So who does play with press type 2x3 and 4x5 cameras?

[Dave Colangelo]

Ive got a baby graphic that I dont have any neg holders for so it has not gotten used yet. Its in nice shape so its mostly a display piece. Ive got 2 speed's and a crown 4x5 that I have used. they are fun, easy to take into the field and not all to heavy if you need to walk. Every so often the mood hits me to shoot 4x5 and ill go run a few sheets but then the mood leaves and its back to medium format...

 

[johnfreed0]

I got serious about photography in the mid 80's when I bought a Busch Pressman Model D which had a 127mm Ektar. After setting up a darkroom and buying an antiquated enlarger, I got going. I added a Schneider 90mm super angulon and a 10 inch Raptar and shot with this set for over 2 decades. I added a 2 1/4 3 1/4 anniversary crown with a 105mm Xenar, a roll film back and a grip for hand held work.

Both served me well until I retired and was able to devote more time to photography. After that, I traded the graphic in and started an RB67 kit. The Busch was limited in it's lens board size (the super angulon was a squeeze) so I traded 'up' to a super graphic. As I continued on, I found that, while the press cameras were good in their way they did lack the flexibility of a monorail. I finally broke down and invested in a Sinar F1 kit. I call it my Ikea camera since some assembly is required. It covers all my landscape and architectural needs but at the price of having to haul around 40 lbs. of gear and becoming a piece of performance art every time I set up with people around.

The press cameras I owned served me well up to a point. When you get to the point where you are really working with the flexibility afforded by a view camera, you might want to weight the possibility of moving up to a field (technically, the F1 is a field camera according to the Swiss) or a semi portable monorail view.

 

[NGH]

I have a Burke and James on my shelf, haven't had the courage to try it out... One day


... Also got a Busch Pressman but I got that for its looks, doubt I'll ever use it, might sell it

 

[Soocom1]

With the Phase One back i have, I might build an adapter to hook it onto the back of my busch 2x3 and use that.

 

[johnfreed0]

With the Phase One back i have, I might build an adapter to hook it onto the back of my busch 2x3 and use that.

At the risk of telling you something your already know well, lens coverage is a big issue with view cameras. The 2X3 Bush has a minuscule lens board designed to accommodate press lenses. These, generally cover the 2X3 negative with little to spare. If you want to move the lens in relationship to the film and go off the image circle, you vignetting.



The 4X5 Busch that I had was limited in the lenses I could mount due to it's small lens board. While the movements were good, it appears that the designers didn't take into account the real estate needed to mount a view camera lens that could take advantage of those movements.



Before you start hacking up the 2X3 to take the digital back, you might want to see just how much movement you can get out of you lenses on the ground glass.



jr

 

[Soocom1]

With the Phase One back i have, I might build an adapter to hook it onto the back of my busch 2x3 and use that.

At the risk of telling you something your already know well, lens coverage is a big issue with view cameras. The 2X3 Bush has a minuscule lens board designed to accommodate press lenses. These, generally cover the 2X3 negative with little to spare. If you want to move the lens in relationship to the film and go off the image circle, you vignetting.



The 4X5 Busch that I had was limited in the lenses I could mount due to it's small lens board. While the movements were good, it appears that the designers didn't take into account the real estate needed to mount a view camera lens that could take advantage of those movements.



Before you start hacking up the 2X3 to take the digital back, you might want to see just how much movement you can get out of you lenses on the ground glass.



jr

Actually I did.
The original lens is an old Kodak Ektar f4.7 127mm and I have played with the movements on it multiple times. The image circle is about 140% larger than the cover area of 2x3, and the Phase one is a 36x36 square format. That makes it about 48% smaller than the original area.

Add on top of that the back of the camera was butchered by my father in 1960 for his own purposes, the damage already done though not extreme wont drop any values.

 

[johnfreed0]

With the Phase One back i have, I might build an adapter to hook it onto the back of my busch 2x3 and use that.

At the risk of telling you something your already know well, lens coverage is a big issue with view cameras. The 2X3 Bush has a minuscule lens board designed to accommodate press lenses. These, generally cover the 2X3 negative with little to spare. If you want to move the lens in relationship to the film and go off the image circle, you vignetting.



