[LargeFormat] Good news. Really good news

[rstein]

Dear Mr. Clive,

    Cheer up. No, I mean it. Good things have happened. The parcels arrived
today. All 110 kilos of them.

    They were delivered in two of the shittiest crates you have ever seen.
These things looked like rejects from a Somali firewood pile. They were
covered in splinters, nails, bits of iron strapping, and Chinese lettering.

     They were opened - gingerly - and found to contain 200 Kilos of wadded
up Chinese newspapers and the component parts of a Shen Hao studio camera.
Those of you with computers run off to the Shen Hao website and have a look
at the 10" x 12" stand camera - the one on the two wooden pillars with the
big chrome wheel out the side to raise and lower it. It is a copy of the
sort of studio camera that might have been seen in the 1920's and 30's in
Hollywood.

     Of course the build quality is different - we're talking Seagull
Company here. But the build quality is more than good enough to be a real
workable camera - and what work! It came with a suitable number of  10 x 12
wooden double dark holders. They look to be glass plate, but I daresay some
fancy footwork will render them amenable to cut film. You know - cardboard
backers or Liquid Light on a glass plate or somesuch. I look forward to
overcoming the logisticals of this one.

    The camera is supported by 2 4 x 4 pillars and raised by a spur and
track on an axle - turned by the aforementioned big chrome wheel and handle.
There is even a clutch handle you have to throw out to turn the wheel.
Reminds you of the set of "Metropolis"....

    A reducing back is included to go from the somewhat arcane format of 10
x 12 to the much more common, get it at any chemist, 6 inch by 4 inch glass
plates. The back revolves and indexes and then slides and rises on index
stops to give you repeatable part-of-negative shots. And a set of black
plastic masking frames is included to go all the way from the common-as-muck
4 inch by 3 inch down to 16 passport shots on the plate. I would be willing
to bet this is a common product all throughout the provinces of China as a
studio camera to do the innumerable internal ID pictures of a communist
state. Or just a really economical way to do vast numbers of school class
pictures for working pros.

    The bellows have 2 sections joined in the middle and the camera features
swing, tilt, and dip but no front rise. Of course the whole mount cranks up
and down like a soviet machine gun. There is a box in the front with a
Packard shutter and a glorious red rubber tube and bulb and a revolving
internal lens board that can accommodate different focal lengths. There are
two wire racks above the back and the front to suspend a focussing cloth and
a cloth lens shade.

    It is crude in parts, showy in others. and wholly a delight. I got one
of their 300mm f.5.6 Seagull lenses to mount in the front and as soon as I
can arrange some sensitive material round the back I shall be off and
running. Indeed I shall send you some results that you can post on the
forum.

 Uncle Dick