[pure-silver] Re: APX400, flatness, old glass

  • From: <genej2@xxxxxxx>
  • To: <pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2006 10:23:33 -0500

Hi Richard,

I was going to post at the bottom like usually do, but Cox webmail won't let me!

Anyway, I think you'll really enjoy that camera with a roll back.  It's light 
and portable and with the rangefinder, relatively fast and convenient. I have 
the remains of a mini-Speed Graphic sitting on the shelf(no back, nofp 
shutter), and a little Medalist Heliar that's doing no good to anyone, and I 
think they need to meet.  If that works as well as I hope, I may find a mini 
Pressman and do the same thing with a 150mm Voigtlander Heliar that's also been 
in retirement in a drawer for way too long. Now that I know that at least one 
of my 6x9 backs does a really good job of keeping my film flat, they will make 
great outdoor and travel cameras.  A friend of mine just bought an RZ with a 
lens and a back for 500 bucks, which isn't chump change, but I agree, what a 
camera.  Soooooo versatile.  As far as the old school film goes, I kinda agree 
with you but for one exception; Efke 25 or whatever they're calling it now.  
That stuff is just lovely. Otherwise, Indoors, under hot light
 s, I've used HP5, Neopan 400, and now APX and love them all.

Gene
> 
> From: "Richard Knoppow" <dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: 2006/02/22 Wed AM 02:05:44 EST
> To: <pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [pure-silver] Re: APX400, flatness, old glass
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: <genej2@xxxxxxx>
> To: <pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2006 2:05 PM
> Subject: [pure-silver] Re: APX400, flatness, old glass
> 
> 
> > You know Richard,
> >
> > I never gave that much thought to film flatness, and this 
> > experience surprised me in a couple of ways.  Like I 
> > didn't expect the oldstyle back to be THAT bad, and I 
> > didn't expect the newer one (with rollers) to be THAT 
> > good.  I also wouldn't have expected you to have found 
> > sheet film that wasn't flat!  Just goes to sho ya, it's 
> > always somethin! BTW, the RB 67 back looks like it would 
> > probably fit on a mini graflex.  They are really nice and 
> > well made but only have a film area of 55 x 65.  Not bad, 
> > but the graflex 6x9 is noticeably bigger, and I like that. 
> > With the negs from this camera, I print a lot of 2/3 
> > aspect ratio prints and I don't like having to crop so 
> > much image off.
> >
> > Gene
> 
>    If I had some spare dough I would look around for a good 
> RB or RZ-67. Mamiya glass has a uniformly excellent 
> reputation and, while these cameras are considered large by 
> some people, I am used to stuff like Graflex's and they are 
> hand cameras to me.
>    I was also surprized at the problem with the Minitature 
> Graphic. Eventually, I will invest in some special cut 
> Ilford film to test with. The stuff I've been using is 
> Freestyle Creative which appears to be Foma Creative in 
> disguise. It is decent old fashioned film, no match IMO for 
> anything made by Kodak, Ilford, Fuji, or the late-lamented 
> Agfa. What I discovered was that the images were out of 
> focus at the center and sharp at the edges. I did very 
> careful measurements of both holders and camera to insure 
> the focal plane was correct. I got the same results with 
> both the rangefinder and ground glass focusing. The lens on 
> this camera is a Kodak Ektar, 101mm, f/4.5 and should be 
> very sharp at the stops used. I calculated the amount of 
> warp that would cause some loss of sharpness and think its 
> possible. I am probably going to break down and do the 
> slight surgery which will allow mounting a Singer-Graflex 
> roll adaptor. I requires carving just a little wood away to 
> clear the lump around the winding lever. Making the adaptor 
> strips is simple. This is a neat little camera and I was 
> thrilled to find cheap and easy to obtain film for it. I 
> really want to find some newer holders, ideally Riteway 
> holders, to test and make sure it isn't just the ancient 
> Kodak holders that are the trouble.
> 
> ---
> Richard Knoppow
> Los Angeles, CA, USA
> dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
>  
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Be Just And Fear Not

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