[LargeFormat] 6x17cm Format on 5x7 Cameras

[Clive Warren]

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