Hi, from the Lake District.

Richard Lee

Richard Lee

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Hi, although a native of Essex, I now live on the northern fringes of the Lake District where I indulge my twin passions for fell-wandering and landscape photography.

After numerous, shameless pre-Christmas hints, I recently became the proud owner of my first LF camera - a bitsa Pacemaker Speed Graphic which, at some point has been robbed of its FP shutter - but then, who needs two shutters anyway?

I'm a long-time medium format user and have my own permanent darkroom which is pretty-much set up for 5x4 negs already. Looking forward to benefitting from the expertise on the forum, and maybe even adding my own two-penneth.

Richard
 
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Welcome from Worcestershire, I own a couple of Speed Graphics which I use with barrel lenses, one is a modified wide angle pre-Anniversary, the other a Pacemaket. Are you sure the curtain is completely missing ? I may have a curtain that's repairable, but I'm not sure which shutter it's for.

Ian
 
Are you sure the curtain is completely missing ?
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Hi Ian, and thank you for the welcome.

Yep, the shutter is definitely missing and a side plate has been fitted very neatly as if the controls had never been there. The camera was purchased for me with little more than loose change so I'm not too concerned that it's been cannibalised.

Richard
 
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Welcome to the addictive world of large format. Most of the lenses you will come across will have shutters.
 
Richard Lee said:
Hi Ian, and thank you for the welcome.

Yep, the shutter is definitely missing and a side panel has been fitted very neatly as if the controls had never been there. The camera was purchased for me with loose change so I'm not too concerned that it's been cannabalised.

Richard
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I have neutered Speed Graphic as well, around 15 years ago I bought 2 cheap from the US, sold as enough parts to rebuild one good camera, however one was the pre-Anniversary the other a Pacemaker missing all shutter parts and a damaged rear track-bed. No parts were interchangeable, but I was able to fully restore the pre-Anniversary.

Ian
 
karlt said:
Most of the lenses you will come across will have shutters.
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Thanks very much. Yes, I'm not particularly interested in experimenting with barrel lenses and have no need for faster shutter speeds. I'm waiting on a 127mm Ektar to arrive from the US which I reckon, will meet most of my needs.
 
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Ian Grant said:
I have neutered Speed Graphic as well, around 15 years ago I bought 2 cheap from the US...

Ian
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Ian,

I did briefly consider having the curtain replaced and emailed a reputable and well-known repairer for a ball-park figure. The enquiry obviously fell on deaf ears and I immediately lost the very little interest I had.

Richard
 
I think the issue is that essentially you'd have to cannibalise a second Pacemaker Speed Graphic. I bought a large box of Graflex parts cheap from Paris, some years ago, the seller had been stripping down Speed Graphic, using just the shutter in a cut down bodies with large barrel lenses. There was the shutter control assembly but no cover, however it was too late as I'd already filled in the side and recovered the camera body.

There are the parts available on eBay from the US, but they are always overpriced, you can pick up good working Speed Graphics for less than it would cost to re-instate the shutter :D I do service the cameras and shutters occasionally, and also the MPP MicroPress cameras which are basically mostly Speed Graphics with a few British parts.

Ian
 
Ian Grant said:
...you can pick up good working Speed Graphics for less than it would cost to re-instate the shutter.

Ian
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Indeed you can, but would spending more and having a working FP shutter have made any significant difference? Not particularly, I reckon. As I mentioned previously, the camera otherwise, is in near minty condition and was purchased for peanuts - mostly to satisfy an insatiable itch and to dip a toe into large format.

Richard
 
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Richard Lee said:
Thanks very much. Yes, not I'm particularly interested in experimenting with barrel lenses and have no need for faster shutter speeds. I'm waiting on a 127mm Ektar to arrive from the US which I reckon, will meet most of my needs.
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Those Ektars are superb lenses. I shoot with two of them. The 127mm to which you refer and an 8 1/2" Commercial Ektar.
 
thronobulax said:
Those Ektars are superb lenses. I shoot with two of them. The 127mm to which you refer and an 8 1/2" Commercial Ektar.
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Yes, I did read several reviews on the 127mm Ektar while weighing-up my options, all of which were very complimentary. I am a tad concerned however, about the limited coverage on 5x4 - I guess time will tell. I'm interested in your 8 1/2" Commercial Ektar, but not sure how that equates to focal length...

