4x4?

Al Kaplan said:
Primo Jr. Damn! I just couldn't think of the name.

The condensors on some projectors (not Sawyers...LOL) might be a bit tight for fully illuminating the corners.

Durst made an enlarger, the 404, for the format. These days it might be difficult to find 4X 4 negative carriers for any enlarger. >>

Well, we might have missed that, projecting on the wall. ;-)

I may have been contact printing in those days, I think I have a folder that takes 8 exposures, decent size format at that.

I heard the UK was making this and 620 film for a few years longer than the US. Some of my students used my mom's instamatic to shoot Kodachrome on a western US field trip, the slide projected quite well and square works quite well in presentation. I have a few boxes of mounts, just in case I shoot some.

I think my first enlarger had one carrier, with two sheets of glass, a Federal and I cannot believe I actually was able to sell it years later when I got an Omega. ;-)

John
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Just to throw a non-TLR googly into the works, there's always the 1 1/4 x 1 1/4 inch (around 3x3...) Purma Special and Plus... Entertaining, in that hard-to-use-right Argus C3 way, but really of interest as a curiosity nowadays.

Adrian
 
I've got a Sawyer, a baby gray Rollei, and a Yashica 44. The Sawyer is the best design of the three IMHO, but honestly the Yashica is the one I bang around with most. I think it's a blast to carry. Small enough to be unobtrusive, but a large enough negative to get good details.

There are several "versions" of the Yashica 44,
so be careful what you're getting. There are the originals, with knob advance and non-bayonet style lenses, there are bayonet style lenses with
knob advance, there are bayonet lenses with crank advance, and there is one with a light meter. Somewhere I found a site that had them all cataloged, but I can't find it now. I don't believe there was that much variation in the Sawyer/Topcon or the baby Rollei.

MB
 
Muggins said:
Just to throw a non-TLR googly into the works, there's always the 1 1/4 x 1 1/4 inch (around 3x3...) Purma Special and Plus... Entertaining, in that hard-to-use-right Argus C3 way, but really of interest as a curiosity nowadays.

Adrian
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I've actually been keeping my eye out for a Purma Special. Neat looking thing.
 
If you're looking beyond a TLR, you could look at a Bilora Bella, a viewfinder zone-focus camera.

An inexpensive camera, it was available in several different styles, including 4x4. This camera can sometimes be found under the Tower brand.

This has just a two-element lens, so don't expect Tessar sharpness.
 
ZeissFan said:
If you're looking beyond a TLR, you could look at a Bilora Bella, a viewfinder zone-focus camera.

An inexpensive camera, it was available in several different styles, including 4x4. This camera can sometimes be found under the Tower brand.

This has just a two-element lens, so don't expect Tessar sharpness.
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I saw one of those too. I'm not a big fan of zone focusing unless ultrawide.
Just not good at it.
 
Oddball trap it is! Crap is more like it. I bought one in my senior year in high school. They only cost $69.95 and 127 film was available everywhere, even films like Panatomic-X and Tri-x could be purchased at any camera store. I did shoot a lot of fairly decent yearbook and vacation pictures with it before my repair guy pulled an Exacta V with an f/2.8 preset Tessar out from under the counter. He gave me a fantastic price on the rig but vowed to never again touch a Komaflex S.
 
I don't regret buying the Y44... but I think I actually had more "fun" shooting my Lubitels!

(and as wonderful as efke 100 might be, larger negs on every other film is a real bonus... like being able to shoot ISO 400 and stop down to make up for fiddly dim focusing with DOF).

🙂

dazedgonebye said:
Not really looking for super high quality. I was considering a Lubitel in 6x6 and then this seemed like a fun alternative.
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I got two Yashica 44LMs and one 44 (not the 44A, stay away from that one) but It hink a primo jr / sawyer mark iv or a baby rollei would do the job too 🙂
 
From what I've now read, the prospect of my breaking it just playing around would be real.
It's a shame though. The idea of an slr in this niche, that I could easily put fiters on and have no parallax error, seems very nice.

Al Kaplan said:
Oddball trap it is! Crap is more like it. I bought one in my senior year in high school. They only cost $69.95 and 127 film was available everywhere, even films like Panatomic-X and Tri-x could be purchased at any camera store. I did shoot a lot of fairly decent yearbook and vacation pictures with it before my repair guy pulled an Exacta V with an f/2.8 preset Tessar out from under the counter. He gave me a fantastic price on the rig but vowed to never again touch a Komaflex S.
Click to expand...
 
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