[LargeFormat] Intro & Teaching Camera Advice
Jonathan Taylor
largeformat@f32.net
Thu Jun 19 01:32:17 2003
Hello all,
I'm new to the list (tho I have been lurking for several weeks now), and
figured it was finally time to introduce myself.
I've been shooting 35mm now since 1997, starting with Tri-X, a good deal of
darkroom experience, and an excellent teacher (http://www.JWillis.net/ ).
For my day job I teach a class called Design & Illustration that draws
wacky, brilliant, and otherwise students from 10 local high schools. We have
great students and a lot of fun (http://burlingtontech.org/ ). Although my
professional background consists mostly of graphic design experience, I get
to teach photography as well. One of the great side benefits of the job is
that I we have very good resources for buying equipment. Among other things
this has allowed me to put together a nice darkroom and a fleet of old
Minolta and Nikon manual SLRs to loan out.
This year I've gotten authorization to finally buy a large-format camera. I
have two motivations for doing so:
1) I think they provide a great vehicle for learning the underlying
principles of photography and cameras. (I remember my teacher's
demonstrations vividly.)
2) I started getting really serious about landscape photography using
infrared film, opaque filters, and a silly but fun Nikon shift lens
(http://sover.net/~jtyr/ ). It didn't take long working with this outfit to
realize my vision would be much better served by a LF rig.
So I have put together the following package from B&H and would greatly
appreciate any advice. LF is new and strange territory to me. What little I
know is purely theoretical. My goal is to get a solid and usable system for
the least money possible. I budgeted $1700 (not nearly enough)! The
practicalities of a public school purchase order precludes eBay and even
vigulent cherry picking from the usual online used dealers.
Here are the uses I'm anticipating for this rig:
1) classroom demo- cheapest Polaroid film possible
2) landscape- Polaroid Type 55 (lovely Polargoo!), HEI, Maco, & Tri-X
3) architecture- same as landscape
4) limited studio- 120 roll chromes
1 Toyo-View 4x5 45C Camera 799.00 799.00
1 Rodenstock 210mm f/6.8 Geronar Lens with Copal #1 Shutter 399.00 399.00
>>>Both of these are USED items.<<<
1 Toyo-View 158 x 158mm Lensboard for #1 Copal 54.95 54.95
1 Rodenstock Metal Lens Wrench (for View Lens Retaining Ring) 14.95 14.95
1 Toyo-View 4x5 Folding Focusing Hood/Groundglass Cover 110.00 110.00
>>>Do I need this?<<<
1 Horseman Roll Film Holder 451 - 6x9cm Graflok Back 398.95 398.95
4 Fidelity 4x5 Sheet Film Holders (Twin Pack) 42.95 171.80
>>>Not enough of these, right?<<<
1 Fidelity Dark Slide (Plastic) for 4x5 Sheet Film Holder 12.95 12.95
>>>Do I need this?<<<
1 Polaroid Model #545i 4x5 Polaroid Sheet Film Holder 164.95 164.95
1 Toyo-View Focusing Cloth 36x48" (Black/White) 44.50 44.50
1 Wista 5x Standard Focusing Loupe 52.95 52.95
1 Tenba CCV45 Car Case for View 45 - Black 185.95 185.95
2,409.95
These are "extras" that I really want but probably cannot afford.
1 Nikon Wide 90mm f/8 Nikkor-SW Lens w/ Copal #0 Shutter 699.95 699.95
1 Toyo-View 158 x 158mm Lensboard for #0 Copal 84.95 84.95
1 Toyo-View 4x5 Wide Angle Bellows 369.00 369.00
1 Gepe 3.25" Cable Release Extension for Recessed Lensboards 17.95 17.95
>>>Do I need this? I already have a nice Nikon standard release.<<<
1 Horseman Roll Film Holder 612 - 6x12cm, Graflok Back 699.95 699.95
1,871.80
So there you have it. Please tell me what I've gotten wrong, how I can save
money, and anything else I'm missing.
jt