Hi all,
I bought this Deardorff 5x7 (front +rear swings) from a forum member a couple of months ago. It's in excellent condition with a couple of little hickups, none of which prevent it from taking perfect pictures. It's just not for me.
I'm looking to either sell it ($1200 [firm] + $45 s+h US) or trade it for a Chamonix 045N-2 + cash, or possibly some goodies along with the camera (6x12 or 6x17 back, roll film backs, lens boards, extension rack, 90mm lens, tripod, wider than 90mm lens, etc...).
It's a beautiful camera, but lately I'm thinking that 4x5 is fine for me, I still have my original 5x7 camera, and was really happy with the results. So I'm thinking 4x5 for anything technical and then my archaic 5x7 for the stuff I was using it for originally (street portraits).
I often find that when I buy stuff online, people conveniently forget to tell me stuff. This is about the most honest I can be about this camera.
First I'll tell you that it's in excellent shape. Everything moves and locks down the way it should. I believe the previous seller refinished it to some degree, but he did a beautiful job.
You will recieve:
1) The camera body
2) 5x7 back (recently calibrated by Richard Ritter)
3) 4x5 graflok back (this is a home made back with a speed graphic back screwed onto it, pretty nice job)
4) ground glass protector
5) 3 Copal lensboards (I think these are Copal 0's, but I'm not sure)
6) old bellows for patterns, if you want them. Also another set of bellows frames.
So. It's a great camera, in excellent shape. Here's the bad parts:
1) The 5x7 back is not original to the camera, at least that's what I'm told. It fits pretty well. The locating pins are a little long, and so it's a bit hard to snap into place when you are switching from portrait to landscape. If I had a bench with a vice, and a file, I could fix this in about 45 seconds. But I live in the city and I'm losing masculinity daily. Also, there is a tiny, 1mm gap on one corner where the back and body meet. I think this might be related to the tension of the locating pins not meeting up perfectly. So...this might need a tiny bit of attention. But really, not too much. I sent the back off to Richard Ritter and he calibrated the ground glass. So that's cool.
2) The 4x5 back is super solid. The only issue, and it's not really an issue, is that the graflok back is mounted tightly to the back, and you can't slip a Polaroid holder into it because it hits the wooden part of the back. Easy solution would be to route a gap around the right side of the back to give a polaroid holder some clearance. Only an issue if you plan on shooting polaroids (duh). Otherwise this back is pretty solid. Has a fresnel. I think the glass needs to be cleaned (smudges). Otherwise, issue free. It fits the camera really well. (one of the pictures attached I found online, it's a mahogany back that shows the routing performed. THIS IS NOT THE BACK THAT COMES WITH THE CAMERA!!!)
3)The bellows, for the record, are totally functional, and brand new. Someone, who will remain nameless, made them for me. This is actually the 2nd set he made for me, both were cosmetically flawed. The corners on this one are really "rumply". They are not folded nicely. They don't look great. However, they should be flexible and light-tight. I was not at all happy with them, but they are totally functional. The bellows in the pictures except for the last one are the ones that I replaced. I was planning on getting another set made by ecbellowsonline or one of the other options, but I'll leave that to you. The extra set of frames that I'm including will allow you to send these off to wherever and have a new set made while you use the camera with the bellows that exist. The one thing I can't really attest to is the light-tightness of the bellows. I installed them on the frames myself and never really accessed them with a flashlight. So, there might be a touch of tweaking needed with them. I really don't anticipate a problem but that one I'll leave to you.
Other than that, the camera is pretty awesome. I have a couple of lensboards I will add.
This is the best I can describe the camera, and as honest as I can be. The camera will be sent to you as-is, I can only promise that it will arrive to you securely, as-described. I have tons of feedback on ebay as fiddle_paul and have also bought+sold quite a bit on here.
I'm hoping to sell to a forum member with good ebay/paypal feedback as well as some sales on the forum here. I'd like to do Dwolla rather than paypal ($.25 for the transaction) but I will accept paypal as a gift.
