Seneca Improved 8x10 anyone???

[Pasto]

I'm thinking of making the step up to 8x10. Is a Seneca improved 8x10 a useable/serviceable first camera? Also, what's improved about the improved version?

Thanks

 

[desertrat]

I have one, I like it, and am using it regularly. These were made roughly between 1906 and the early 1920s. If you haven't already seen this website, it's a fairly good description:

http://www.piercevaubel.com/cam/seneca/sennew.htm

Mine is a later one, finished in black with nickel plated fittings.

Now, the bad part. These cameras are only worth your trouble if you're handy with tools and can do mechanical repairs, and only if you can get one cheap. The bellows on my two 8X10 Senecas were intact, but full of pinhole leaks in the folds and corners. These were easily patched with flexible black fabric paint from the craft section of the local Walmart. Even after patching, the nearly 100 year old bellows will be stiff and you may not be able to close the camera completely after doing all the patching. However, I can use all the movements the camera has without straining the bellows too much. The Improved View has double draw bellows and should come with extension rails.

You can make lens boards from 1/8" plywood from a hobby store or 1/8" masonite (tempered hardboard) from the local hardware store. The lens boards can be quickly removed and replaced by gently lifting until the bottom of the board clears the lip of the lower retainer strip. Then tilt the board slightly so the bottom edge is just in front of the retainer strip and then lower it gently until the top of the board slides out from underneath the upper retainer strip.

Some of the fittings may be damaged, or the screws stripped or missing. The easiest way to deal with stripped screws is to use the next larger diameter screw, and this might mean drilling out the hole in the fitting. The rear focus on my Improved View was very rough because the pinion was being forced into the rack. I had to partially disassemble the camera and put shims under some of the fittings to fix this. A previous owner dropped the camera on the front standard, bending the fittings which hold the standard, so the standard tilted toward the rear of the camera. I had to partially disassemble the front of the camera and carefully bend the fittings back to their original shape so the front standard would be vertical with respect to the bed.

The camera back can be rotated 90 degrees and reinstalled, giving both landscape and portrait orientations.

Any Improved view you find on Ebay is going to need some or a lot of tender loving care before it's ready for use. If you're handy with tools, it's a great way to get into 8X10 on a low budget. Don't pay more than 200 dollars for one, and that's with the extension rails. For the items I'm interested in on Ebay, it seems 19 out of 20 of a particular item have outrageous opening bid or Buy it Now prices, and they never get any bidding activity. It's the one out of 20 that has a reasonable opening bid and has bidding activity that I follow and possibly bid on.

This link shows the earlier version that the later version is 'improved on':

http://www.piercevaubel.com/cam/seneca/senview.htm

 

[goamules]

Yes, I've used one for a couple years and it's been great. Contrary to the above, which can really apply to any old camera, mine had no problems and was being used the day after I received it. If you buy one with good bellows, you are set.

As for the camera, I like how light it is, it's probably the lightest 8x10 from the period. Also I like the high gloss on the wood, which is much nicer than a utilitarian 2D. However, being light, they won't support a big, heavy petzval on the front. Small ones are ok. Also, the lensboard size is an uncommon 5 1/4 or some such, so get ready to make your own boards if you like to use a lot of lenses.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

Or, like on one of my whole plate sized Senecas, have an adapter board made that will let you use Linhof Technika boards. The biggest downside to these cameras is the fact that they have very limited movements. And the extension rail is not built-in, so it's easy to separate from the camera and lose (and they're not interchangeable from camera to camera - don't ask how I know this).