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Molesting the Satin Snow...

kb244

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Dec 26, 2005
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Location
Grand Rapids
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LoL, no not like that.

I finally have it in my hands, bout the time I imagined it would come (hell it came before 2007 lol). A 4x5 satin snow ground glass custom made for the crown graphic.

Can't say I am too happy with the US Post office tho. What postal carrier gets in their right mind to put a box that would be a full inch (half an inch on either side) too wide into a metal mobile home community mailbox, with the words marked Fragile on all sides. I mean it took me a good half hour parking my car off to the side so I could stand there and slowly crush in the sides of the box just to get the box out on my side of the mailbox. Don't see why they couldn't just stick it into the big mail box and put a key in the little one like they always do with any other package... oh well least the ground glass arrived safely.

And like the bastard I am I have to immediately install it, and immediately brag about it. And even though I have not gone out and shoot just yet, I decided to set it up on a dresser in the bay window room, and set my digital camera up on a tripod with my 1:1 macro lens behind it and try to get some shots off the ground glass itself resulting in the two samples (if you view the image as it would be 1:2 life size to 35mm, it'll seem a lot clearer lol), click to enlarge to the full 6.3Mpixel size.




I must say tho, when viewing even indoors it's remarkably bright even with my f/4.7 optar. I'm just debating putting the Fresnel on the back of it, or leave it as is, need to try it out some more but I'd say for outdoor Fresnel wouldn't be needed at all, probably just indoor lighting condition. Anyways I'll update when I get chance to play more with it, perhaps tomorrow.
 
We have the same postal delivery person, Karl. Mine does stuff like that all the time. I can't complain too much, though, he's a nice guy.
 
Oh Karl, I just read your last paragraph again. Isn't your Crown GG set up like my Supergraphic GG: Ektalite (fresnel) on the lens side, GG on the viewing human side; grooves of the fresnel sandwiched against the frosted side of the GG? This was the typical Graphlex set up.
 

No mine didn't come with a fresnel to start with, I grabbed one off a Graflex View series camera, and I put it on the back of the ground glass with the ridges facing forward. I've already done some focus test in the past with the original ground glass and found that my crown is setup for the ground glass to be the first thing to get hit by the light. I still get the light fall off on the edge like the original ground glass without the fresnel but the satin snow GG is much much brighter and as such may not be as bad to just use it straight as is and not worry bout the fresnel at all.
 

I dated mine as being one of the first 4x5 crown graphics made. Before 50s for sure, but after 48. (Springback + Side-mounted Kalart, etc)

Hrm if you notice page 9, the fresnel is AFTER the ground glass like I have been doing (human side).

But I know for sure mine was not made for a frensel because of the section thickness ( tho I made it work)

For now I'm just using the satin snow straight.
 
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Okay Karl, since your back did not originally have an Ektalite there's no sense bashing Graphlex... but it appears they screwed up with the parts numbering on that figure. The re-assembly instructions are right, but the parts reference numbers are incorrect. Oh my!

Good luck with that SatinSnow. I have one that I intended to install in my monorail but never got around to doing that yet. Perhaps I should consider adding that chore to my things-to-do list for the weekend!
 
The Ektalite screen was an option on Crown Graphics, contrary to popular belief. Personally, I don't like them. The ridges are distracting to me, and I don't see the need for one with the Satin Snow glass. Just personal opinion. You are correct about the placement of the fresnel on your particular camera. If the focus panel was not milled to accept a fresnel, it should go behind the ground glass. You would be surprised at how many folks try to put one in a camera that wasn't made for it, infront of the GG, only to find they can not get a focused image.
 
I'm impatient...

I just shot a sheet of Kodalith (rated for ISO 12) on a tripod, with a holiday ad taped to the wall, and focused on the center with an 8X loupe and developed it in Dektol 1+3, its currently drying and looks promising.
 
Told ya I was impatient.

Shot wide open (f/4.7 on my 137 Optar).

Scan down the middle ( my canon doesn't support larger than medium format)

crop (1200 Dpi when you enlarge it)