dshfoto
Well-known
LET'S MAKE THE APRIL NYC MEET-UP SUNDAY APRIL 30th.
Great date Cal. Are you still set for this?
Steve
Great date Cal. Are you still set for this?
Steve
LET'S MAKE THE APRIL NYC MEET-UP SUNDAY APRIL 30th.
Great date Cal. Are you still set for this?
Steve
Don't turn our head for a moment because as soon you realize you may have an 8x10 around. 😀"So in today's episode of "This Old Man" begins with a tale of two Linhofs. So Cal what happened?"
"I spoke with my Personal Linhof Consultant (PLC) last night, and it seems the new worry is whether the front of the bed will be in the shot, as wide angle often require "dropping the bed" and then raising and tilting the front standard to get back on the optical centerline. Of course all these movements discounts the rangefinder's accuracy so ground glass focusing is required. I hope this is not true. Ahhh...
...
"Mr. Policeman, there's a Japanese tourist with an antique accordion camera taking half of the sidewalk"
A UW Linhofroid machine does seem very fun. Too bad I can't be around there to see the thing going! Best of luck with Tuesday's UPS chapter.
Whoa! That's mucho stuff going on.
Interesting to know about the Chinese gig going, I only have seen her short video posted on IG of her speaking about style.
Yes I think the vintage hipster (and non poser) is an interesting role model. I'm not a fashion connoiseur but if she was in a close gig I'd show to see it around. Saying "Cal sent me" would be a bouncer workaround? LOL
Still, as long as globalization uniforms (or informs rather) about cultures, the differences and shocks are there.
Linhof monsterization sounds interesting. Roger Hicks again IIRC had one of those 6x9 covering 2.8 planars. Rereleasing it as a bokeh machine would work IMO!
PLC aside have you checked with Linhof Germany themselves? It does make sense that it will work without movements. German design remember!
I have the Rolleicord V in house but have to put the roll and shoot... scheduled some good time in the weekend for it. A bit of a curious and slower paced approach than MF RF
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Wishing John (Jsrockit) a great journey, and success with his move to Chile... Hope to visit. I'm sure he will be at some future meetups.. Safe travels my friend..
Jeff
Jorde,
Maggie's opinion is that NYC is way much mucho chaos and her landing in JFK was more like a third world experience when compared to China.
Really interesting to understand how the difference within one generation can be so big between the young and old in China. It is a powerful transformation going on where the young are searching for their identity in a grand way and on a grand scale.
Anyways a city of 24 million people with an ancient history (5000 years). seems really interesting to me.
It seems like the Linhof project is the final build out of my "Camera Retirement Account" (CRA). I tend to buy cameras to keep and utilize for the rest of my life. I get the cameras serviced and into prime condition, and every once in a while I do the cull down. Pretty much I have more cameras than I need, and I can remain happy with less. Took me about a decade to build this CRA, and I was careful over time to be very thoughtful to think over the long-long term.
So all my medium format cameras now are all leaf shutter. I am downsizing the Pentax 67 II, so in a way the Linhof bumps the Pentax, and both are big heavy cameras. There is some overlap with having the big old Fuji's (GL690 and GM670), but the Linhof has Zeiss glass. The Plaubel is a 21 FOV Super Augulon in 6x9, and my Rollie 3.5F is for shooting the square.
Because I'm shooting less film because of digital, I figure why not slow down, go with the flow, and emphasize medium format over small format, and shoot three mediums: small; medium; and digital.
Cal
Hey cal,
Any reason you don't go for a Mamiya Press with a 50mm Biogon and a Polaroid back? All of those things are out of the box and easy to find. It's no Zeiss glass but the price is incredibly reasonable and that lens really is great. I could bring mine for you.
Not to downplay the allure of the German made glass and body though. Those press's don't exactly have the same panache.
Hope all is well!
An permanent move or just travel?
Have a great time if its either. But if it's the former, NYC will surely miss you. Best of luck.
Jeremy,
You bring up great points, and I thought about it. For ultrawide I already have the Plaubel 69W Proshift, so it is hard to justify having a second 6x9 rig unless I consider the additional flexibility and usefulness of going with a Linhof.
So your insight to the valuable and collectible German glass creates a hard asset effect over the long run. The Linhof surely is a durable camera, user friendly, and kinda modular, but then again there is a bit of overlap with my Fuji "Texas Leicas."