Any questions?
I bought this Deardorff 5x7 (front +rear swings) from a forum member a couple of months ago. It's in excellent condition with a couple of little hickups, none of which prevent it from taking perfect pictures. It's just not for me.
I'm looking to either sell it ($1200 [firm] + $45 s+h US) or trade it for a Chamonix 045N-2 + cash, or possibly some goodies along with the camera (6x12 or 6x17 back, roll film backs, lens boards, extension rack, 90mm lens, tripod, wider than 90mm lens, etc...).
It's a beautiful camera, but lately I'm thinking that 4x5 is fine for me, I still have my original 5x7 camera, and was really happy with the results. So I'm thinking 4x5 for anything technical and then my archaic 5x7 for the stuff I was using it for originally (street portraits).
I often find that when I buy stuff online, people conveniently forget to tell me stuff. This is about the most honest I can be about this camera.
First I'll tell you that it's in excellent shape. Everything moves and locks down the way it should. I believe the previous seller refinished it to some degree, but he did a beautiful job.
You will recieve:
1) The camera body
2) 5x7 back (recently calibrated by Richard Ritter)
3) 4x5 graflok back (this is a home made back with a speed graphic back screwed onto it, pretty nice job)
4) ground glass protector
5) 3 Copal lensboards (I think these are Copal 0's, but I'm not sure)
6) old bellows for patterns, if you want them. Also another set of bellows frames.
So. It's a great camera, in excellent shape. Here's the bad parts:
1) The 5x7 back is not original to the camera, at least that's what I'm told. It fits pretty well. The locating pins are a little long, and so it's a bit hard to snap into place when you are switching from portrait to landscape. If I had a bench with a vice, and a file, I could fix this in about 45 seconds. But I live in the city and I'm losing masculinity daily. Also, there is a tiny, 1mm gap on one corner where the back and body meet. I think this might be related to the tension of the locating pins not meeting up perfectly. So...this might need a tiny bit of attention. But really, not too much. I sent the back off to Richard Ritter and he calibrated the ground glass. So that's cool.
2) The 4x5 back is super solid. The only issue, and it's not really an issue, is that the graflok back is mounted tightly to the back, and you can't slip a Polaroid holder into it because it hits the wooden part of the back. Easy solution would be to route a gap around the right side of the back to give a polaroid holder some clearance. Only an issue if you plan on shooting polaroids (duh). Otherwise this back is pretty solid. Has a fresnel. I think the glass needs to be cleaned (smudges). Otherwise, issue free. It fits the camera really well. (one of the pictures attached I found online, it's a mahogany back that shows the routing performed. THIS IS NOT THE BACK THAT COMES WITH THE CAMERA!!!)
3)The bellows, for the record, are totally functional, and brand new. Someone, who will remain nameless, made them for me. This is actually the 2nd set he made for me, both were cosmetically flawed. The corners on this one are really "rumply". They are not folded nicely. They don't look great. However, they should be flexible and light-tight. I was not at all happy with them, but they are totally functional. The bellows in the pictures except for the last one are the ones that I replaced. I was planning on getting another set made by ecbellowsonline or one of the other options, but I'll leave that to you. The extra set of frames that I'm including will allow you to send these off to wherever and have a new set made while you use the camera with the bellows that exist. The one thing I can't really attest to is the light-tightness of the bellows. I installed them on the frames myself and never really accessed them with a flashlight. So, there might be a touch of tweaking needed with them. I really don't anticipate a problem but that one I'll leave to you.
Other than that, the camera is pretty awesome. I have a couple of lensboards I will add.
This is the best I can describe the camera, and as honest as I can be. The camera will be sent to you as-is, I can only promise that it will arrive to you securely, as-described. I have tons of feedback on ebay as fiddle_paul and have also bought+sold quite a bit on here.
I'm hoping to sell to a forum member with good ebay/paypal feedback as well as some sales on the forum here. I'd like to do Dwolla rather than paypal ($.25 for the transaction) but I will accept paypal as a gift.
Any questions?
