Fastest Speed of All 4x5/9x12 TLR Sinar Norma

[Nokton48]

SK Grimes CNCed Rear Mount 360mm Barrel Componon by Nokton48, on Flickr

• Arrived today, shown lower right, SK Grimes CNC'ed this duplicate of my Rear Mount (Is it Schneider or Durst??). The original is lower left). It's been in the que for a few months but worth the wait and worth every Penny. These items will go on a couple of flat Norma boards, still have a few with big holes to use for these projects. Drill press some mounting holes and it is ready to use.
  
  I had an extra one of these lenses which had bad interior fog. I traded it out with Jason Lane, he has an optical polishing machine and can de-fog milky cells. So he will end up a killer lens, too. These two will go on my TLR 5x7/4x5 Reflex Sinar Normas.

 

[Retro-Grouch]

One major design flaw: I don't see any neck strap lugs on these critters. If some people (and we're lookin' at you, Nokton 48!) can do two-fisted wedding shoots with a pair of Mamiya TLRs, why not shoot with the Sinar hand-held?

 

[Nokton48]

One major design flaw: I don't see any neck strap lugs on these critters. If some people (and we're lookin' at you, Nokton 48!) can do two-fisted wedding shoots with a pair of Mamiya TLRs, why not shoot with the Sinar hand-held?

4x5 Custom Made Sinar Norma Handy 283 Wedding Bacharach by Nokton48, on Flickr

I have this one for wide angle Papparazzo-type stuff. This Norma DOES have a neck strap (Thanks to Calzone!)

This is my old bulletproof Wedding 283 Flash with Mini Soft Box. Great for Press Photography. The Viewfinder is a Mamiya 7 43mm Optical Finder. Also would work good with the Minolta SRT Era Deluxe III Flashgun. The Minolta SRT Era Flash Meter is deadly accurate with my Broncolor stuff and matches it in terms of readings. Also it reads focal plane flashbulbs!

 

[Retro-Grouch]

Very, very cool! But I hope you have a good chiropractor!

 

[Nokton48]

SONY DSC by Nokton48, on Flickr

After months of waiting finally finished! 360mm barrel Schneider Componon 360mm f5.6 matched pair. I also have a pair of Sinar 360mm Symmar lenses, you can not tell these two apart from a distance. Certainly does perform favorably against the Symmar, Schneider did recommend it for taking photography (not just enlarging 8x10 negatives). Lengendary Repair Guru Ken Ruth (he always had the inside back cover of Shutterbug for decades) suggested to me to get the entire set of Componons, YES they are great and cheap as dirt. I paid $150 for each of these which I think is quite good for what these are. Getting a matched pair of rear mounts was the difficulty. SK Grimes came through 100% even better than the original. For 8x10 Head Shots these lenses are about as good as you can get. A bonus is that they perform quite well wipe-open. Back in the 60's people were shooting 8x10 Handheld so wide-open is a help!

 

[Nokton48]

Very, very cool! But I hope you have a good chiropractor!

This custom made Norma "HANDY" is not all that bad at all to sling one-handed, just like the "tank" 1960s Mamys. About the same seriously. Where the weight is added, is the 4x5 or 9x12cm film holders. The weight adds up pretty quick with those, so I have switched over to (six-shooting) "Graflex Graphmatics" which saves a bit. Usually I quickly look around for a place to set this down, so in a way the weight is kinda moot point. The camera is a total hoot to use with about a 21mm perspective (on a 35mm cam) so YEP it's wide and mighty HANDY. Sinar sure named it right 🙂 I like the old original F2 DOMKE bags they are stealthy and cheap

Right now I have one 4x5 Graphmatic loaded with HP5+, and another one loaded with 4x5 TMX400. I have six Graphmatics in all. Just waiting for the right opportunity. On camera 283 flash with Mini Softbox always produces a usuable negative, just like at a wedding! Also I do have the original Schneider Center FIlter for the 65mm F8 Super Angulon which is this Baby. And just now the original Schneider LENSHOOD specifically for this 65mm F8 lens. Engraved in red "LINHOF" I covered that with black tape LOL

:shootout:

 

[Nokton48]

