The Cambo makes its maiden voyage.

I finally worked up the nerve to take the Cambo Legend with Manfrotto tripod and Bogen head, all 30 lbs of it, out in public. The occasion was the 2014 visit to Denver by Alumimnum Overcast (b17.org). For obvious safety reasons, the crowd is pretty tightly controlled, the subject doesn't move, and there is a lot of picture taking going on at this event, so it was a pretty easy introduction. And it was exciting to see something more interesting than my basement through the ground glass. Because of the repeated threat of rain (and my own fumbling), I came away with only 4 shots on Ektar. I've been practicing without film and about the only messup I remember was while pulling the holder out of the camera, my hand didn't grip the holder, but only the darkslides. They came out maybe a quarter of an inch before I put them back in place. Anyway, it was a real learning experience and a lot of fun.

One thing about having a camera like that out in public, is that people automatically think you know what you're doing, and I did my best to follow the repeated APUG admonitions to be a good ambassador for film. Several people had questions. One guy who shoots digital and an RB67 and really wants to do LF came over and I let him have a good look at it. He was pretty pleasant to talk to. Another guy said he had owned a Speed Graphic but got rid of it and switched to digital because it cost so much to get film developed. Just then the plane taxied and came to a stop, doing a neat pirouette to face the runway. When it was all over he said, "I got 10 shots, how many did you get?" I bit my tongue to not ask if any of them were any good, but just said, as cheerily as I could, "None yet".

This outing has given me a lot more confidence that I can handle this outfit beyond my driveway.

Things will get better (but if it were me, I'd go for the Speed Graphic, or even better, a Super Speed Graphic, and make my life a LOT easier).

It's like the old truism "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?"

Practice, practice, practice.

The hard part, that is, the "getting out and doing it", is done now.
Pretty soon you'll be an expert.

Out of the kiddie pool and swimmin with the sharks! Way to go!

Here it is

Wherever I go with the 4x5 I attract a small crowd, generally friendly, but occasionally a bit obnoxious (as in "take my picture, too"). I always try to answer questions and let people look through the ground glass. A lot of folks tell me that they gave up film photography for this or that reason and so I try to get them back into it. I'm not sure that I've made any re-converts.