This is a tale of how I sort of got into large format photography within the last few months, and, yet, I still have not taken any 4X5" photographs with this setup. Yes, this thread is in the correct section. You see, back in April I chanced on an eBay ad for an Omega View 45E camera that was complete minus the lens and film holders. I've been a hobbyist photographer since the 1980s, using 35mm SLRs, and have always dreamt about moving up to the larger formats so, with a price that seemed too good to be true, I jumped in with both feet. Okay, money has been tight lately due to my son getting ready to go to college and my daughter's volleyball obsession so I have had to pick and choose what I could buy and when. Here I am two months later and I'm no closer to making images on 4X5 film than I was back in April, but, due to an unbelievably low price for a Calumet C2 roll film 6X7 back and a bad Franka Rolfix camera purchase on eBay, I'm finding myself in a position where I can make photographs with this Omega 4X5 camera on 120 film at 6X7 cm. Hence the Massive Overkill 6X7 camera project.
The Rolfix was in terrible overall condition but the lens was in reasonably good shape, having just a bit of dust (and a latent fingerprint etched into it that is only visible under magnification). It's a Schneider Kreuznach Radionar 105mm f/4.5 on a Prontor II shutter. When I received it the shutter was not firing and the mechanism seemingly locked up. Since I had nothing to lose, I opened it up and tinkered with it until it started working as designed, almost. Testing the shutter speeds it seemed like they all worked fine except that 1/10 and 1/5 sec were faster than 1/20 sec and slow shutter speeds were slower than marked. I confirmed this by testing it using my DSLR. Using my D610 and a 105mm f/2.5 Nikkor I determined that my front door area was at about 1/200 sec at f/5.6. I set the lens to those same settings, pressed the lens against two extension tubes mounted to the D610, pointed this contraption at the same scene, opened the shutter on B and fired the Radionar before releasing the shutter on the Nikon. Comparing the image from one shot with the Nikkor showed me that the exposure was spot on, a real surprise. Moving on to the next shutter speed and aperture I got the same results until I reached 1/10 sec at which point the shutter seemed to fire at 1/200 sec. 1/5 sec seemed to give me 1/100 sec and 1/2 sec gave me a slightly overexposed image at f/32 so it would seem that the long exposures are slow. The good thing is that I have 1/20, 1/50, 1/100, and 1/200 sec that I can use. The Radionar mounted right up to the recessed lens board that came with the 45E and I could get infinity focus with about 4" of bellows extension so I have some room for movements as well. Using the Calumet C2 roll film back gives me a massively oversized camera for a relatively small negative film size. Focusing is accomplished by wrapping one of my daughter's hair ties around the lens behind the operation levers and slipping it over the shutter release lever with the camera set to B. There's no fitting for a cable release on this shutter, unfortunately. Tripping the shutter to take the photos is done by hand.
I have a roll of TMax 400 loaded in the C2 and have taken six photos around the house so far. I need to take four more photos and have planned to process this roll on Tuesday when I'll be close to the camera store where I bought the film in the first place. This should be a fun adventure until I can afford to get a proper lens and some sheet film. I'll see if they can scan the negatives when they process it and I'll post pics if they do.
The Rolfix was in terrible overall condition but the lens was in reasonably good shape, having just a bit of dust (and a latent fingerprint etched into it that is only visible under magnification). It's a Schneider Kreuznach Radionar 105mm f/4.5 on a Prontor II shutter. When I received it the shutter was not firing and the mechanism seemingly locked up. Since I had nothing to lose, I opened it up and tinkered with it until it started working as designed, almost. Testing the shutter speeds it seemed like they all worked fine except that 1/10 and 1/5 sec were faster than 1/20 sec and slow shutter speeds were slower than marked. I confirmed this by testing it using my DSLR. Using my D610 and a 105mm f/2.5 Nikkor I determined that my front door area was at about 1/200 sec at f/5.6. I set the lens to those same settings, pressed the lens against two extension tubes mounted to the D610, pointed this contraption at the same scene, opened the shutter on B and fired the Radionar before releasing the shutter on the Nikon. Comparing the image from one shot with the Nikkor showed me that the exposure was spot on, a real surprise. Moving on to the next shutter speed and aperture I got the same results until I reached 1/10 sec at which point the shutter seemed to fire at 1/200 sec. 1/5 sec seemed to give me 1/100 sec and 1/2 sec gave me a slightly overexposed image at f/32 so it would seem that the long exposures are slow. The good thing is that I have 1/20, 1/50, 1/100, and 1/200 sec that I can use. The Radionar mounted right up to the recessed lens board that came with the 45E and I could get infinity focus with about 4" of bellows extension so I have some room for movements as well. Using the Calumet C2 roll film back gives me a massively oversized camera for a relatively small negative film size. Focusing is accomplished by wrapping one of my daughter's hair ties around the lens behind the operation levers and slipping it over the shutter release lever with the camera set to B. There's no fitting for a cable release on this shutter, unfortunately. Tripping the shutter to take the photos is done by hand.
I have a roll of TMax 400 loaded in the C2 and have taken six photos around the house so far. I need to take four more photos and have planned to process this roll on Tuesday when I'll be close to the camera store where I bought the film in the first place. This should be a fun adventure until I can afford to get a proper lens and some sheet film. I'll see if they can scan the negatives when they process it and I'll post pics if they do.