Afraid of my camera...

[student]

Hi. I know this sounds incredibly stupid, but I am afraid to use my camera. Just got a 5x7 Tachihara...it is so...shiny that I am afraid of damaging it. Looks more like mantle piece than a tool. Help me. Please...

But seriuously, anybody use one of these? It SEEMS heavy and sturdy enough for professional use. Is it? I am used to using cast iron, giant LF camera that is more likely to hurt me than I it.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

I have a friend who said the first thing you should do with a new guitar is put it on the ground face up, remove your keys from your pocket and from a standing position, drop your keys squarely on the face of the guitar, and then you can rock out without worrying about putting the first scratch on the thing. Now go out and make some pictures.

 

[Robert Hall]

That is a problem with the Tachi cameras. They sure are pretty! I tell a friend of mine she has to work hard to make better images than the camera looks.

Go shoot!

 

[jss]

first scratch.

Hi. I know this sounds incredibly stupid, but I am afraid to use my camera. Just got a 5x7 Tachihara...it is so...shiny that I am afraid of damaging it. Looks more like mantle piece than a tool. Help me. Please...

last year i splurged on a new car. i love driving ahem... fast.. up in the hills so i got myself a little racecar - a subaru impreza sti. i love its look and how clean new cars always are.

on the second day of owning this car, some a$$ scraped the hell out of the bumper in a busy parking lot. it made my job easier. i wasn't around to see it.. and got over it. it just happens. after the first one, the second is much easier

you should be PROUD for scratches and scrapes.. as long as you're just not clumsy, it shows you are getting good use out of your camera!

 

[jovo]

Hi. I know this sounds incredibly stupid, but I am afraid to use my camera. Just got a 5x7 Tachihara...it is so...shiny that I am afraid of damaging it. Looks more like mantle piece than a tool. Help me. Please...

Well....I'll tell you what......Lend it to me for a few years, and I'll break it in for you. I'll let you know when I think it's ready for everyday use. Yeah....that's the ticket! By all means let me help you!!

 

[Pinholemaster]

I own a 4x5 Tach. It's still pretty after many years. Now it has personality that is unique to my camera only. No other Tach looks like mine. Treat your camera well, and it will age gracefully. With age you'll remember all the moments that added to your cameras "features."

Cameras are meant to be used to make art. They are not art themselves.

 

[MikeK]

Hi. I know this sounds incredibly stupid, but I am afraid to use my camera. Just got a 5x7 Tachihara...it is so...shiny that I am afraid of damaging it. Looks more like mantle piece than a tool. Help me. Please...

But seriuously, anybody use one of these? It SEEMS heavy and sturdy enough for professional use. Is it? I am used to using cast iron, giant LF camera that is more likely to hurt me than I it.

I have both the 5x7 and 8x10 Tachi's and they are really good looking cameras. The are vey robust cameras - but I do baby mine. They get double wrapped in the carrying case and I triple check to make sure that are mounted on the tripod correctly (after my Wista took a nose dive).

Take a deep breath, get out there and start taking pictures - your camera will do just fine - talking to her while you set up helps as well

Mike

 

[uraniumnitrate]

Put it into a glazed cabinet and lock it than throw away the keys! Than you don’t had to be afraid!
Gosh, you would cry if you would see my 8x10! It looks like as the First and the Second World War alltogether!

 

[Steve Smith]

I have a friend who said the first thing you should do with a new guitar is put it on the ground face up, remove your keys from your pocket and from a standing position, drop your keys squarely on the face of the guitar, and then you can rock out without worrying about putting the first scratch on the thing. Now go out and make some pictures.

I am about to by a new Gretsch guitar but I don't think I will do as your friend suggests!

However, guitars and cameras are made to be used. Any scratches, etc. which they acquire over time just add character.

Steve.

 

[raucousimages]

I had wanted to get into LF for about 20 years but somthing always came up that tool my LF camera budget. Did you know that children want to be fed EVERY day? When I sold part of my company I set aside a budget for a camera and bought my dream setup. Camera, 6 lenses, tripod, case, backpack, holders, enlarger, meter, all the bits and pieces. Everything.

When I got the whole mess home I was so intimidated by it it took me 5 months to shoot ten holders, all in the studio. I had shot and developed tons of LF for employers so it was'nt LF that intimidated me it was a combination of the newness of the gear and the thought of after spending all that money what if I can't produce good images in LF. I wondered if I shuld have purchased more MF gear instead.

I finaly loaded 10 holders and went to the Great Salt Lake and decided not to come home until I had shot 20 images and used each lens.

I had some brassing on the camera, thumb prints on some of the lenses, sand in the tripod feet and a couple of the images were good. That got me over the newness.

Load up some holders and take it somewhere you like to shoot and don't come home until you are finished.

 

[Flotsam]

Wear will just add character.
Think of Willie Nelson's old Guitar, "Trigger" or a well worn Black body Nikon F. Or my car, The rust and dents just add more and more character.

 

[Vaughn]

Pretty cameras, but...

They are not the sturdiest ones around (judging from the 4x5 models only). We have one we check out for student use at the university -- a good test for any camera! Non-owners/students tend to force things when they can't figure out how to use it properly.

