view camera magazine?

[GJA]

Just bought a view camera, is "View Camera" worth getting

I just bought a sinar view camera and im looking or an interesting magazine (pop photo sucks). Im wondering if View Camera is something I should consider? Is it a good balance of actual photos and techniques and equipment reviews. I was thinking about lens work before I decided to get the camera, now im wondering if something slightly more technique oriented wouldnt be better.

 

[Nicholas Lindan]

It's a good magazine and worth supporting. OTOH: there isn't much else to choose from.

Popular Photography is the wrong rag if you are into Sinars (nice camera, BTW, which model & lens did you get?).

Other 'techy' magazines for silver-based photography are Photo Techniques and the UK publication Black and White, though both have increasing amounts of digital photography content.

 

[keithwms]

Oh dear. I have a feeling about where this thread will go.

I guess I'll just say this: if you see something on the stand and it looks helpful then by all means buy it. Also consider the classic texts (Adams, White, etc.) and visit http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum and of course apug

 

[GJA]

I got an F+ and a Symmar-s.

Ive never seen a decent photo magazine in a bookstore on the mag racks. Maybe ill call them and see if i can get a trial issue.

I already have the Adams series (except artificial lighting which is no doubt outdated), but im not familiar with white. What is his first name? And title of his book?

 

[Mick Fagan]

Minor White is possibly who was being referred to.

I subscribe to View Camera, I wouldn't say it was brilliant, but it is pretty much it for LF magazines. Some editions are brilliant, some are reasonable and the mediocre ones are here and there, in short it is not too bad.

The advertisements are a treat, darkroom stuff, film lenses, and all sorts of LF film cameras. Most of the articles are written by people who have been fiddling with LF cameras for some time, in the main the articles are reasonably informative.

That said, you will probably get more up to date information about most things on the web, including a surprising array of really well written articles.

If you are wishing for some informative, accurate and simply presented information regarding how to use a view camera, then there are quite a few books. The very best book I have seen, and eventually purchased is, View Camera Technique 7th edition by Leslie Stroebel. There are others, but this one is a definitive book.

This book is written in a style that imparts knowledge almost seamlessly in a step by step manner. It is brilliantly technical, yet at the same time is very readable. The range of subjects is not just the camera itself, but also film, filters etcetera.

Mick.

 

[Ian Grant]

For the cost of a subscription View Camera is worth it, as others asy there's no other choice.

Unfortunately the LFP website is getting rather out of date, apart from the Forum it looks like a very early basic Internet site with virtually no graphics. Many articles are let down badly by this lack of graphics. (I have said this on the site in the Feedback section).

Ian

 

[removed account4]

subscriptions tend to be sent out late
(depending on where you live, VERY late )
and the magazine used to be riddled with
spelling, grammatical and printing flaws ..
if you aren't too critical, the magazine isn't too bad ...

have fun with your new camera!
john

 

[jovo]

Probably the best thing to do would be to see if you could acquire a stack of back issues from someone who wants to let them go. Place a WTB ad here, or on ask on http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/, and see what might turn up.

As Mick Fagan indicated, the magazine can be very uneven, but as a collection, it can be a very valuable resource, and much of the content (analog, that is) doesn't go out of date for the most part.

 

[TimVermont]

If you have specific interests or skill sets that you wish to develop, both Sinar and Linhof have published series of excellent books on everything from camera movement basics to architecture and advertising setups. These books are often available at good prices from abebooks and other internet sellers and may prove to be a more satisfying investment.

 

[Chazzy]

One of the best resources for a large format photographer is the large format forum.

For some basic information:

http://www.largeformatphotography.info/

For the forum:

http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/

View Camera magazine is badly edited and the proofreading errors drive me nuts, but it's the only magazine of its kind. So I subscribe.

 

[keithwms]

GJA, another thing you can do is use APUG and lfpi to locate LFers in your area. Generally you'll find that LFers are a friendly and helpful lot, willing to provide hands-on advice. Much can be learned in one session with another LFer. Yes the web has advice and articles aplenty, but... nothing beats meeting real people and getting to know how they operate and how they think. APUG is a tremendous resource for finding other photographers in your area. I've met literally dozens of friendly people in my area through apug.

 

[jp80874]

APUG is a tremendous resource for finding other photographers in your area. I've met literally dozens of friendly people in my area through apug.

You might want to add your location to your profile. There are many regional groups building with the purpose of film lovers and more specifically LF nuts gathering. At the end of July we will have our fifth gathering in a year of 13-23 of mostly LF shooters in NE Ohio.

http://www.viewcamera.com/archives.html is the archive of old issues and article subjects. You can drive your self crazy finding subjects you want to pursue and then hunting the old issues on eBay. Buying a group of issues is usually cheaper. If you do that a few times, you will probably end up with duplicate issues and become and seller or lender yourself.

View Camera Magazine is a two person show, Steve Simmons, editor-owner and assistant Andrea Miles. Steve to be brief is a friction point, to the extent that he is no longer welcome on APUG or the LF Forum. Andrea will do anything she can to help you with any magazine related problem. If you can separate the person from the magazine and ignore the editorial mess, you will enjoy the magazine more. That has become too much for many of us to do. I have not seen it in Borders or Barnes and Noble since September when I let my subscription expire. Finding it in a book store may be difficult.

As mentioned above there are many Sinar books, many editions of those and many written by Carl Koch for Sinar. Two I found are:
Photo Know-How, The Art of Large Format Photography; Koch & Marchesi, Sinar, 1993
The Sinar System Handbook, , Koch, Carl, 1974
I have a Sinar P 810.