Richard
 
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The 127mm Ektar is really better suited for the smaller Quarter plate Speed Graphics, so as you say coverage is very tight. If you use front tilt you need to use rise/fall to stay inside the image circle.

The 8½" Commercial Ektar is a 216mm lens, they were never sold in the UK, you'd find a 210mm f5.5 Symmar S (or earlier) a better option in terms of price, because of the Import Duty then VAT compounded on the Item cost and Shipping. Or the smaller 203mm f7.7 Ektar which are very small sharp lenses - Kodak made these in the UK as well as in the US.

Ian
 
Ian Grant said:
The 8½" Commercial Ektar is a 216mm lens, they were never sold in the UK, you'd find a 210mm f5.5 Symmar S (or earlier) a better option in terms of price, because of the Import Duty then VAT compounded on the Item cost and Shipping. Or the smaller 203mm f7.7 Ektar which are very small sharp lenses - Kodak made these in the UK as well as in the US.

Ian
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Thanks for clearing that one up, Ian. I'm now on the case for a second lens... In the meantime, and although I'll probably get scalded for not starting a separate thread; could you please recommend a lens for my bench mounted DeVere enlarger to print up to 16x12 ? Thanks.
 
As it's a bench mounted De Vere I'd suggest a 135mm f5.5 Componon (or S), you could use a 150mm but the head will be further up the column and harder to work with. I've been using a 135mm Cmponon since the mid 1970s they are excellent lenses.

Another option is a 135mm Rodagon S, but NOT the earlier plain Rodagon they are prone to delamination.

Ian
 
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Richard Lee said:
Yes, I did read several reviews on the 127mm Ektar while weighing-up my options, all of which were very complimentary. I am a tad concerned however, about the limited coverage on 5x4 - I guess time will tell. I'm interested in your 8 1/2" Commercial Ektar, but not sure how that equates to focal length...

Richard
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I've not found it common to adjust a Graphic's movements sufficiently for the Ektar's coverage limits to be an issue. It was made for that family of cameras. You would run into this problem if, say, you tried to use it on a view camera with much more extensive movements. As @Ian Grant points out, it is possible to run into the issue and one has to keep it in mind.

To find focal length in mm of a lens described in inches simply multiply by 25.4 mm/inch. So:

8.5 in * 25.4 mm/in = 215.9 mm.
 
You can definitely run out of coverage easily with a 127mm Ektar on a 5x4 Crown or Speed Graphic, don't mix the area of illumination with Image Circle the two are quite different. The Image Circle is the area where there is acceptable edge and corner sharpness.

The 127mm Ektar does have a large area of Illumination but outside the Image Circle the edges and corners become very soft and unsharp.

Ian
 
Ian Grant said:
You can definitely run out of coverage easily with a 127mm Ektar on a 5x4 Crown or Speed Graphic, don't mix the area of illumination with Image Circle the two are quite different. The Image Circle is the area where there is acceptable edge and corner sharpness.

The 127mm Ektar does have a large area of Illumination but outside the Image Circle the edges and corners become very soft and unsharp.

Ian
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Interesting that I've not ever run into this. Then again, if I anticipate the need for a lot of movement, I tend to take a field camera not the Graphic. I'll have to keep an eye out for this in the future.
 
It might be being harsh but the quality of all the images you have ever posted here on this Forum has been extremely poor, and that's not been down to scan quality, it's everything from composition, technique to final output. I've taught photography at various levels for over 50 years and to be frank and honest the images you post are amongst the worst I've ever seen, and then based on your claims of experience and insight are even worse.

I call a spade a spade, but you don't get near any ball-park in terms of acceptable LF image quality. It's time other Forum members realised this.

Ian
 
I can’t find any images posted by Richard. He’s only just bought his camera. Have I got something wrong here?
 
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