[LargeFormat] Shutterless lens usage

[rstein]

Dear Lauvone,

     Uncle Dick uses just this method of exposure when he goes out with his
old Ukrainian tailboard camera and the results are as good as anything that
Kharkov ever produced, not including the T 34....

    The main problems are jogging the whole setup when you take the cap
off - you might make a larger cap out of a blackened shoe polish tin and
practise swopping it off and on without touching the rest of the assembly -
and getting a material that has a low enough ASA to allow the long
exposures.

     I've tried sheet x-ray film with some success and Agfa MCP glossy paper
with some success - use a yellow filter to smooth out the contrast behaviour
out in the sunlight. I have yet to try Efke film for this purpose but that
seems to be a good one.

    Of course if you have the time and the subject you can mount a ND filter
over the lens to control matters but this is one more step in the sequence
and the exploding zeppelin may not wait for you.

    Try the lens in a darkened studio with the flashes triggered by hand.

     Uncle Dick