4x5 Custom Made Sinar Norma Handy 283 Wedding Bacharach by Nokton48, on Flickr

My Norma Handy custom made by me, 65mm f8 and original Sinar Norma 65mm F8 Norma Helical. Distance scaled really sweet to use. I pasted a copy of Hyperfocal Focusing Chart on the back of each 4x5 Graphmatic. I also have the exact Schneider Center Filter for this lens marked 65mm F8. You have to stop down at least two stops when you use the Schneider Center Filter. This lens better covers the 9x12cm Sinar Norma 4x5 Holders I have, as 9x12 is slightly smaller than 4x5. I shoot both

 

[Nokton48]

Ashton Pond Norma Handy HRU Mic-X by Nokton48, on Flickr

Sinar Norma 4x5 Custom Made HANDY 4x5 XRAY HRU 1 sec F22 Sinar Norma Medium Yellow 108mm Glass Disk. Camera mounted on Star-D tripod. Legacy Mic-X Replenished Straight in Cesco flat bottomed tray under red safelight. Omega DII 180mm black Rodagon laser aligned. Arista RC #2 Multigrade dev

The yellow filter darkened the sky slightly. I prefer this

 

[Retro-Grouch]

SONY DSC by Nokton48, on Flickr

After months of waiting finally finished! 360mm barrel Schneider Componon 360mm f5.6 matched pair. I also have a pair of Sinar 360mm Symmar lenses, you can not tell these two apart from a distance. Certainly does perform favorably against the Symmar, Schneider did recommend it for taking photography (not just enlarging 8x10 negatives). Lengendary Repair Guru Ken Ruth (he always had the inside back cover of Shutterbug for decades) suggested to me to get the entire set of Componons, YES they are great and cheap as dirt. I paid $150 for each of these which I think is quite good for what these are. Getting a matched pair of rear mounts was the difficulty. SK Grimes came through 100% even better than the original. For 8x10 Head Shots these lenses are about as good as you can get. A bonus is that they perform quite well wipe-open. Back in the 60's people were shooting 8x10 Handheld so wide-open is a help!

Ya know, someone has to say this: What you've got there is the "Texas Rolleiflex". Ouch. Sorry.....

 

[Nokton48]

SINAR TWIN LENS REFLEX BY GLENNVIEW​

SINAR TWIN LENS REFLEX BY GLENNVIEW. This is a RARE CAMERA. Although Sinar sold the components to assemble a Twin Lens Reflex camera, I have never seen one. I can sell you the critical components, other than a set of matched lenses, you will need to put together your own Sinar TLR. This particular camera is priced as is because of the quality components. The camera is my personal camera; the camera is composed of the best versions of Norma components. The bellows are light tight original Norma bellows; nobody has made such quality bellows in decades.



Glenn has had the same idea as me. Good on Him. I've seen several Hollywood California Glamour Photographers advertise this type of Norma Rig. I'm sure it got a lot of use out there. Great Speedy Studio Camera. Texas Rolleiflex LOL. Can't beat spontaneous no black out viewing. When the strobe pops, I can "see" the photo in a blaze, no closed eyes, no need for "chimping" I do leave my camera set up all the time.

 

[phranklee]

Very cool. I’ve had 8x10, 5x7 and 4x5 Normas as well as many others. Even built a 75mm Handy and rigged the Sinar shutter and auto diaphragm cables on a studio rig (which worked beautifully until the Gyro Gearloose mechanism failed somewhere in the chain). As well as Technikas and Graphics. In the end I believe RB Graflex SLRs are the best way to make large format portraits because you are observing focus right up to exposure rather than having to focus and insert holder, close and stop lens, pull slide, etc that takes at least five seconds during which the subject may move enough to throw shallow depth of field focus off.

Although… usually you can work around this with practice and firm direction (HOLD STILL!!!) and a giant TLR is a lot more versatile than an 80-100 year Graflex with no spare parts.

 

[Nokton48]

Ashton Pond Norma Handy HRU Mic-X by Nokton48, on Flickr

Ashton Pond Columbus Ohio Sinar Norma Handy 4x5 Fuji HR-U XRay 65mm F8 at F22 Schneider CF + Sinar Norma Dark Yellow 103mm Glass Disk 1 sec at F22 Legacy Mic-X replenished stock in tray 18 mins at 62F Arista #2 RC 4x 8x10 Multigrade dev

 

[phranklee]

I used to have a bunch of Grafmatics and eventually several dried out and self destructed in the middle of an important shoot. Never trusted them again. The glue inside is ~70 years old!