look good as well. It probably stems from my being incredibly handsome and shallow.......:D
 
abbandon said:
Sometimes B&H have Porta in 5x7 when a bulk order has been organized with Kodak, but mostly if you want colour you are cutting down 10x8.
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Oh my, that's something I hadn't thought about, large format Portra! I was planning on doing mostly B&W but the thought of large format work with Portra makes me weak and the knees
 
Does anyone know of any online shops that do LF cameras? I've looked in the obvious places (ebay and gumtree etc), and most of the shops that I have on my "used film equipment shops" spreadsheet (nerd alert!), such as Ffordes, Clock Tower Cameras, Mifsuds, West Yorkshire Cameras, Camarthen Cameras, Nicholas Camera Company, Bob Rigby, and Cameraticks and loads more, but most don't stock LF, and those that do either have tiny stock or aren't what I'm after.

I guess it's just a case of setting up an ebay saved search notifications and waiting for them to come up!
 
Ffords usually have one of the best selections, apart possibly from Mr Cad whose site is so opaque to me that I hardly ever look. I get nowhere with their search engine, and find it takes too long to go through a page at a time.... Clock Tower Cameras are dependent really on locals coming in to sell/exchange their cameras, although they have had a monorail in for quite a while (currently reduced in price). "New" dealers sometimes have second hand stock; I bought my Canham from Robert White, and Mike Walker sometimes (very rarely!) has second hand cameras for sale.
 
aperture uk usually have a few in stock. Mainly the really expensive ebonies and suchlike. But occasionally have a cheaper wista in there.
 
StephenM said:
Ffords usually have one of the best selections, apart possibly from Mr Cad whose site is so opaque to me that I hardly ever look. I get nowhere with their search engine, and find it takes too long to go through a page at a time.... Clock Tower Cameras are dependent really on locals coming in to sell/exchange their cameras, although they have had a monorail in for quite a while (currently reduced in price). "New" dealers sometimes have second hand stock; I bought my Canham from Robert White, and Mike Walker sometimes (very rarely!) has second hand cameras for sale.
Click to expand...

Wow that is an awkward website to use, and the filters seem to do what they want... Sort by price just arranges them into whatever order it fancies! They do seem to have a lot of stuff on their site though, so I will keep checking it. I've had a look on Robert White and Mike Walker too, but they don't have a lot in at the moment. I will add them to my spreadsheet so that I can keep checking them over the next few weeks :)
 
Sometimes they come up on here. I have bought and sold a couple of LF cameras and lenses on the forum, but they dont apear that often. I started off with a monorail that was great to learn with, and it was cheap (£250 camera+lens+darkslides) It was not realy suitable for taking outside, so I got a folding field camera (MPP) built like a brick outhouse and well worth the cost, they can be had for very little but they are heavy.
I'd certainly go with an MPP if you can get one to learn with.

Then the fun starts, currently I have a Shen hao 5x4 field camera (TZ45IIB) thats used for most things.
A Speed Grafix 5x4 that due to its inbuilt focal plain shutter I can use "other lenses" with it that dont have shutters with them.
A Cambo 650 5x4 that has a 65mm lens so its very wide angle.

Then some esoteric stuff, a half plate field camera for wet plate. A whole plate wet plate camera and a 10 x 12 field camera that I'm rebuilding for some ULF film.

Mart
 
The trouble with getting stuff posted on gumtree is that unless you've seen it you have no idea what you're getting, and no seller feedback to check... Basically you might get nothing at all.
 
Carl Hall said:
Nicholas Camera Company,!
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Might want to google them and possibly remove them from your list.

The best source used to be the sadly missed MXV.

It is best to consider MrCad's site as a guide to the sorts of things they stock and actually go there make sure you speak to Alex for LF kit.

Teamwork digitail usually have some large format gear and the staff actually know about it prices not always the cheapest but sometimes negotiable.

That Gumtree advert is wrongly described it is an F not an F1 and not especially good value I have certainly seen many better deals on ebay.

lots of LF gear gets sold on Largeformat.info but you need to be a member for 30 days to see the classifieds the uk large format format anyone can see the classifieds gear comes up there sometimes.

I'm not a Porta fan I cut down Provia 10x8 if I want colour 5x7.

7 day shop has porta in 5x4 and several other colour films http://www.7dayshop.com/5x4-sheet-film

The usual adage is you can most likely sell what you buy for the same sort of price with LF gear so if you do not like a camera try another.

While the camera "doesn't matter" be aware that lots of the field and technical cameras have limitations with regard to some types of wide angle lens while a Sinar may not be the lightest or most compact it has no such limitations.

There is a vast amount of information and for that matter disinformation available online

These are well worth looking at

http://cdn2.bhphotovideo.com/FrameW...ourceBookProPhoto/Section03aLgFormatField.pdf
http://cdn2.bhphotovideo.com/FrameW...SourceBookProPhoto/Section03bLgFormatView.pdf
http://cdn2.bhphotovideo.com/FrameW...ourceBookProPhoto/Section04LgFormatLenses.pdf
 
I think it would definitely have to be a field camera for me. I really need it to be portable i.e small and light enough to get up big hills and putting aesthetics aside, I would be happy with any lightweight LF camera whatever the material its made from.

Andy
 
abbandon said:
Might want to google them and possibly remove them from your list.

The best source used to be the sadly missed MXV.

