[LargeFormat] 6x17cm Format on 5x7 Cameras
Clive Warren
largeformat@f32.net
Fri Dec 14 11:36:06 2001
Just tested out the latest homebrew 6x17cm format camera. This is
based on a 5x7 Grover monorail using cut a down darkslide on 5x7
holders.
There have been two designs of darkslide - the first straight cut
6x17 window used to get stuck in the holder so mark two version had a
curved cutout in the thin end. This worked reasonably well but that
broke today - maybe due to the cold the bakelite became brittle. So
now have mark three version that is simply a one sided dark slide and
that seems to work well as long as it is pushed fully home in the
holder to straighten it up.
The lens is a 135mm Wide Field Ektar tried out for the first time on
this outfit - looked good on the ground glass. I soon ran into
problems with movements though at infinity focus - something that was
not an issue with the 165mm lens I had been using. Essentially the
bellows are not flexible enough for appropriate rise and fall of the
front/rear standard with the 135mm lens. For the lower half of the
film, to get the front standard low enough required the rail to be
pointed down and the front and rear standards adjusted parallel to
the subject with some back rise. Couldn't do the same for the top
section of the film - fingers had stopped working and the bellows
simply did not want to play ball for the opposite set up with rail
pointing up.
As it was a bright sunny day I thought the cold (2C) would not be too
much of a problem - wrong! It was freezing with a wind chill factor
of -7C. After the first shot I couldn't feel the focusing knobs or
standard clamping knobs and it was a race to get the second shot and
pack the kit up with no feeling in any of my fingers.....
You peops who ask how to stop your breath freezing on the ground
glass clearly are more hardy than us pampered Brits!
Will post the shots on the f32 Forum if they are any good - have to
admit I was more interested in getting home and warm than composition
or exposure :-)
Cheers,
Clive