Want to Buy Calumet 8x10 Camera Magnesium (13-14 pounds)

[Solicitor]

If you have one of these in decent shape, I'd like to buy it. Contact me through here please.

 

[Kino]

Never mind!

 

[Solicitor]

Never mind!

I have a 1970 Calumet catalog listing the weight as 14 pounds. There is also this at

https://www.largeformatphotography.info/calumet/calumetc8x10.html, viz -

The camera was originally made with magnesium castings — giving it a weight of 14 lb. When a City of Chicago Fire Marshal inspected the facility where the camera was made, he was horrified to see piles of very flammable magnesium shavings lying about. This necessitated a change to aluminum and a resultant increase in weight, from a manageable (albeit hefty) 14 lb to the truly challenging for a "field" camera 18 lb.

So, if you have one of these magnesium cameras in decent shape, I'd like to buy it.

 

[Kino]

No I have the older 18 lb. camera now; bought it not very long ago. Once, very long ago, I had a Green Monster made of Magnesium, but it was part of a trade for other equipment and it was sold quickly.

Good luck!

 

[BradS]

Hmmm, The Green Monster ... seems not long ago these and the Black Monster sibling, were relatively plentiful... or at least reasonably available but, of course, it was perhaps more than a decade ago now. Sigh.

What happened to these things? Where are they now? They cannot have just vanished.

 

[Kino]

They simply get tossed.

I once found a 4x5 Cambo with a Rodenstock lens in a Goodwill retail outlet, thrown into a bin and covered in dust. It had obviously been thrown around and picked over by many people who had no idea of it's value.

Thankfully, it was rugged enough to emerge basically unscathed after a careful cleaning.

Face it, we are a small percentage of photographers who know and value this equipment. To others, it is simply "some old junk" from grandpa's house...

 

[Solicitor]

I'm getting lots of fun information here - I enjoy it. But nobody ain't gettin' me no camera no more yet.

I've got 2 of the 18 pounders - I'm selling one of them. I just can't use them in the field - that extra 4-5 pounds is more than you think. I'm almost 70 . . . no spring chicken like you guys. Using a Shen Hao - fine camera. But I just like the non-folding flatbed design. And it reminds me of The Old Days . . .

Get back to your free weights, guys.

Cheers.

Anthony


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