It is best to consider MrCad's site as a guide to the sorts of things they stock and actually go there make sure you speak to Alex for LF kit.

Teamwork digitail usually have some large format gear and the staff actually know about it prices not always the cheapest but sometimes negotiable.

That Gumtree advert is wrongly described it is an F not an F1 and not especially good value I have certainly seen many better deals on ebay.

lots of LF gear gets sold on Largeformat.info but you need to be a member for 30 days to see the classifieds the uk large format format anyone can see the classifieds gear comes up there sometimes.

I'm not a Porta fan I cut down Provia 10x8 if I want colour 5x7.

7 day shop has porta in 5x4 and several other colour films http://www.7dayshop.com/5x4-sheet-film

The usual adage is you can most likely sell what you buy for the same sort of price with LF gear so if you do not like a camera try another.

While the camera "doesn't matter" be aware that lots of the field and technical cameras have limitations with regard to some types of wide angle lens while a Sinar may not be the lightest or most compact it has no such limitations.

There is a vast amount of information and for that matter disinformation available online

These are well worth looking at

http://cdn2.bhphotovideo.com/FrameW...ourceBookProPhoto/Section03aLgFormatField.pdf
http://cdn2.bhphotovideo.com/FrameW...SourceBookProPhoto/Section03bLgFormatView.pdf
http://cdn2.bhphotovideo.com/FrameW...ourceBookProPhoto/Section04LgFormatLenses.pdf
Click to expand...

Wow, 1.1 star rating and no one on the Google reviews has anything good to say about the shop. It shall be struck off my list!

Thank you for the links to the pdfs, there's certainly a lot of information to take in!

I'm definitely looking for a field camera I think, and to start with I just want something easy to use and reasonably cheap. After a year or two I might upgrade to one of those beautiful wooden ebony models or something fancy with more bells and whistles. I've noticed that Speed Graphics seem to go for peanuts on ebay, so perhaps I'll look more into those (although I understand they're more limited in their movements?)

Thanks :)
 
Don't be too quick to write off a monorail, my Arca doesn't weigh much more than a Field camera and by the time you add all the paraphernalia you'd not notice. Why I'd like a Ebony or its ilk is set up, taking the camera apart every time gets old.
 
The lightest field camera produced is actually a monorail design

I'm always amused by people commenting that they wouldn't use a monorail as it is more pof a "faff" to set up that a folder.

Remove camera from backpack

12393319684_cf660a705c_z.jpg



Unfold lens standard

12393014773_8f34e8e0b6_z.jpg


Unfold Image standard

12393010293_8d2b12dbe2_z.jpg



Clip bellows into image standard

12393304734_0edcc5fff8_z.jpg



Drop camera into rail clap left on tripod

Takes no longer than setting up a folder, granted its not as compact but it can do so much more.

12393328974_34f63f60fd_z.jpg



There still seems to be this thing about gentlemen pottering around with a wooden field camera and there was Joe Cornish using an ebony, no reason not to if you like that sort of thing and you have the money but for the price I'd be buying a stack of lenses plus a Sinar F1 and still have change and a more flexible camera.
If people like pretty the Norma is considered a classic and folds over the rail in the same fashion.
 
Thats clever, mine needs each standard to be removed from the standard carriers and then the rail goes in the bag, the rest of the camera is wrapped in the dark cloth and put into my bag.
 
I know I run the risk of sounding like a broken record but the reason for recommending Sinar is currently relatively speaking its worth jack there is lots of it about and Sinar kind of wrote the book literally as in they had so many patents that lots of competitors designs are seriously hindered in trying to do what the sinars do simply and elegantly.

The F stood for field in Sinars terms so it was designed to be some what portable , some where online there is a great shot of a rock climber half way up a rock face using a tied in sinar F sadly I can't find the link at the moment.
 
The often stated ease of set up of field cameras also usually only applies if you can leave the lens attached, and while I like to be able to set up quickly I much prefer having bright and well corrected lenses. These are often quite large, and so nothing but my 65 will actually fit on my Chamonix when folded down
 
anything to do with LF you can forget the word "quick". Its all part of the joy. Im down to about 10 minutes setup per shot now which i think is as quick as i can get with it.
 
abbandon said:
The lightest field camera produced is actually a monorail design

I'm always amused by people commenting that they wouldn't use a monorail as it is more pof a "faff" to set up that a folder.

Remove camera from backpack

12393319684_cf660a705c_z.jpg



Unfold lens standard

12393014773_8f34e8e0b6_z.jpg


Unfold Image standard

12393010293_8d2b12dbe2_z.jpg



Clip bellows into image standard

12393304734_0edcc5fff8_z.jpg



Drop camera into rail clap left on tripod

Takes no longer than setting up a folder, granted its not as compact but it can do so much more.

12393328974_34f63f60fd_z.jpg



There still seems to be this thing about gentlemen pottering around with a wooden field camera and there was Joe Cornish using an ebony, no reason not to if you like that sort of thing and you have the money but for the price I'd be buying a stack of lenses plus a Sinar F1 and still have change and a more flexible camera.
If people like pretty the Norma is considered a classic and folds over the rail in the same fashion.
Click to expand...

OK, I admit it, that's very impressive. Sod pretty, functional, light, compact and cheaper is the way to go. Wood! who needs it. :D
 
Think I'm going to bid on that arca Swiss camera, no idea what it's worth though! I'll try and be restrained and not bid too high as the description is a bit lacking lol
 
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