So I have embarked on a project to have a smaller, lighter, and easier camera to do 4x5 film photography. The camera I have been using is a Sinar F and while it is a dream of camera in terms of interchangeability of parts, amount of movements and quality it is just too heavy and slow for me to use when I am out in the field. As I looked at good field cameras I just wasn't going to spend a fortune so I have been bargain hunting on E-bay and am now the proud owner of an old really beat 1950's Graflex Crown Graphic and and a Super Graphic. The Super Graphic is missing its ground glass focus panel. The goal has been to find, at really low cost an alternative to the Sinar which I can keep in the car and take with me if I hike someplace with minimal gear. The Sinar while a great camera was never intended to go into the field unless it was manned by a crew. Once the prefect camera for shooting architecture and interiors but in those days the team consisted of a photographer and one or even two assistants.
I will post some photos of the cameras in there current conditions. If I decide to make the Crown into a fully working camera I will have to restore or re purpose it. The leatherette skin is shot, the bellows has holes in it and the overall camera is stained and dirty. I suspect it was in a flood or at the least stored in a garage or barn for many years given the accumulation of residue. But the price was right. It will require some TLC in any case.
The Super Graphic is in better overall working condition, the bellows is light tight, the movements all work and by being a Super, it gives me more of the movements I might expect had I actually gotten a real "field camera". Funny I don't find myself using that many movements even with the Sinar outdoors but we will see. I am curious to experiment with more selective focus and shallow depth of field and slower exposures. Something that I find problematic with digital cameras. The real problem with the Super Graphic is that it is missing the ground glass focus panel. Even if the rangefinder worked I can't seem myself handholding this or using it as my focus methdod. So solving that problem is paramount if it is going to really be a working camera. Graflex completely re-desinged these parts for the Super Graphic so the Graflock back from the Crown will not mount to the rotating back of the Super without removing the slider clips necessary for attaching roll film backs etc. I am presently awating a Cambo back which I have been told does mount to the Super's rotating back. So the journey commences.
All this because I still want to shoot "film" even thought my Nikon D600 cranks out really great, sharp, high resolution images that don't require any of the processing, scanning and photoshoping that is necessary to simply get a film image up on the web or printed. I don't have a real drakroom so my process is a hybrid of analog film and digtal. In the end I am hoping to still do really large prints. I have a good color plotter that prints up to 48" wide and I would like to create images that hold together at that size. The Nikons full frame sensor gets me pretty close and it is a consumer grade semi pro piece of gear. In the past I would have needed a Leaf or Sinar digital back. But you can almost do it now with consumer grade equipment. In the end this may still be a fools errand as color transparency film, labs
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