LF Rules!

For some reason, not sure why, things always take me about a year longer to get done than what I planned...
Anyway, I built a Toyo 4x5 system from the bay and finally had a chance to try it:
Toyo 45 View C
Schneider 150mm Xenar f5.6
Sinar 210mm Sinaron f5.6
"Blackjacket" focusing cloth - really love this thing!
Wista 6x7 roll film back
Kodak EPP 100 slide film - expired from the bay, but still good.
Elite film holders loaded in my DR.
Jobo 3010 tank on Jobo CPP2 processor.
So I drive down to the South Platte river about 30 miles from Denver, hiked in about a mile, found a large boulder overlooking a nice bend in the river and set up.
I broke all the "rules."
No light meter, just did "sunny F16."
No focusing loupe, took off the specs and tweated from the GG.
Had no idea how to focus the monster for near to far...just guessed on the hyperfocal distances.
Shot six slides, did some E6, put them in the Beseler MXT, and WOW!!!
20x24's tack sharp as the 11x's from my medium!
After reading about all the things that can go wrong during the LF work flow, I'm as happy as a pig in S*** my first attempt turned out good enough to keep me going.
So for now on, it's "Long live Ciba" and "Real men shoot LF."
Sorry...
See ya in the dark.

Time spent in experimentation and play can be more fruitful than burying your nose in a text book!

Murray (25 years 4x5 - never had a loupe)

You'll never go back...

...once you've shot large format!

Really. I went from MF to LF about 10 years ago, 4x5s and 8x10s. The only way I'll switch is to go bigger. I have a shop here in town that'll take my LF E6s and outputs them on a LightJet. I've done 30x40s that just freak me. Gorgeous color, exquisite detail, images that are larger than life. They'll go bigger but I don't have the bucks for that.

So just go out and play, play and play with your new system.

Enjoy!

I know exactly what you mean: I had a similar experience when I began doing LF a few months ago---I started off just sort of winging it, and my first batch of negatives came out perfect. I didn't even have my Combi-Plan yet; I just sewed tubes out of nylon screen, squeezed my negatives into them, jammed them into the cannister I use for 35mm, guessed the times and agitation, accidentally did everything at 72 degrees F. instead of 68, and had no problems at all. But I knew that in my case this had to be dumb luck, so I figured "if at first you succeed, try to screw it up next time or you'll never learn anything." Since then I've done a lot of screwing up, and I'm finally getting to the point where I know some of the parameters and can get consistent results (for example, no matter how much I brush and blow out my film carriers, I'm very consistent at getting that one pinprick scratch somewhere in the sky on just about every sheet).

What I'm worried about now is related to bvstaples's comment that "you'll never go back." I've suffered enough format drift (from 35mm through 6x9 to 4x5) to know that I could be in serious danger of going larger. I believe 4x5 is the largest practical format for handheld shooting (if this isn't true, DON'T TELL ME), so my refusal to use a tripod is the only thing keeping me from falling into the ultra-large-format vortex. I can easily see myself moving to 8x10, 16x20...before long I'd be driving around in a truck with a giant view camera mounted on the bed. I know 8-ft. x 10-ft. glass plates make perfect sense to a lot of APUGers, and I deeply admire all of you for it, but I have a family I'm supposed to feed and spend time with, and anyway it's really hard to park a truck in midtown Manhattan.

Tell me it aint so!
Another one lost to the madness. The sickness is growing.
Oh the humanity.

Congrats on the Toyo but be careful, I think the breed.
Started with a 45AII then added a 45D then one day my studio was over run with 16 LF cameras. 14 of them were Toyo. 8 were refurbished and sent to good homes.

I love your story, Dave! I also have gone through format drift. The two I shoot the most of lately are 5x12 and 6.5 x 8.5.

Congrats Dave. You realize that the LF Werewolf has bitten and infected you for life. Seldom, if ever, does anyone break the curse.

And BTW, there's lots of ladies who use LF too!

This thread timing is perfect. Just couldn't wait any longer and tried developing my first B&W 4x5's shot yesterday. TMax-100 in D76 1:1. I was using a combi tank for the first time, loads more chem than my 35mm tank, and started to panic. "Boy this sucker takes a long time to drain!" "How precise does the dev. time need to be?"

Guess what, two real images. They are drying right now, but I'm pretty stoked just to see decent images.

CURSED! CURSED!!!!!

bobwysiwyg said:

TMax-100 in D76 1:1. I was using a combi tank for the first time, loads more chem than my 35mm tank, and started to panic. "Boy this sucker takes a long time to drain!" "How precise does the dev. time need to be?"

Click to expand...

I develop Tri-X in Edwal FG-7 at 1:15. I do 12 minutes plus filling and draining time, (I think it would be about the same for TMax 100), so 30 seconds each to fill and drain doesn't come to a big enough percentage to allow me to ruin anything (and at 1:15 a bottle of developer lasts forever). Someone on some thread recommended turning the tank upside-down and draining it out the top, so the bottoms and tops of the negatives get equal time as the chemistry fills and drains--more or less and extra half a minute for the whole negative rather than an extra minute for the bottom and no extra for the top. As long as the bottom valve is turned enough to let air in, this works fine, and I can kind of tweak the bottom valve to maximize flow. FG-7 gives attractive negatives and it's really forgiving--even I can't produce streaky skies, spots, or other kinds of unevenness.

Alex Hawley said:

CURSED! CURSED!!!!!

Click to expand...

Your point being? <grin> I like being cursed.