The Dark Side is calling me

[removed-user-1]

Today is the first day of Photo 2 class at CPCC (my local community college), and I'm excited about this because I will be using the school's brand-new Toyo 8x10 field camera with 240mm and 360mm lenses. Last semester I took Photo 1 for the darkroom access, and had an opportunity to use a Horseman 4x5 monorail with Schneider lenses, which allowed me to produce some amazing negatives. I now find myself in an odd position: I have no 35mm film and think of my RB67 as a small camera! I am itching to get my hands on this 8x10. Three hours to go!!!

 

[Sirius Glass]

To the Force of the Dark Slide welcome! The Force of the Dark Slide, impossible to resist! - Yota, Star Wars Episode XXIV, Extreme Exposures

 

[chioque]

Resistance is futile, better yield

 

[zsas]

...The Force of the Dark Slide...[/I]

^Love the LF pun, side - slide...he

 

[Rick A]

May the Schwarz be with you!

 

[E. von Hoegh]

..... there's nothing quite like an 8x10 contact print.....

Except for a bigger contact print

 

[Sirius Glass]

16" x 20" contact print

in Carbon

 

[Terry Christian]

C-41 negatives are pretty dang awesome, too! LF can be a pain to shoot, but so worth it, and field/press cameras make it relatively easy.

 

[Augied]

I actually had a similar realization earlier today. I also have an RB67, and I started doing a bit of 4x5 in the fall. Right now I'm taking an intensive cyanotype and platinum/palladium class. We're using medium format, 4x5, 5x7, and 8x10, and suddenly I think of the RB's negatives as tiny. There's a reason that what we now know of as medium format used to be called miniature.

 

[removed-user-1]

So, first road block. The camera comes stock with a lens board for a number 0 shutter, and the lenses that are available need larger mounting holes. Waiting on lens boards to arrive at the school...

 

[John Austin]

Sent the purchasing dept to the welfare queue

So, first road block. The camera comes stock with a lens board for a number 0 shutter, and the lenses that are available need larger mounting holes. Waiting on lens boards to arrive at the school...

Easy, send the purchasing dept' or whoever ordered the gear to the welfare queue - They should have purchased good American equipment like the KB Canham, that goes for 5x4" as well - Canham is made in USA. and I as an Australian would prefer that to buy the Canham if I could afford it - Second thought is they should have ordered the two lenses mounted and checked for alignment - I used to do that job in Oxford in the late 1970s, all it takes is a little thought - Has he ordered DDS?

Now, who was it recently in USA who said he liked sacking people who did not give him a good servicing??

 

[removed-user-1]

It's been nine days since I thought I was bring home the Toyo 8x10, but I finally have it. I also discovered that my Kodak Autographic - with bad bellows - had a working Bausch & Lomb Rapid Rectilinear mounted in a working Kodak ball bearing shutter. A little testing confirmed that this lens will indeed cover 8x10 with the front cell unscrewed. So it was transplanted to the Toyo lensboard, which it fits almost perfectly.

Also found a Fujinon-A 240mm f/9 lens with a Copal shutter lurking in the back of a cupboard in the school studio. Looks like this will cover 8x10, maybe, and it is small enough to fit the lensboard as well.

I set up the camera on a big sturdy tripod, it's sitting in my living room waiting for some daylight. One of my two dogs is absolutely terrified of it! I have four sheets of film loaded, going to shoot them tomorrow.

 

[cjbecker]

Film should be called the bright side, It can actually retain detail in the highlights.

 

[removed-user-1]

Okay, the first two images are posted in the technical gallery. Not really working on composition right now as much as simply learning to use the camera. I don't have to buy the film and processing (technically I paid for that when I paid tuition...), so this is the perfect way to learn the mechanics. I do hope my technique improves... anyway comments and criticism are welcome.

The Fujinon lens does cover 8x10 and I've made several exposures with it, they will be processed tomorrow. I could get used to this.

 

[keithwms]

Well you need to take a self portrait with the 8x10, that is obligatory...

 

[Mark Crabtree]

8x10 is great. My favorite camera to work with, and gives me so much higher percentage of keepers that it is probably my cheapest camera to shoot with.

I think people would take to large format easier if they started with 8x10 rather than 4x5. It seems easier to figure things out with 8x10, and especially easier to see what is going on. Carrying it around is another story of course.

 

[premortho]

I started on a 5X7 Ansco, found it much easier than 4X5. Composition on the ground glass is easier, the 8X10 even more so. But I like the proportians of the picture better on 5X7.

8x10 is great. My favorite camera to work with, and gives me so much higher percentage of keepers that it is probably my cheapest camera to shoot with.

I think people would take to large format easier if they started with 8x10 rather than 4x5. It seems easier to figure things out with 8x10, and especially easier to see what is going on. Carrying it around is another story of course.

 

[removed-user-1]

I've now made a few contact prints from the 8x10 negatives I've made. I am really in love with the look of such a large contact print. Unfortunately the camera is not mine but the school's, and another student is using it at the moment. I'm just going to have to get an inexpensive 4x5 of my own as an 8x10 is simply out of reach.

 

[mjs]

Look for an 8x10 monorail, particularly an older one. Monorails usually sell for less than a folding field camera and you might find a deal somewhere. My 8x10 Burke & James Grover monorail ended up costing, like, $100 after I sold off the stuff that came with it.

For inexpensive film holders, get some older wooden ones. Everybody else likes the newer plastic ones but the woodies are often lighter in weight and much less expensive and out of the 30 or so I've bought over the past few years, one had a slight light leak due to a cracked slide. Call Jim at Midwest Photo (www.mpex.com) and ask him if he can help. Sometimes there's older but perfectly usable stuff in the back room he can let go at a good price.

MIke

 

[removed-user-1]

Cambo SCX 4x5 monorail on the way. I have a 105mm Tominon in a Copal Press shutter for macro (thanks John!) and a B&L Rapid Rectilinear in a Kodak shutter. Sold all my Nikon lenses to get this.

 

[pbromaghin]

Congratulations on going after what you want. This is very impressive. It's especially cool that you are going so strongly against the tide of digital lemmings. Large format intimidates the heck out of me.

 

[removed-user-1]

... there's nothing quite like an 8x10 contact print.

This really is true. One of my classmates was looking at my 8x10 contact prints, and he was practically speechless. And my prints (and negatives!) aren't anything special. In the hands of someone who really knows what they are doing... wow. Just look at one of Edward Weston's prints.