[LargeFormat] Re: 5x7, was Re: rainbows, was R O Y G B I V

[Ole Tjugen]

The expert on 5x7" enlargers is Clive, I've only got one...

I have tried scanning negatives, prints and contact prints. I find I get the 
best results scanning contact prints, since (A) I've done all the burning, 
dodging and dodgy chemistry tricks on them, and (B) I don't have to make a 
smaller enlargement than 9 1/2 x 12" just to fit it on my flatbed.

Many good papers are capable of reproducing the grain structure of the 
negative in any enlargement, some even in contact prints. I don't mean grain, 
I mean the SHAPE of the grains... Scanners can't do that (yet), not can 
digital printing.

As to rise and fall and movements - remind me to try my 90mm/f:8 Super Angulon 
on the 5x7" camera. It fits, it can be focused, but nothing can move at all. 
Next time I must put some film in the camera to see what it looks like ;)
Many of my recant pictures have been taken with an ancient 9x12cm plate 
camera. Front shift and rise are the only movements, no swings or tilts. But a 
great little camera for handheld shooting...

Ole

>===== Original Message From "philip lambert" <philip.lambert@ntlworld.com> 
=====
>Hallo Ole, nice of you to respond.   A point about all three sizes of holder
>being usable in the same 5x7 camera is that film sometimes turns up in
>halfplate at encouraging prices, and if it's a couple of years O.O.D. it
>might not matter for monochrome. Another point I kind of mentioned, that a
>half-plate camera on Ebay could be a good buy even with no darkslides or
>lens, given that the 5x7 holders can be found and almost anybody can lay
>hands on a 210mm Symmar.  My 203mm Ektar isn't really a 5x7 lens - it covers
>the negative but I am warned that rising front makes for blurred corners.
>If you have rising front you want to use it.
>This doesn't address the problem of how to enlarge from 5x7. Is there any
>logic in scanning in the contact print or the neg and trying to print A4 off
>it, or does the process wreck the sharpness of the image.  I did see a 5x7
>enlarger once; looked like the rise and fall had been made out of old
>battleship.     Philip
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