The 4X5 Busch that I had was limited in the lenses I could mount due to it's small lens board. While the movements were good, it appears that the designers didn't take into account the real estate needed to mount a view camera lens that could take advantage of those movements.



Before you start hacking up the 2X3 to take the digital back, you might want to see just how much movement you can get out of you lenses on the ground glass.



jr

Actually I did.
The original lens is an old Kodak Ektar f4.7 127mm and I have played with the movements on it multiple times. The image circle is about 140% larger than the cover area of 2x3, and the Phase one is a 36x36 square format. That makes it about 48% smaller than the original area.

Add on top of that the back of the camera was butchered by my father in 1960 for his own purposes, the damage already done though not extreme wont drop any values.

Ok! Looks like you're go for hacking. Let us know how it comes out. If I hit the lottery, I'd consider a digital back for the F1, but it had better be a big lottery since I might want a larger format.

 

[Soocom1]

Ok! Looks like you're go for hacking. Let us know how it comes out. If I hit the lottery, I'd consider a digital back for the F1, but it had better be a big lottery since I might want a larger format.

The one thing I hate is having something sitting around thats usable but not being used.

 

[Derrel]

Years ago when I bought my first 4X5 View Camera, it came with a 150 mm Fujinon f / 5.6 and a 101 mm Kodak wide field Ektar, which covered fairly extreme movements on 4x5... I believe if you do some serious research you can find a lens that is small and yet which will cover a lot of movement, as did the wide-field Ektar. The statistic that you wish to find is not the angle of view, but the coverage angle. If a lens will cover "the next size up",then you are in business.

The 101 mm focal length of this Ektar lens from Kodak would make it a pretty useful lens on 6 by 9 centimeter AKA 2 × 3 inch. It is a very small lens and would fit well on most cameras like the Busch Pressman or the baby Graphics

 

[Grandpa Ron]

Back in the 1970's I inherited the remains to an old 4x5 view camera. It collected dust for another 20 years in my basement as a "someday" project. When I retired that someday had arrived. The quest was on.

The camera was remarkably simple. It had box that held a cut film holder with a frosted glass screen, a front that folded down with a metal bellows track and ratchet adjustment and bellows in remarkably good shape. I took a 125 mm Wollensak lens off of an old Polaroid and I was good to go.

After a rather long and tedious internet review of antiqued cameras and camera catalogs. I discovered it was a 1910 -15 Seneca camera.

Its main use today is to take pinhole camera images. With removable lens plates I can mount lenses or pinholes.

 

[Grandpa Ron]

As a follow up to my previous post about resurrecting an old view camera.

After reading about Mr. Finder Petrie and his use of a pinhole camera in the 1880's to document Egyptian tomb excavations, I made a lens board for a .013" (.330mm) pinhole aperture. By varying the bellows length I can change the f stop.

These were shot at an f 360
Partly sunny very windy day
Arista EDU 200 film

Here is a photo of the Chief Menomonee monument I may have posted before.

 

[Soocom1]

I am about to embark on a venture where I am going to create a mount for my old busch Pressman 2x3 with the Fuji X.

I want to see the end results.

 

[petrochemist]

I'm playing with my 5x4 monorail this week, but not yet got to the point of using film with it.
Over the weekend I completed a pair of lens boards - one of which I can mount SLR lens on (reversed inside or normally outside the bellows) to use the camera as a optical bench & another for an unshuttered 200mm/3.5, to add to my previous copal #0 boards for a bit of variety.
Tomorrow I'm taking it round to a friend's studio to explain/explore movements, possibly doing some digital through the viewfinder shots as well.

 

[ac12]

I have a 4x5 monorail, and now I want something easier to use in the field, either a field camera or press camera.
Although as I get older, I probably won't be doing much hiking with LF camera, instead it will be used close to the car.

The challenge today is developing the sheet film.
My local photo shops have closed down, so now I have to mail the color film to a processor.
B&W you can do yourself, though more difficult than 35mm, simply because of the film format.

 

[Derrel]

1938 "baby" Speed Graphic 6x9 cm, with coupled Kalart rangefinder.