The view camera is an older technology. If you are willing to learn and enjoy from older magazines, International Photo Techink, published by Grossbild-Technik in Munich was wonderful. These can still be found on eBay. I have about twenty years of back issues from the 1960-70s. It was primarily Linhof supported but each issue also had a Sinar advertisement. The work and styles are of course dated, but excellent. If English is your primary language, be sure to buy the English versions.

John Powers

 

[aldevo]

I did not renew my subscription.

1) Poorly edited.
2) Reproduction quality of photographs is terrible.
3) I can find very nearly all the information contained therein from largeformatphototography.info and this forum.

"Lenswork" does a better job of inspiring me to take photos with my Shen-Hao.

 

[aldevo]

You might want to add your location to your profile. There are many regional groups building with the purpose of film lovers and more specifically LF nuts gathering. At the end of July we will have our fifth gathering in a year of 13-23 of mostly LF shooters in NE Ohio.

http://www.viewcamera.com/archives.html is the archive of old issues and article subjects. You can drive your self crazy finding subjects you want to pursue and then hunting the old issues on eBay. Buying a group of issues is usually cheaper. If you do that a few times, you will probably end up with duplicate issues and become and seller or lender yourself.

View Camera Magazine is a two person show, Steve Simmons, editor-owner and assistant Andrea Miles. Steve to be brief is a friction point, to the extent that he is no longer welcome on APUG or the LF Forum. Andrea will do anything she can to help you with any magazine related problem. If you can separate the person from the magazine and ignore the editorial mess, you will enjoy the magazine more. That has become too much for many of us to do. I have not seen it in Borders or Barnes and Noble since September when I let my subscription expire. Finding it in a book store may be difficult.

As mentioned above there are many Sinar books, many editions of those and many written by Carl Koch for Sinar. Two I found are:
Photo Know-How, The Art of Large Format Photography; Koch & Marchesi, Sinar, 1993
The Sinar System Handbook, , Koch, Carl, 1974
I have a Sinar P 810.

The view camera is an older technology. If you are willing to learn and enjoy from older magazines, International Photo Techink, published by Grossbild-Technik in Munich was wonderful. These can still be found on eBay. I have about twenty years of back issues from the 1960-70s. It was primarily Linhof supported but each issue also had a Sinar advertisement. The work and styles are of course dated, but excellent. If English is your primary language, be sure to buy the English versions.

John Powers

Steve's behavior would be #4 on my list.

 

[JBrunner]

I think we should try to keep the discussion focused on the magazine.

 

[Don Wallace]

View Camera is up and down like all magazines. I buy it every issue and enjoy most. The best place for LFers is right here. This newsgroup is the only reason I own a computer.

 

[John Koehrer]

Most of the other posts are right on.
The older issues had an incredible number of misspellings. Currently, someone actually uses a spell check feature except for captions on photos.
Steve tends to use "I" quite a bit when writing articles himself, other contributors not so much. He's also going down the digi path. I usually buy mine at the news stand, but haven't missed an issue for a couple of years. I should probably re-subscribe but there have been some issues with sporadic/timely delivery.
There isn't much out there any more. Photo Techniques is pretty much trash when it relates to analog articles, Allowed scrip to lapse & I haven't bought a copy for at least three years, maybe longer.
I let my scrip to Lenswork expire when they started allowing digi images into the magazine. It's still a decent magazine if you're not looking for technical information.
B&W(US) Same as Lenswork in my book. Initially analog & then began to allow digi. Allowed scrip to lapse.

 

[timbo10ca]

I find at least one useful article in every issue.

 

[RPippin]

I'd check the news stands and look the mag over first. I subscribed but no more. When I subscribed, the hard copy left me wanting more, so I subscribed to the web version as well. I had very poor customer support with trying to log on and right when my subscription was due for renewal had a very terse exchange of emails with them. All there answeres to my queries were of the two or three word variety with little or no understanding of what I was asking. It was a simple question of how to log on. Sometimes being the only game in town can lead to an attitude of contempt for the customers. Needless to say I didn't renew and get far more info and help from the forums here on APUG. I also have a Sinar, so congrats on your purchase.

 

[GJA]

It seems as though I should skip VC. Maybe will get Lens Work as originally planned and the buy some more book. Leslie Stroebel seems to be a very popular author (judging by the price of the books) Would the 6th edition of View Camera Technique be good enough or do i "need" the 7th ed?

Also, i realized that I have read Minor White's tiny little book on the zone system, but without a spot meter it made little sense to me and i returned it to my library.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Stroebel is an excellent, thorough resource, but just to get up and running you might look at Steve Simmons' book, _Using the View Camera_, which covers most of the basics that beginners need to know (whatever opinion one may have of its author).

 

[bvstaples]

I subscribe to both VC and Lenwork...if I had to give up one it would be VC. VC is LF specific, with a mix of technique articles and inspirational works. Lenswork is pure inspiration to me and that is the most important thing one needs. Lenswork is my favorite magazine.

My dos centavos...


BVS

 

[jp80874]

There are a couple of current Sinar maintenance threads on the LF Forum you might find useful plus a link to a Sinar site in England with downloadable technical manuals for all the Sinar products including the F.

We all help each other here and on the LF Form.


http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?t=50185

http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?t=50155

http://www.image2output-support.com/sinar/

John Powers

 

[Andrew Horodysky]

I'll say "LensWork"... in addition to other postings, above. Sometimes "Aperture"... Sometimes "Blindspot" (not LF specific at all, but often covers various artists in different formats and media)...

Dead Link Removed

http://www.aperture.org/magazine

Dead Link Removed

 

[jp80874]

I also like some of the work showing in Silvershotz

John