[LargeFormat] DIY Focusing Cloth and Blankies

[rstein]

Dear Nephew Alan,

     I am grateful that you spared me the indignities of the post office. Or
local agency is staffed by people whose first language is not English and
while this is not a sin, it is a burden. Mail is sometimes redirected upon a
phonetic basis. Actually this is not as bad as it sounds - I get an number
of interesting letters from people who do not know me at all and learn many
new things about their lives. It is fun steaming letters open.

     It was also fun working with the new camera last night. I discovered
that the makers had equipped the front of it with a threaded metal flange
that was very nearly the same size as the flange that mounts my Rodenstock
Imagon lens to my Linhof. Very nearly the same size but maddeningly
different in the thread pitch - the Imagon does not seat home.

    I am not discouraged - the front of the New Camera has a wooden
lensboard that can be duplicated in my shop. I can then mount the Im on it
properly and have a camera that can be taken out into the bright snlight as
well as the dim studio. At present the lens that is mounted on it - a 210 mm
one - is only an barrel mount with a lenscap for a shutter. I plan to set
the whole apparatus upon a large wooden tripod studio stand once I research
the furniture style.

    The other big news is my welder friend is completing a neck clamp and
stand so that I can take sharp pictures in the studio. I have also asked him
to devise a suitable apparatus to hold heaving bosoms for long exposures and
he is investigating the literature. Apparently there is a lot you can do
with chemical laboratory clamps.

     Uncle Dick