Anyways being 59 and considering my retirement understand that the Linhof is a Luxury camera with German prestige, collectability, and its own mojo that hopefully serves me for my remaining decades.
Probably not the most practical camera, but money wise I don't think I will loose, and I do think I will create mucho great images with this camera that will be distinguished from other shots taken with my other gear.
Also know that I intend on taking Louis Mendez's invite to go to Marti Graw's. I think it will be an interesting experience. At the Armoury show on the UES I met up with Louis, and he asked me if I was hanging out because he wanted to get some lunch, and he left me with his camera.
So all of the sudden I was a Louis Mendez impersonator, and the usual crowd began to interact with me. One friend of Louis was suspicious and said, "You're not Louis," and he kinda stood guard to make sure my story was valid and that I hadn't "liberated" his rig and suitcase. Anyways this alone was powerful.
So this camera I named "Junior" hopefully has some of that "Mojo" I felt holding Louis' rig. Because this camera can also shoot film it offers the flexibility to be my documentry camera for this excursion.
I am at a point in my life where my youth is fading, and I am expending my resources I hope wisely to enjoy the life I built as much as possible. For me the time to do living is now before it is too late.
Cal
Get busy living or get busy dying. I don't normally quote movies but I thought this was warranted.
Completely understand about the German glass. I've caught the bug as well 🙂. One thing about the Polaroid FP100 and 3000b is that unless you'll be storing the negatives, i think the German glass could be overkill though. Will you be scanning them and printing or is it just for the positives?
I still have about 15 packs of the FP3000 in the freezer. I think it is quite rare now... I'm seeing it for more than $50 a pack and not very often. I presume the cameras that shot it exclusively have declined precipitously in value.
I still have a project I'm shooting with it but I am waiting until it's exceedingly rare before going back to the film. Pity because the FP3000 is phenomenal stuff.
On another note for many a moon I've wanted to get into the Hasselblad game. The German glass for these being world renowned. I had an SWC but never shot with it much so we parted ways last year. I've now put the resources towards Rolleiflex's automated answer to the 'Blad:
![]()
I've been looking at them for some time and what really gets me going is that they have many of the same Zeiss lenses as the Blad but also a series a Schneider lenses which are very fast for Medium Format lenses. I shoot loads in low light and the available F2 from the 80mm is going to go far. They also have an excellent 40mm F3.5 from Schneider. So now I can replicate the functionality of the SWC but for half the price and through an SLR! Have yet to purchase that lens quite yet now...
This 80mm found its way to me on Craigslist for a song (they are fairly rare and so I jumped at the chance). I've now had it serviced and cleaned and she looks ready to take on many projects with me.
I've also much interest in the 4x5 world. And 4x5 rangefinders in particular (or maybe I should say rangefinder as there are so few models out there that fit that spec). Would love to see you rig when finished. The last two years I was very active in the DIY space with 3D printing cameras as I believe I showed you but the birth of our first child put a slight moratorium on that project ha (just another small change in my life that occurred since the last time we met). The rollei and 80mm will be perfect for baby portraits.
Will you be bringing the Linhof to the meetup or is it not complete?
Jeremy,
I think you were wise to secure the fast 80, and I think it is a strong candidate to place in your CRA (Camera Retirment account) due to its rarity and its utility.
You ask a good question about Polaroid. I'm not sure at this point, but I have skin in the game to do my road trip/adventure with Louis.
I now see why one must drop the bed: to push in the rails for the front standard to gain infinity focus. The front lens standard needs to be almost inside the camera, and the rear element needs to be really close to the ground glass. Seems like I need to add front movements to use the drop bed. Oh-well.
Cal
So you will modify the Front standard to gain movements and lose its prototype fixedness then. Fixie wise, that's a quite vintage hipster front standard!
Roadtrip/Adventure with Louis, man, that's something great. Too bad I can guess you won't be passing my "state", unless you go Round the world. How's he doing after the FP discontinuation though?
CRA is what I love about classic film cameras. Basically timeless value from them. Even as young I am, some of them seem like a lifetime camera.
Went to my family's little village and met again some of the family acquitances, every year older and more senile. Daw an acquitance who has lost a lot of his well being in the last 5 years, and he is 75. It is something to save thoughts about.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk