Building a 4x5 kit; what am I forgetting?

[x-ray]

The Angulon has almost the covering power of the f/8 Super Angulon, only about 5deg less, and is has substantially more even illumination across the image than a "Super". Few "landscape" photographers using 4x5 will ever encounter coverage issues with a 90mm Angulon and they'll not need the expensive center filter, or extra dodging in the darkroom, to get even exposure across a wide sky.

The 90 Angulon just covers 4x5 where as the 90 f8 Super Angulon just covers 5x7. I forgot I owned an Angulon for a while and had a 90 SA f8 for many years until I replaced it with the 5.6 and then later the Nikkor 4.5. There's quite a difference in coverage between the 90 Angulon and Super Angulon. Check the specs.

Schneider specs say 154mm for the Angulon / 81 degrees and 216mm for the f8 Super Angulon / 100 degrees. These are specs at optimum aperture.

No center filter is needed if you stop down a couple of stops.

 

[rbiemer]

Since my last post, I've been practicing loading the holders and the daylight tank, loaded all the film holders and left them out in daylight, developed those films, and no light leaks. 🙂
As well, I've got my lens mounted securely in the lens board and the film holders are ready and waiting.😎
Have been reading the books I have about black and white film practice.
And, I think I've watched every video about the Intrepid there is on youtube...
When I ordered the Intrepid, the company stated the lead time as six weeks. Which, is just about up--this coming Saturday. As of now, I've not got a shipping notice. And in the last few days I have not been able to resist asking random strangers on the internet how their deliveries went...🙄 THe folks that responded to me have all basically confirmed that they got their cameras as the wait/lead time was stated
when they ordered.

Geez, not like a kid waiting on bday/xmass or anything...😀

Rob

 

[newfilm]

Geez, not like a kid waiting on bday/xmass or anything...😀

Calm down, it will come 🙂

I'll watch this thread with interest because I researched about the intrepid camera a while back, but did not buy it due to some less than favor review (which they seems to have address in their more recent model).

I'd like to hear about your experience with it once you've shoot with it 🙂

 

[mbisc]

A quick (slightly nit-picky) note about "loaded all the film holders and left them out in daylight, developed those films, and no light leaks": the light leaks in film holders generally show their ugly face not by them sitting out in daylight, but via the felt light trap where you slide the dark slide in and out, so the better way to check for light leaks (and this will also check your bellows) is to put a film holder in your camera (with the lens closed), remove the dark slide and wait 10 or 15 minutes before putting it back in...

Cheers,
Mike

 

[rbiemer]

Just got an email from the director of Intrepid.
My camera will ship "the first week in June."
I'm glad for the company that, apparently, demand is high enough that they are unable to hit their stated lead time but still.😡

Rob

 

[rbiemer]

Finally!

Finally!

Just got my shipping notice from Intrepid! Hopefully, by this time next week I'll have a photo or two to share.

Rob

 

[rbiemer]

Just got my shipping notice from Intrepid! Hopefully, by this time next week I'll have a photo or two to share.

Rob

Yep. Got a shipping notice and four days later Royal Mail is still showing the tracking number as "information not yet available...:bang:

Rob

 

[x-ray]

Small correction - x-ray means Super Angulon XL, and XL series. Just to clarify. Great lenses, I have them in 47/58/72/90.

Either auto correct or big fingers. Thanks!

 

[rbiemer]

The Intrepid I ordered 7 April, with a stated lead time of 6 weeks, was processed through the ISC (International Service Center) yesterday morning and departed Flushing, NY this afternoon. 🙂 Typically that means I'll have it tomorrow.
So, 74 days...6 weeks production time...plus "3 to 5 days to ship to the US"...equals 47 days...Apparently I suck at math.🙄

10 and 1/2 weeks. And, last week some one posted on Intrepid's facebook page asking about current lead time. The answer was 5 weeks.🤦🏼*♂️

Just from what I can see publicly, I guess the small company is getting kind of swamped. And they recently did a kickstarter to launch their 8x10 cameras.
Not too impressed with the company.

Rob

 

[rbiemer]

Finally!
My Intrepid came in with today's mail! I am definitely a happier person than I was two days ago.

I don't know a lot about LF cameras but I do know a bit about woodworking and I will say this is pretty basic but nicely made. It is square and true, the focus adjusts well and doesn't seem to move unless I turn the wheel. The camera smells nice.
The ground glass is glass and passable--no worse than some MF cameras I've used.

I will be loading two of my film holders tonight and, weather permitting, will shoot those tomorrow early morning.

I bought a pinhole lens board with the camera and that did need a very slight bit of sanding as it was just too tight in the camera.

The new Chinese made "Shen Hao" type lens boards I bought in anticipation fit just fine. And the lens I have fit those well, too.

The rotating back is tight but smooth.

Corners are crisp but not too sharp and no splinters anywhere that I can see.

Would I recommend this to any one else? Not yet. Maybe, once I've actually used it some.

I admit to not being entirely happy with the "communication" from the company. And, as I might have mentioned🙄 the stated lead time is a nice fantasy but they're not hitting their marks just yet.

Still, I'm pleased so far with the camera itself. I think it absolutely is worth what I paid.

Rob

 

[x-ray]

Love the green bellows. I have a red bellows on my Deardorff 4x5 special. Now you'll need a better lens. That one won't allow much or any movements.

 

[rbiemer]

Love the green bellows. I have a red bellows on my Deardorff 4x5 special. Now you'll need a better lens. That one won't allow much or any movements.

They offer black, blue, red, and green. The green just looked better to me.

I'm going to be looking at other/better lenses but not right away. I was playing with the movements earlier and, yes the Raptar does not cover nearly all of the movement possible but, it does cover some.

My intent is to use all the film I have now with that lens and then to decide what's next. I need to get a sense of what this lens' focal length is for how I see what I'm shooting--I know that a 135 is slightly wide for 4x5 but I need to learn how that relates to my typical sobject/objectives for this format.
Then, I will have a better idea of, or if, I want a different length. And what ever that lens is, I will be looking at better coverage.

Rob

 

[rbiemer]

This past week, I had some family stuff to deal with and could not get out with the Intrepid until this morning.

I'm having a late breakfast as I'm posting, so I've not processed the film yet.

In the 74 days I waited for this to arrive, I have been checking out some things to photograph in my small town and nearby. For the initial shots, I wanted something familiar and that I could park close to. Our Courthouse park has a few options: there is a good sized fountain, the courthouse itself(built in 1890s ), and what originally was a WW I memorial--some time when I was a kid, it was rededicated to Veterans from our town and not specific to any particular war.

A few things I learned this morning.

I need a better dark cloth. I got a generic one from Adorama and found that the jacket I was wearing worked much better. I might also make a hood from some foam board I have.

Leveling the camera was not quite as fiddly as I thought it might be.

I quite liked the inverted image on the ground glass. Whether my composition will be better for it or not I don't know yet but it did "force" me to be more mindful of what was in the frame.

After focus and compose, close the shutter before loading the film holder. I may have messed up one negative--almost certainly--because I realized as I started to pull the dark-slide that I didn't know if the shutter was closed or not. This is a habit I'm going to reinforce.

When I do start to make some longer hikes with this camera, I'm going to need a better bag: I mostly don't use a bag with my smaller cameras, my practice has become to carry the camera over my shoulder, 2 or 3 extra rolls of film in a pocket, and sometimes one other lens in another pocket. I do have a good sized bag that will hold my Bessa R and one other body, all my lenses, two of those Fuji film boxes, the filters and hoods for the lenses, cable release, a couple extra batteries, small notebook, ect.
That bag will hold the Intrepid, the one lens I now have, all my film holders, the dark cloth, cable release, filters, and notebook. But it just is not really suited to this so I'll need to look at something better.

I will probably replace the ball head I have for a three way head: being able to adjust one axis with out changing the others sounds like a good plan to me.

Later today, I'll post what I got from this morning.

Rob

 

[x-ray]

With a view camera I don't see how anyone can use a ball head but some prefer them.

Hope you got some good shots.

My ex wife was from Skaneateles and there's a lot of good photo subjects in your area. Beautiful country.

 

[rbiemer]

With a view camera I don't see how anyone can use a ball head but some prefer them.

Hope you got some good shots.

My ex wife was from Skaneateles and there's a lot of good photo subjects in your area. Beautiful country.

After this morning, I think I will get another head. I was not too worried about the camera flopping around--the head I've got has ok damping--but it was a bit of a pain to keep the camera where I wanted it while moving it in one direction.

I also have to give you points for spelling Skaneateles correctly! 🙂

A couple of years back I bought a book "Waterfalls of New York" that I will be using quite a bit this year.
There used to be a whole lot of original barns in my county, some dating from mid 1800s. Many varied styles--each was built for the specific farmer's crops. Most of those are long gone but there are still a few. I'll be talking to some farmers about shooting those as well.

Rob

 

[x-ray]

My ex was actually from Mottville but it's just a wide spot in the road. I have a picture on the 3rd page of my gallery http://www.rangefinderforum.com/rffgallery/showphoto.php?photoid=59031 of the Mottville post office that I did on 4x5 back in 1975. It was over 100 years old then and still being used as a post office. Not long after I made the photo the post office shut it down and moved to a trailer. It might still be standing.

There are some beautiful barns. The last time I was up there a lot had been renovated into homes.

Areas I though were beautiful were around the wine country Hammondsport and up around the thousand islands. I think though it's easier to see photo ops when you're not from the area. It's all fresh and new then.

 

[sevo]

Get a soft dark cloth with lead (these days probably tungsten) curtain cord sewn into in the seams.

 

[JoeV]

I find a small backpack works for my Speed Graphic and film holders. I wear it while carrying tripod on my shoulders. For a dark cloth I use a black polo-style shirt worn upside down around my neck. I stretch the bottom of the shirt around the back of the camera and get a nice darkened view. I can access the interior of the shirt for focus checks on the ground glass using the shirt's sleeves. Simple and inexpensive.

 

[rbiemer]

No results to share as yet, real life got in the way yesterday.

JoeV, thanks for the suggestion about a shirt.

I am a bit stumped one one thing: which dilution to use for the HC-110?

I think that the "B" dilution is where I'm going to start. From my reading, that seems to be a good middle of the road choice.
I'm metering the HP5+ at 400, my shutter is likely to be a bit slower than its marked speeds so, some overexposure there. So this ought to give me something to start with and then I can adjust as necessary.

Rob

 

[x-ray]

For HP-5 I use dilution B. No need to try anything else.