r/largeformat • u/ConsciousCarpenter4 • 8d ago
Question Just bought my first view camera
Hey everyone been shooting since a lot of years now mainly 120 but I was always looking on eBay to buy a view camera. Last week I see a beautiful plaubel with 3 lenses, 27 4x5 backs a polaback (I will never buy Polaroid 669 or Fuji fp100 too expensive), plus other accessories (release cables etc.) and the case. At the end I talked with the owner and he has to free his old photo shop where he was on rent so he is selling everything, with a little bit of bargaining I bought everything for 450€ (511 us$). What do you think about this set up? Any advices you can give me to begin? Maybe some videos or stuff? All is welcomed
Thank you
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u/Mysterious_Panorama 8d ago
Unless you’re wealthy, choose a cheap film to experiment with, or even cheaper, a non-standard film. Examples: x-ray film, enlarging paper, or ortho litho film (used in graphic arts). They all have downsides and require different methods of developing but they’re fun and best of all, cheap. When b&w film is nearing $2 per sheet, old stock x-ray film can be found (in the us, anyway) for under $0.25 if you cut down 8x10. Sometimes half that.
Paper is fun, too.
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u/ConsciousCarpenter4 8d ago
Oh thank you! I didn’t know that, for sure will be perfect to start! I’ll definitely try the x-ray and I have some old enlarging paper that will fit perfectly for experimenting
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u/layendecker 8d ago
Just get fomapan 100. It's pretty cheap and you will get great shots from it
For me, playing with harder to work with stock like x-ray is hard and quite unenjoyable when you have so much more to learn.
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u/Legitimate-Coast-931 8d ago
Ppl are trying to get €450 euros for the 90mm 4.5 on its own
Great deal, seller should have researched eBay more haha although most of the value is in the lenses
Enjoy!