I work at a place where I meet a lot of people and conversations about photography sometimes come up. One thing led to another via word being passed from person to person about me being into photography, and I was given a complete 8x10 View Camera.

It's a 1920's-vintage Korona Home Portrait from the Gundlach-Manhatten company (from good 'old Rochester NY), equipped with a Goerz Dagor 10 3/4" F/6.8 lens (roughly the 35mm equivalent of a 28mm lens) and several film holders- a couple of which look like they'll take Glass Plates as well as film or paper!

The Shutter (suprisingly) works fine, albeit a bit slow and the optics are pretty clean. My only concern is the bellows; they're pretty much shot so I'll have to make new. I'm super excited to get try it out- I hope to get new bellows made next week. Pester me to upload photos when I get 'em so I don't forget.

And yes, I fully plan to take it exploring ;)


Some sample photos- folded (it's actually quite light and compact for an 8x10), deployed, and size comparison shots with my F100 and my homebuilt 4x5 Ultrawide (which doesn't seem as huge as it used to)

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2.


3.

D
R
OOOOOOOOOOO
L

*in Will Smith voice*

DAA-YAMN!

You were GIVEN THAT?! Excited to see what she can do!

It helps to have connections! I work at the Grocery Co-Op in Duluth, which happens to be the only Healthfood store in town so I meet all kinds of interesting people. The guy who passed the camera on to me had received it from his father who bought it used sometime in the past 30 or 40 years. The condition makes me think it was overhauled by at some point recently-ish, particularly the fact that the shutter runs.

Looking at 8x10 film prices, I think I'll be shooting Paper Negatives and possibly coating my own Glass and Acetate (film) plates if I get so inclined.

Very nice!
It looks a lot like my Kodak 2D. And yeah - 8x10 film is PRICEY. Luckily I have a reducing back to 4x5 (and one to 5x7) for the 2D so I can choose what I want to shoot at any given time.

Anyway, that's a pretty small lens for 8x10 - and a surprisingly wide angle! How's the coverage?

Just from screwing around viewing stuff on the GG, coverage looks surprisingly good. Enough for a couple Inches of Rise. At closer focusing distances I ran out of bellows draw before I hit the edge of the Image Circle. I hear the lens will cover 12x16 when stopped down! Upon researching a bit it sounds a pretty common WA for cameras of that vintage. Since it's the dialset shutter instead of rimset I'm led to believe it's one of the earlier models- probably pre-1920. It is quite wide but I can't believe how narrow the DOF is- this is going to be fun! Especially with front movements

Reducing backs sound handy. One of the film holders has reducers down to 5x7 but I imagine I'll pretty much exclusively shoot Paper Negatives for now, even if I plan on cropping heavily. I always have paper on hand anyways and it would be less expensive than even 4x5 film.

What lens do you have on the 2D? I've seen a couple of those around, neat old cameras.

Posted by Quarantine Just from screwing around viewing stuff on the GG, coverage looks surprisingly good. Enough for a couple Inches of Rise. At closer focusing distances I ran out of bellows draw before I hit the edge of the Image Circle. I hear the lens will cover 12x16 when stopped down! Upon researching a bit it sounds a pretty common WA for cameras of that vintage. Since it's the dialset shutter instead of rimset I'm led to believe it's one of the earlier models- probably pre-1920. It is quite wide but I can't believe how narrow the DOF is- this is going to be fun! Especially with front movements

Yeah - DOF at ~250mm is pretty shallow. There's a reason Ansel and contemporaries called their group "f/64."

Reducing backs sound handy. One of the film holders has reducers down to 5x7 but I imagine I'll pretty much exclusively shoot Paper Negatives for now, even if I plan on cropping heavily. I always have paper on hand anyways and it would be less expensive than even 4x5 film.

True - though if you can manage to score a Grafmatic back, 4x5 film becomes SO much more convenient than anything else. I picked up 2 a few years ago and I've never looked back. One of the best photo investments I ever made.

What lens do you have on the 2D? I've seen a couple of those around, neat old cameras.

I have a wide field Ektar on mine - I think that it's a 10" or 12" but I'd have to check when I get home. The front element on mine is about 5x the size of yours - it's a HEAVY lens - probably weighs more than the entire rest of the camera.

I'd like to see some of the shots you made with the 2D, 'Jam! I think the Wide-Field Ektar would be 10", I believe the 12" was the Commercial Ektar (a Process lens maybe?) I've thought about a Grafmatic back but haven't gotten around to buying one yet. Would definitely be more convenient than lugging around 10 film holders all the time.

Update on Old Camera- My first attempt at making bellows seems to be ending in disaster (fabric too thick, wrong kind of glue) but I have some proper Bookbinding leather on the way and some suggestions from Bellows-makers and Book-Binders on glueing and whatnot.

I just checked and yup - my WF Ektar is a 10" so I guess we're at a similar focal range - though my lens is probably about 10-20 years newer.

Anyway, I have yet to take any photos with it! Shameful, but the couple of times I've taken it out for a night on the town, I've ended up having a few drinks and talking to friends too much.
Even after I take it out, I have no way of scanning my 4x5 negatives. I have a few sheets of Polaroid Type 55 left, but I'm trying to use them sparingly (thus the lack of use when I've taken it out). I definitely plan to test it on one or two - I'm not entirely certain that my bellows are light-tight. There are pieces of tape blocking the couple of little holes and they pass the flashlight in a dark room test, but I'm still leery until I see them working.
Also, other than a huge carrying case, I have no way of lugging the 8x10 around yet. I need to get a bigger/better backpack!

So, the second set of bellows I made turned out marvelously. The camera is quite a chore to carry about but I loaded it into my big 'ol Internal Frame camping Pack and biked around taking some photos. So far using Paper Negatives and Contact printing them. With a "proper" dark cloth (read: folded over Bedsheet) composing and focusing is a breeze, much easier than the built-in hood of the Press cameras I'm used to using. The front movements (Shift and Rise) are super useful and with a 260mm(!) Wide-Angle lens Tilt and Swing on the rear standard are really nice to get deep Depth of Field. I'll post scans soon-ish.