[LargeFormat] Large Format SLR

[Jim Hemenway]

Hi Philip:

I find the Graflex 4x5 SLR much easier to work with than I do a 
conventional monorail, even with a reflex viewfinder.

It's less bulky and I can walk about and shoot handheld. As you know, 
real photographers don't need tripods for 4x5 and smaller :-)

When I visited Steve Grimes a few months before he died, he had several 
Graflex cameras which were in various states of repair.  He told me that 
they were all from NY fashion photogs.

The only camera that I might prefer to the Graflex would be a 
Gowlandflex TLR.  http://www.petergowland.com/camera/

Jim - http://www.hemenway.com




philip lambert wrote:

> A most impressive piece of furniture.  If it's not a daft question, how is
> it better than a conventional monorail with a mirror back viewfinder?  I had
> one on a 5x4 which worked well and I could shut the bellows up for a 65mm S
> Angulon.  Difficult to see the edges of the image though.
> Don't see any way of using a 54 single lens reflex with a wideangle lens
> unless somebody is making a retrofocus 75mm with a 150mm back focus.  I used
> to have a Thornton Pickard quarter plate camera with a 6 inch Triotar lens
> and there was no way a wideangle would fit and clear the rising mirror.
> Philip
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Jim Hemenway" <Jim@hemenway.com>
> To: "Large Format Group" <largeformat@f32.net>
> Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2004 5:31 PM
> Subject: [LargeFormat] Large Format SLR
> 
> 
> 
>>The $1,000 I paid for my Graflex, plus $500 to Grimes for overhauling
>>it, doesn't seem too much now after seeing the price for this.
>>http://www.wisner.com/freedom.htm
>>-- 
>>
>>Jim - http://www.hemenway.com
>>