[LargeFormat] Re Dry Plate Photography and Soft Focus

[Stein]

Dear Friends,

     I am the owner of the world's rattiest old Nagaoka 4 x 5 camera. It
sits atop a home-made wooden tripod with wingnuts and bolts holding the legs
together. For years I have used an oldish Schneider 150mm Symmar S and
whatever I could find in the local shops for film to take vaguely old-timey
pictures at historical encampments.

    Now I have acquired a Beck Symmetrical lens of about 8 inches focal
length in a lovely brass barrel - it opens all the way up to a blazing f.8 -
and it even has a lens cap. No shutter, of course.

     I want to move back to the era of dry plate photography but I wish to
avoid coating glass plates or adapting my 24 double darkslide holders. I am
looking to find a 4 x 5 film that will have the characteristics of the older
dry plates. I need it to be orthochromatic and very slow. I hope eventually
to be able to develop these films in a dark tent out on the campsite.

    Can anyone suggest a type of film and a supplier for this? Also any
hints about development.

    Please note that I have read about the modern wet-plate work and do
subscribe to the Collodion Journal. I understand the principals of the older
silver plate and mercury processes too, but I do not want to venture into
the dangers of one or the inconvenience of the other.

     The second enquiry concerns a Rodenstock Imagon lens that I have. It is
240mm focal length and opens up to about 5.6 - perhaps better. I find it a
difficult device to understand as the diaphragm is unmarked and the stops
seem to be additional attachments that push onto the front of the main lens.
It has a Compur compound shutter marked in the older arithmetic speeds but
is nevertheless synchronised and works in well with studio flash units.
I am puzzled at the age that it might be - the compound shutter and all
seems to be of a 20's or 30's vintage but is perfectly preserved. But the
barrel of the lens is marked as a product of Western Germany - surely a
postwar marking.

    I need someone who has used Imagons to give me some tips on its
employment. I have effected some good glamour images so far with the WRN
 World's Rattiest Nagaoka ) but I need a camera with a longer draw to get in
close for portraits. Any ideas?

    Thanks in advance for the help.

    Uncle Dick

    PS: I am stuck at the end of the world so it's no good advising me to
pop round to a New York dealer.