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jdman



Joined: 13 May 2001
Posts: 302
Location: Midwest

PostPosted: Mon Jun 09, 2003 12:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just got back from a Cruise to Alaska. Took the XL and a 220 roll film holders. Also 2 35mm's and a Digital. Great place for photos. Flew to Seattle, no problems with the 30 pounds of Photo gear, but I was searched 2 times. I had some stripes on 4 of my 400 asa, but I don/t know what X-ray damage looks like. Took about 300 shots total, and found you need something that sets up fast. Sorry guys but I was impressed with the Digital, have not got the 220 6x7 processed yet. Russ
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clnfrd



Joined: 26 Mar 2002
Posts: 616
Location: Western Kentucky Lakes Area

PostPosted: Thu Jun 12, 2003 11:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, gee...Russ...hope you're gonna keep on helping to preserve and promote the use of these old musty analog cameras. After all, once you have that good old D-76 and Dektol Developer...and Acid Fixer with its attendant sodium thiosulfate and acetic acid pulsing through your veins...you're sure to have withdrawal symptoms if you go Digital. I've never seen a megapixel yet that's as much fun as an 8X10 sheet of Kodabrome II!! Fred.
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jdman



Joined: 13 May 2001
Posts: 302
Location: Midwest

PostPosted: Fri Jun 13, 2003 3:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well after 50 years of fooling with this stuff I think I have a goodly amount of chemicals in me. I still like to play in the darkroom, and the Grandchildren think it is neat. I have also converted my Nikon son to 6x7, and he now sees the difference between 35mm and Medium/Large format when you start cropping and enlarging. The Digital is someting I just wanted to try, and I enjoy working the Thumbnails on the computer. Russ
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Graflex Sid



Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 221
Location: London,England

PostPosted: Fri Jun 13, 2003 10:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Digital is all very well-another toy for the public to play with,and another invention for the manufacturers to keep the presses rolling and the bank managers and stock market happy..
With a GRAPHIC you are holding a piece of history,you are holding quality workmanship,you ARE somebody holding this famous camera...it is still respected around the World even today as the most important camera ever to be invented.
This is photography and the GRAPHIC stands proud as part of that craft.
I had several college students requesting me put up on screen a picture of the old workhorse(a Pacemaker),they could only admire this camera from afar in wonderment and thanked me for showing the beauty.

This sounds very much like one of those GRAPHIC Ads...but it's true.May film stock last for many years to come,and this famous camera along with it.
It's still a cracker!

Regards to All from the UK.
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clnfrd



Joined: 26 Mar 2002
Posts: 616
Location: Western Kentucky Lakes Area

PostPosted: Fri Jun 13, 2003 12:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Graflex Sid...you do indeed sound like a walking, talking ad for Graflex cameras. Bless you...and best regards back to you and yours from Kentucky, USA!!
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Henry



Joined: 09 May 2001
Posts: 1636
Location: Allentown, Pennsylvania

PostPosted: Fri Jun 13, 2003 7:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sid,

I agree with everything you say about film, and I hope the day never comes when the Kodaks and Ilfords of this world expire. BUT...I have developed and printed a fair amount of 35mm the traditional way over the years, and then found that those darkroom skills did not transfer easily to 120 roll film---at least, not for me.

So I use a hybrid approach: chromogenic b/w or 'chrome film in the Century Graphic, development by the local camera store's lab, then I scan into Photoshop on the Mac and print out on the Epson. Works great for me. High-end digital is getting better and better. You *can* have the best of both worlds!
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Graflite



Joined: 08 Nov 2001
Posts: 103
Location: Southeast US

PostPosted: Sat Jun 14, 2003 2:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I took my 4 x 5 Crown Graphic Special into my local camera store one Saturday last year, to show to one of the salesman who had expressed an interest, and was mobbed by a group of High School students who were starting a photo course at their school.

The questions they asked about my camera were both sincere and comical, as they had never seen a camera like this, much less in person, and were at a loss as to what it was or what it did.

I explained to them the background of the Graflex cameras and their niche in the history of the world that these great cameras played a part in, and in a huge leap of faith I let each one hold the camera as if they were going to take a picture with it.

