What is the consensus on Littman Cameras? Worth it? Samples Appreciated

Hi to all:

I have been shooting 35mm for 35 years or so - also MF & now more recently LF 4x5 & have been toying with either buying a handheld 4x5 or making my own.

I am also refurbishing an older studio camera & am wondering about the possibilities of making a Polaroid 8x10 back for it. I know that Fotoman is making an 8x10 handheld & it appeals to me a lot - however - I like the challenge of making things for myself.

With all of this said - is there any way to convert a larger Polaroid format than the Littman 4x5?

I do not intend for this to be a flame war but certain threads that I have tried to access & read end up with a moderator killing it quickly.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Regards

I forgot to mention - per the title - I seriously would like to see some samples if anyone here has any

Thanks

Lee Hamiel said:

I forgot to mention - per the title - I seriously would like to see some samples if anyone here has any

Thanks

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Michael McBlane (blansky) owns a Littman. You might PM him for info. He seems to like his Littman a lot.

Here's a link to the one I made out of a 110A a few years ago. I was writing a how-to article about it until my computer at work toasted and we got too busy. Never got back to it, perhaps I should try again. tim

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

I have a Littman as well. I love it. It is light weight compared to normal 4x5's, portable, and fits in a tamrac fanny pack. I Have a few (7) grafmatic backs, and I can get 3 in a Lowpro holder bag, (which goes on my belt), and one in the fanny pack. The fanny pack also holds my filters, and light meter. I can use my lighter weight tripod with it so no need to drag along the heavy weight tripod. I tend to use the rangefinder focus on it, so I leave the loupe at home. Down side is that it has one fixed lens. It alos doesn't have any real movements. Which for me works just fine, since I still need to get it blasted into my head how to properly use the movements without turning the camera into a pretzal.

I don't think Polaroid made any cameras larger than 4x5 for handheld use. Everything else was just slipping the Polaroid holder into a bigger existing camera. It would be perfectly possible and viable to build your own 8x10 box camera, but without an extremely expensive helicoid to accommodate the focusing range of a "normal" lens for 8x10, you're limited to what Fotoman or Hobo produces, design wise. Polaroid already has an 8x10 system, which you'll have to use in order to shoot 8x10 Polaroid material (has anyone mentioned how expensive this stuff is??????????????). You can't make an all-in-one back for 8x10 polaroid like what exists for 4x5 - the rollers are exponentially larger and the pressure needed to operate them exponentially higher, so it really doesn't make sense to try and do it manually. Thus the 8x10 Polaroid Processor that is motorized.

Nice looking camera Tim - Good job

Thanks for the comments so far

Calumet sells a hand cranked 8x10" Polaroid processor for the field, but because the Polaroid material comes in two parts, you couldn't make a back for it that works like 4x5" Polaroid sheets. You expose the negative sheet in the camera, remove the holder and sandwich it with the positive sheet (depending on which holder you have, there are two ways of doing this), then run it through the processor.