Steve Maniscalco Photography

Cub Scout Attitude

Fujinon 250mm, 4x5, TXP-320, Thornton's 2-bath developer

Christopher Creek

On a cub scout camping trip recently, I had a chance to spend some time standing in the cold waters of Christopher Creek near Payson Arizona.

The first shot, taken with the Gran View and 75mm Super Angulon, shows the problem I keep having of not selecting a fast enough shutter speed when shooting tall trees.  I never had this problem with medium format or smaller, since I was confident of my dof at larger apertures (thus higher shutter speeds), so I'm not giving shutter speed enough thought for these shots.

I wouldn't say the slight motion blur at the tops ruins the shot, but it does detract significantly.

  

(Gran View, 75mm Super Angulon, TXP in Barry's 2-bath developer.)

Next we have a pinhole image, where a bit of motion blur is more of a feature than  a bug.  This one was about a 20 second exposure through a red filter.  Not really anything stellar in the way of composition, just very strait forward and I think it worked out pretty well.

 

(Super Graphic, .25mm pinhole at about 80mm/f250.  FP4+ in Barry's 2-bath developer.)

Cheese-n-Stuff

 

Gran View w/75mm Super Angulon
TXP-320 in Thornton's 2-bath developer

City Center Motel

 

Gran View w/75mm Super Angulon
TXP-320 in Thornton's 2-bath developer

Point and Shoot 4x5...Fail

Got some time away Saturday morning and put the first few films through the Gran View 4x5 point and shoot.  It was an interesting experience and I'm sure I will get used to the camera over time.  I know that sounds like damning with faint praise, but really, it is an odd beast and "getting used to it," is really about as high a praise as I thought it would get.

On the down side, I have a problem with it I need to resolve.

 

I'm pretty sure it's not supposed to look like I'm shooting through a bright tunnel.

When I first saw the scans I thought, "Wow.  What could make it vignette like that?"  I posted the scan and a smarter guy pointed out that normal vignetting is dark, not white.

Given a little time and thought, I think I know the problem.  I think the problem is in how I adapted that copal 0 lens to the copal 1 hole.  I did not paint the aluminum donut I made to shrink the hole and I believe the problem is reflection off of that donut...or a light leak, but reflection seems more likely.

The good news is, with the massive negative, even throwing away 2/3rds of it, there's still lots of good stuff available.  Also, this was my first test of Kodak 320 TXP in Thornton's 2 bath developer, and I think it works quite well.

75mm Lens Find

I found a 75mm lens for the Gran View. 

I didn't really think I'd get a lens this soon.  I've sold a few things and raised less than half what I figured I needed to buy the lens, but I kept tabs on ebay even though my money was not "together."  One of the lenses I was following, A Super Angulon 75mm f5.6, did not get the bidding attention I thought it would.  Just a few hours away from finishing, it was still at $225.  This was an old copy of the lens, but optically identical to newer lenses (I think) and I figured it would go between $500 and $650...far more than I planned to spend.  In fact, I was really looking at the slower version of the lens as a cost cutting measure.

For the heck of it, I put in a snipe for $350, about how much I figured I'd spend on a lesser lens some time in the future.  Well, much to my surprise, the auction finished with me as the winner at just $280!  I actually spent a number of nervous minutes going over the listing again and again to see what I'd missed that kept other bidders away from the auction.  In the end, I think that late Tuesday night closing time was the biggest factor in keeping the price down.

The Cambo recessed board is a bonus.  I have a project idea that it might be useful for, if not, I should be able to sell it for $30 or so, making this an even better deal.

Now I just have to figure out how to adapt this Copal 0 lens/shutter to the Copal 1 hole in the Gran View.

Misc.

I received the Gran View 4x5 the other day.  It is just as advertised and in good shape.  My first impressions confirm what I was able to find out about the camera before I bought it.

• Focusing is a bit crude.  It'll take some trial and error to set up infinity on it when I finally get a lens mounted.  Worse, I'm not sure how stable the set up will be.  I'm afraid it may drift in adjustment.

• The lens mount is copal 1 sized and all the 75mm lenses I find are mounted in copal 0!  I'm going to have to make some kind of aluminum donut to size the mount down.

• The flocking in the focusing cone is loose and starting to fall off.  The focusing screen showed a great deal of flocking debris.  Worse, the debris will get on the film.  I'll have to remove that flocking and replace it with flat black paint.

• The handle is awkward, but I found good hand holding methods for horizontal and vertical shots.

• It looks like I can manage several degrees of rise and fall in the vertical orientation.  That may come in handy.

• I like the accessory shoes.  The locking screws are a great touch.  I've dropped more than a few viewfinders off of loose shoes and it's a terrible feeling.

I also received my first rolls of Ektar 100 in 120.  I've got a roll loaded right now in my Iskra.  Now to find something colorful to point at.  I'm thinking that the Balda, loaded with black and white and the Iskra, loaded with Ektar, will be my new carry gear.

I sold off a VC Meter II (shoe mounted meter) that I was not using and a double accessory shoe.  Both went quickly on Rangefinderforum.com. The accessory shoe in particular was in great demand.  They're no longer made and I'm pretty sure I asked/got about half of what I should have.  I still have an old 6x9 roll film adapter for 4x5 cameras I need to get rid of.  Selling off these toys is getting me close to enough cash to buy the 75mm lens needed to complete the Gran View.

Upon Further Consideration...

Have you ever finished post processing a set of images and figured you got all you were going to get out of a shoot, then a week or two later, decided that one of the discarded images was worth your time after all?

Happens to me now and again.  I generally scan in to a catch all directory and then organize the files as I finish post processing.  That gives me the opportunity to look at the scans again and again until I "put them away."  Last night, I took another look at this scan and ends up, it really didn't take that much work to put it reasonably right.

 

4x5 film, Super angulon 90mm f8, 1/15th at f32, Ilford FP4+, yellow filter.

First Shots on Large Format

Wow. 

First, that was a very different experience, shooting large format on ground glass.  I felt very awkward trying to manage everything.  Thank goodness my son was so patient, because it took way longer than I thought it would.  Of course, I'll improve over time.  I obviously have a great deal to learn.

I was determined to get my first shots taken and developed over the weekend.  Time was tight, as it usually is, so I just set the second son down in a chair and told him to sit.  I have no studio lights, so I added three lamps to supplement the sparse window light.  I didn't worry about posing, I just needed him to sit so I could shoot at him.

All that is to say that I know there is nothing particularly artistic about these images.  They fail as portraits in many ways.  That's ok, I got the job done.  I tested the camera and my ability to develop and scan 4x5 film.

This first shot is an example of a mistake I hope I don't repeat too very often.  Focusing on ground glass means, of course, that the shutter must be open.  However, you really should remember to close the shutter before inserting the film and removing the darkslide.

 

From there, I settled down pretty well.  No prizes here really, but I do think they reflect the potential of the format.  Frankly, looking at the negatives and getting the first scans up...I was completely thrilled!  I just kept thinking, "Wow!  This with a sixty year old wide/normal lens!  Imagine the portrait possibilities with a modern short/tele!

 

 

 

I am seriously in love with those big negatives!