Nervousness & remembering this is an international forum!

[MikeS]

Hi All.

Recently I bought a Graflex viewfinder bracket from a member here. Well, I really needed it, and when the person said they wanted $12.00 which would include shipping, I sent it right off. After waiting a while, I started thinking to myself "gee, when are they ever going to send the darned bracket?" Keep in mind, this is a little 1.5" x 1.5" square of sheetmetal, so I'm thinking, 'ok, for that kind of money, I guess they're going to send it Priority Mail, heck it should have been here already!' Well, I got it today, and to my surprise it came from England (or is the the United Kingdom?)!! Now everything became clear, and in fact I think I got a fantastic deal considering the price of international shipping! Who would have thought a part made in Rochester would end up going to England, then come back here to be installed on a camera made in Germany!

And that brings me to the nervousness portion of this message. I know some folks can get something new, and not open the package for a week or more (I have a friend who can buy something, and not bother opening it for 6 months or more sometimes!), but I'm not one of those. So, after looking at the new bracket, I decided to go ahead and mount it to my Linhof. Mounting it involves drilling 3 little holes in the camera body for the screws to go thru.

Now I've mounted lots of accessories to my Speed Graphic when I had it, and usually they got mounted OK, but that was a camera that I spent maybe $40.00 for, so I didn't really worry too much. Tonight, the thought of drilling holes in my nice clean Linhof (and 3 holes that had to line up perfectly, as they had to mate with a plate that had 3 tapped holes in it) got me a bit on the nervous side!

Well, I took off the back/bellows/front standard assembly, stuffed the opening with a clean towel (to keep the aluminium shavings out of the RF works, etc.) and marked the holes, drilled them, and everything went PERFECT! I even impressed myself with that!

So now I'm unwinding from the nervousness of possibly ruining my Linhof (which didn't happen) along with the post purchase nervousness I get whenever I spend more money that I should! (well in this case I didn't really spend any money, but I just traded one car for another, and I still hope I did the right thing)

-Mike

 

[Ole]

I know that feeling...

I recently gave in to temptation and bought a BIG Russian camera off ebay. Everything went smoothly, seller is a real gentleman and let me know when it was shipped, and so on. Then nothing. And even more nothing. A while later I went to the local (very small) post office to pick up another little package, and the lady told me there was another one for me - she was just about to send out a reminder on it!

No - it wasn't the camera. But since thee was already one package there that I didn't know about, I asked if they had a big heavy package for me, sendt from Ukraina and probably looking like it? She just turned around, pointed to the top shelf, and said "Like that one?"
When we finally got it down (18 kg, sewn into a coarse pillow case, with Ukrainina Postal Authority laquer seals all over it!), it was!

 

[colrehogan]

Ole,
Is this your 30x40 camera that you are describing here?

 

[Ole]

Diane, it is.

Just to make it absolutely clear: It's 30x40 centimeters, not inches! It is slighly less than 12x16". Still big - very big compared to my 5x7" camera(s)!

 

[noseoil]

Ole, I'm very curious about this camera. Could you post a picture of it in the thread or elsewhere? How is the fit and finish? tim

 

[Ole]

Ole, I'm very curious about this camera. Could you post a picture of it in the thread or elsewhere? How is the fit and finish? tim

I'll do that, but you'll have to wait a few weeks for it.

 

[John Z.]

Ole, I need to start checking out the old packages at your post office. Sounds like a treasure trove.