Advice needed on medium format Horseman

I decided recently to return to an interest I had several decades ago... view cameras. I still have a couple of Kodak Specialist cameras, but have found that age and infirmity has made them feel twice as heavy as they were when I was a in my prime. Because they are noticeably lighter, I bought a Horseman 970 with a roll film back but no focussing back. A kind friend gave me a back for my birthday without asking me first for a little information: it is, I think, for a later Horseman. So no use!

Unfortunately, I can find no useful information on the anatomy of the 970 or its similarity to and differences from other Horseman cameras. So far, the only pictures I have found are badly copied from manuals which were probably not well printed in the first place. All I have at present behind the film plane is a pressed metal back with a dark slide and the early type roll film back which fits it. I still have Grafmatic cut film magazines and an Adapt-a Roll that I used many years ago on a Press Camera. Without a focussing back, they are no use and It is really to explore the use of the camera's movements that I bought the 970. I need to know what I am looking for: will a 960 or 980 back be the same? Am I likely to find what I want?

Oscar Egg

You might email B.S. Kumar, he might be able to help you or at least point you in the right direction.

For 980 and 985, see https://www.butkus.org/chinon/index.html

When you say its missing a "focusing back" I assume you mean it has no ground glass for focusing, so you're looking for something like this:


What might also work for you is a ground glass that can mount, not with the spring loaded arms that allow use of double sheet film holder, but a piece of glass that can mount using the international/graflok mount that I assume you still have. I needed glass like that for nother camera, and I salvaged that graflok glass from a Horseman rotary back:

The plastic framed ground glass sometimes comes with an angle viewer(which can come in handy though bulky)

Thanks for the advice so far. The one thing which is apparent, I am happy to say, is that the Horseman is reasonably light which was the main reason for going medium format.

Oscar Egg