I have had to replace some of the hardware (specifically the toggle-type knobs that lock down the front standard -- they can break off) and there is a good crack in the wood of the back standard -- but it has not affected its usability. Our Horseman Wood Field cameras have held up to student abuse much better (so far, anyway).

Single ownership is a whole different story and your camera will last as long as you want it to...without having to handle it with kid gloves...just with a little common sense. Spin it on the tripod head once and put some marks on the bottom of it and its yours!

I got a used Zone VI 8x10 in perfect condition -- far from "perfect" now! I did not buy it with the idea of reselling it later. It does have a design flaw or two, but it is a fine machine never-the-less.

Have fun with the 5x7 -- a nice format!

Vaughn

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Check out Winogrand's Leica M4, if you haven't seen it yet--

http://www.cameraquest.com/LeicaM4G.htm

 

[Steve Smith]

Did you know that children want to be fed EVERY day?

Yes. Sometimes more than once in the same day!


Steve.

 

[Sportera]

I have a Tach 4x5 and its my camera of choice. I understand how you feel, mine was so pretty when I first bought it but now the brass has lost some of its luster, there are a few scrathes on it and some wear too. These marks are nothing to be ashamed of, it just means you actually USE your equipment!

Don't be fooled by the beauty of this camera, Ive had mine in all types of conditions, rain, heat, cold etc. Its a remarkably durable camera for its weight.

 

[eddie gunks]

i got a bargain 8x10 kodak 2d. it looks old and used so i do not have your problem.....my problem is i should clean it real good and polish the metal parts........i am just too lazy. i would rather be shooting it than cleaning it!

eddie

 

[Roger Hicks]

Hi. I know this sounds incredibly stupid, but I am afraid to use my camera. Just got a 5x7 Tachihara...it is so...shiny that I am afraid of damaging it. Looks more like mantle piece than a tool. Help me. Please...

But seriuously, anybody use one of these? It SEEMS heavy and sturdy enough for professional use. Is it? I am used to using cast iron, giant LF camera that is more likely to hurt me than I it.

Many years ago, I bought a mint Leica IIIg: case, box, instruction book, like new for a (then) 30-year-old camera. I was frightened to use it and halve its value.

So I sold it on to a collector, and used two old Nikon Fs instead. Which I never regretted.

Since then I've had many new cameras. You should see the state of my Leica MP. Or my Alpa 12. LF is perhaps hardest of all, especially REALLY fancy stuff like Gandolfi. All you can do is ask yourself: why did I buy this? Can I get the same results any other way? OK; no; better risk it then...

And as Leica said to me, "You'll look back at that camera, and remember where it acquired each scratch and scuff. And that will make it YOUR camera, more than any other."

They were right. Peter Burian saw it and said, "That is an ABUSED camera." I replied, "No, it isn't. It's a camera I take pictures with. This scratch was an off-road jack in Hungary. These dents were a party in Transylvania. This scuff, I don't remember."

Congratulations, by the way, on choosing the best large format in the world.

Cheers,

R. (www.rogerandfrances.com -- where you'll find a modest amount of free stuff relevant to LF in The Photo School).

 

[Kirk Gittings]

As pretty as it is, it is just a tool. Tools to me are their most beautiful when they show some loving wear by a skilled craftsman.

 

[mark]

Go out and shoot some film. have fun. You spent the money on a camera, not a work of art.

P.S. none of my cameras would win a beauty contest and I like it that way. They look their age.

 

[MurrayMinchin]

You'll get over it

I had never seen a large format camera 'in the flesh' before my mail-ordered 4x5 arrived. I had to read the instructions just to unfold it, and then YIKES-EEEE-MOMMA (our 5 year old daughter's expression) there's the first time I loaded film holders in a changing bag. I was way heinously confused!

Before you know it you'll be thinking so much about the beautiful image in your head that you'll forget about the beautiful tool you're using to make it. Then, decades later as happened to me recently, you'll see a new camera that's the same model as yours and you'll be shocked at how untarnished, unbattered, ungrizzled and pristine it looks...and you'd never ever trade for the new one!

Murray

 

[jimgalli]

Gosh, you would cry if you would see my 8x10! It looks like as the First and the Second World War alltogether!

I'm shocked and appalled. That 8X10 was in perfect mint shape when I sold it to you!

 

[JBrunner]

Eventually scratching your camera will pale in comparison to scratching a great neg.

 

[c6h6o3]

Hi. I know this sounds incredibly stupid, but I am afraid to use my camera. Just got a 5x7 Tachihara...it is so...shiny that I am afraid of damaging it. Looks more like mantle piece than a tool. Help me. Please...

But seriuously, anybody use one of these? It SEEMS heavy and sturdy enough for professional use. Is it? I am used to using cast iron, giant LF camera that is more likely to hurt me than I it.

I've used an 8x10 and a 4x5 Tachihara for 15 and 11 years, respectively. I've never babied them. They'll take a lot of abuse, and I still get compliments by passers by when I'm out using them. That Hokkaido cherry wood is really beautiful.

They're not the best or most feature rich large format cameras made, but at less than half the price of a Canham and less than one third the cost of an Ebony, are you really worried that much about dinging it a little? If you are you shouldn't be.