[LargeFormat] Any GOMZ-LOMO FK owners out there?

[Marco Pauck]

Clive Warren wrote:
> 
> At 4:39 pm +0100 27/1/02, Marco Pauck wrote:
> >I just got a FK 18x24 large format camera, the version
> >manufactured by GOMZ-LOMO. After some CLA, it's now ready
> >for the field:
> >
> >       http://www.pauck.de/marco/photo/stuff/fk/opened.jpg
> >       http://www.pauck.de/marco/photo/stuff/fk/closed.jpg
> >       http://www.pauck.de/marco/photo/stuff/fk/lens.jpg
> snip
> >One point is that the film holders are for glass plates,
> >not sheet film. Where glass plates still common in Russia
> >during the 80ths of the last century? Or is there a later
> >version of the film holder that is prepared for sheet film?
> >
> >Any tips for converting a glass plate holder to sheet film?
> 
> Hello Marco,
> 
> That's some beast! What sort of film do you intend to use with it?
> 
> There are film sheaths available for smaller plate sizes to allow the
> use of 4x5 and 5x7 sheet film with plate holders, but I have never
> seen any for 18x24. If you can get hold of film holders you may find
> that they will fit the back and you will only lose a little on the
> film where it is perhaps masked by the opening in the camera back.

I'll probably use plain 18x24 cm sheet film. This format is still quite
common here in Germany. I've adapted the glass plate holders by simply
inserting glass plates prepared with adhesive coating that I can stick
the film onto. I'll see how well this actually works ...

The glass plates are from old printing frames and fit perfectly without
any cutting. I guess that glass from e.g. simple image holders should
work as well.

> Given your interest in pano formats I have been conjuring with some
> mental images of chopped darkslides for two 9x24 images on each sheet
> of film. Well I was until realising that your camera is probably
> 18cmx24cm  rather than inches :-) It is cm isn't it?

Yes, so it's not *that* big ... ;-)
(18x24 is the German and metric equivalent to 8x10 inch.)

> Labs in this country used plates right up into the 90's (that's the
> C20th rather than C19th).

Well, I think you can still get glass plates from Kodak, coated with
Technical pan emulsion. However, they're somewhat pricey ... ;-)
And not long ago, Monochrom (http://www.monochrom.com/) was selling
glass plates (from WEPhoto if I remember correctly) but they seem to
no longer offer them.

	Marco
--
Marco Pauck -- marco@pauck.de -- http://www.pauck.de/marco/
For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple,
neat, and wrong.  -- H. L. Mencken