First test shots with my Littman45

[Nas]

I recently picked up a Littman45 camera which is a modified Polaroid 110B with a 150/5.6 Schneider Apo lens. The camera became famous back in the day because Angelina Jolie bought one for Brad Pitt's birthday. I had to calibrate the rangefinder which was straightforward to do and these shots were to test it out, all handheld on expired FP4, developed in Adox HC110 1+31.

 

[Ian Grant]

Excellent Nas.

Ian

 

[MartyNL]

Great results!

Any pic's of the camera?
I'm trying to imagine the schneider on the Polaroid...

 

[Ian Grant]

The late Dean Jones made similar Razzledog cameras in Australia.

Ian

 

[Nas]

Great results!

Any pic's of the camera?
I'm trying to imagine the schneider on the Polaroid...

Here you go

 

[Nas]

The late Dean Jones made similar Razzledog cameras in Australia.

Ian

That's right. I remember a mate of mine telling me about those 20+ years ago but the price was always way out of my budget. The Litttman45 originally sold for $3K. With mine was the original instruction book for the Schneider lens. I wonder if the lens fitted was brand new - it looks mint.

 

[MartyNL]

Can it fold-up with the lens still fitted inside?
Any chance of a rear view, too?

 

[Nas]

Can it fold-up with the lens still fitted inside?
Any chance of a rear view, too?

Here's the back. It uses a Horseman rear holder which is nice and low profile. The hinges have been replaced with some which are much more substantial than the originals. Unfortunately the camera doesn't fold up, I think this is to maintain the parallelism between the lens and film planes. Littman mentions this word a lot in his rants on old forum posts and claimed various trademark infringements by others who carried out similar modifications. None of this is of much interest to me but I came across it in my research before buying the camera.

 

[Ian Grant]

Typically, Polaroid used 127mm f4.7 Rodenstock Ysarex in a Prontor SVS, or, or a 127mm f4.7 Yashinon ina Seikosha shutter, both slim Tessar type lens only protruding 3 or 4 mm from the face of the shutters. Very early US models used a similar sized Wollensak 127mm f4 in a Rapax shutter.

These thin lenses allowed the original Polaroids to fold, there's no chance with a 150mm Symmar S they only just fold away into much larger (deeper) 5x4 cameras. There is a second factor, the front standard fitting has to be adapted for the longer focal length lenses, and thirdly a 150mm Symmar S is quite a bit heavier.. So the Litman;s were made to be rigid

Dean Jones/Razzledog added various lenses, one that was popular was the 90mm f6.8 Angulon, this could fold away. Early post WWII 90mm Angulon lenses had a reputation for inconsistent quality, one reason Linhof started testing then selecting lenses. By SN 5,xxx,xxx Schneider had resolved the issue.

Running the repair shop for an Austalian camera store, Dean had noticed the tube lengths of the early poor 90mm Angulons were inconsistent, he would strip the shutters down completely and machine the casing to the correct tube length. That resolved the sharpness issue. A QC issue at Deckel/Compur rather than Schneider. In the months before he passed away, Dean was trying to compile a spreadsheet of these 90mm Angulon's Tube lengths. It was a Compur-P #0 shutter not used for any other LF lenses.

Ian

 

[Dave_P]

I bought a old Polaroid to do one of the 3d printed conversions to, the plan being to use the original 127mm lens. From the couple of test shots I made before the shutter totally died it seemed to be by far the worst large or medium format shuttered lens I'd ever used, and certainly didn't cover 5x4" sharply even stopped down. I suspect that the QC on these may be been fairly slack back in the day, given their intended use.

I had actually seen what I assume was this very camera for sale at auction recently and was tempted, but if it doesn't fold then it'd not be for me. Do you mean it actually doesn't fold at all, or just that it won't close with the lens attached? @Nas

 

[Ian Grant]

@Dave_P it probably warrants a separate thread on these 127mm lenses. My 127mm f4.7 Yashinon is a very sharp lens, I've not tried it for 5x4 only 6x7.

Ian.

 

[Nas]

I had actually seen what I assume was this very camera for sale at auction recently and was tempted, but if it doesn't fold then it'd not be for me. Do you mean it actually doesn't fold at all, or just that it won't close with the lens attached? @Nas

It doesn't fold at all. The hinges are locked.
Previous to this I had a 110B converted to 5x4 by Randy at Holgamods.com. He fitted a 5x4 back from a speed graphic which I supplied and it uses the stock 127mm Yashinon lens. That camera does fold up as it was originally designed. My findings match yours when it came to inspecting the images very closely to the edges. The sweet spot is in the middle so using medium format roll film backs or using instant film smaller than 5x4 is fine. This Littman camera gives me the full quality I'm looking for with 5x4 sheets.

 

[Dave_P]

Cheers, that's interesting about it not folding at all. I would have been gutted to buy one then discover that!

On the one that I bought to convert (which I have barely used) I ended up replacing the lens with a Fuji 125mm 5.6, which bayonets off for folding. Maybe this year I need to make the effort to use this setup.

 

[Matt Bigwood]

Many years ago I bought a Razzle 5x4 conversion, done by the late Dean Jones in Australia. Great for hand-held 5x4 shooting. I once took it to the top of a church tower as it's fairly small when it's folded

 

[Nas]

Nice one. I thought Dean Jones only converted Polaroid 800 cameras and changed the stock lens. Looks like yours is using the original lens and a 110B body. Great results. I like the Flickr slideshow you've added. I think I've seen some of your previous work on Flickr and have always been impressed with how you've kept your work organised in albums. Cheers.

 

[Matt Bigwood]

Nice one. I thought Dean Jones only converted Polaroid 800 cameras and changed the stock lens. Looks like yours is using the original lens and a 110B body. Great results. I like the Flickr slideshow you've added. I think I've seen some of your previous work on Flickr and have always been impressed with how you've kept your work organised in albums. Cheers.

Thanks, Nas. I bought it second hand about 15 years ago from a chap who was selling two Razzles. The first I bought had a much more modern lens but the bellows had pinholes, so he swapped it for the one I currently have. The lens is sharp enough for me and has a wider angle of view than the 150mm on the other camera.