And I hoped that this gesture and my time spent with them perhaps made some converts amongst them to our cause of using these older cameras, not because they are the latest model or the most fashionable, but because of the time and effort needed to use these cameras which makes one more understanding of what it takes to produce a quality image, both in the field and in the darkroom.

My great-nephew (4 years old) likes to look at my camera equipment, but doesn't like the darkroom because he says it smells like a hospital, and my great-niece (11 going on 30) who can't be bothered as she's too busy being a brat, but there's still hope for the younger generation I suppose.

"graflite"
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rsdean



Joined: 27 Jun 2002
Posts: 52
Location: NE Maryland

PostPosted: Sat Jun 14, 2003 10:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I recently took my Speed Graphic to church with me, as we are building a new building and I have been trying to take some photos to document this as it goes. Since I had it along, I thought that I would also take a group shot of the junior high class I work with. There are about a dozen kids in the class, and I was expecting a certain amount of stir as it doesn't look much like anything familiar to them. I wasn't expecting anyone to demand immediate lessons on it, though, and I got one young lady who was so thrilled by it that she wasn't satisfied until she had actually taken a picture. So perhaps there is a future for classic machinery yet. (-:

(And nobody asked where the computer plugged in...)

Rob Dean

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Graflex Sid



Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 221
Location: London,England

PostPosted: Sat Jun 14, 2003 2:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi,Henry,Actually,I do the same thing,if I need b/w prints,I process them myself and can run them off via the EPSON (instead of going via the wet process,e.g.the darkroom),or get the lab to process colour neg (120)then do the same thing-prints via computer.Or return to the lab,we have CHOICES!.
The little knock was the actual Digital camera itself and it's pixels-in the UK it's range war,and you don't have to go to the gulf to join in the affray from all the flak that's going on through photo forums.
One side you have the film stock buffs-the other the pixel fanatics-it's the roaring 20's here all over again.
I've found you don't join these forums on these subjects otherwise it's lynch time.To mention the very fact you might own a S.G.would insight wrath...of course,we are talking about the diehards you haunt those discussions-you have met the type,know-alls but know nothing.They breed on jealousy for one another.
But,one they want to own a GRAPHIC,of course they would deep down inside,they just don't know how to go about it-anyway,if it's does'nt cost six million dollars how can it expect to take a picture,like our pixel friends.
It's like you MUST buy the latest car each year-never mind it stays in the garage,just open the door and show it to your friends.

GRAPHICS are for taking pictures with...in the U.K.it's how many pixels I can impress my friends with-a status symbol for the 21st century.

...but they cannot make up their minds what to photograph let alone get the digital out of the case.(sorry,out of the wrapping paper).

We could go on forever,could'nt we.I wondered if this was true when the GRAPHIC changed over from using 'glass plates' to sheet film.Did war break out then.

I rest my case,judge!.
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Graflex Sid



Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 221
Location: London,England

PostPosted: Sat Jun 14, 2003 2:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

That should read (on my last post)
"But,would they want to own a GRAPHIC...."

Stop for English tea!...(getting dry)
Thanks for listening..
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Henry



Joined: 09 May 2001
Posts: 1636
Location: Allentown, Pennsylvania

PostPosted: Sat Jun 14, 2003 7:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yeah, Sid, I hear you. It's just as bad over here, human nature being what it is---gotta have the latest, most expensive, fastest, biggest, blah blah blah. But even if there were a digital camera available/affordable that could do what the Graphic can with film, I wouldn't be at all interested. Same reason I, as a musician, am not at all impressed with synthesized music. I gotta see those instruments being played by real people in real time with real artistry, and don't edit out the mistakes---they're part of the authentic music-making experience.

Any chance I could have my tea with some Beefeaters or maybe better yet some Glenlivet?
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clnfrd



Joined: 26 Mar 2002
Posts: 616
Location: Western Kentucky Lakes Area

PostPosted: Sun Jun 15, 2003 12:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes...we must keep the malaria at bay...some Bombay Sapphire London Dry Gin and Schweppes tonic water with its malaria-fighting quinine should do the trick!! Cheers, Graflex Sid!!
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