Another photo walk had been planned by Russell over at Soperfect images, a 4hr excursion via foot ferry to Mountbatten, in Plymouth. An enthusiastic small group of eight gathered locked and loaded!
I decided to film test a camera I had been tinkering with
that week, a baby Linhof Super Technika IV, that had come into the shop as part
of a recent camera collection purchase. A monster medium format kit of superb
build and to me, classic beauty!
The kit was not perfect by any means, in fact a few little issues to test and iron out. It came in a wooden case, in that case was a gorgeous drop front folding camera with the usual ground glass and/or rangefinder, movements front and back and a triple cam system for three accompanying lens. All Schneider with lengths of 180mm, 100mm and 65mm, the latter isn’t the serial numbered original but the former two are. Two 6x7 roll backs, one 120 and the other 220. There was also five Linhof sheet film holders for 6x9, a hood and set of filters. A press grip and cable release finished off a stunning appearance. There was film in the box too, a pack of 2 ½ x 3 ½ Ilford FP4 sheet film which is 6x9 in new money, a box of 120 Kodak Plus-X dated 1979 and 80 respectively.
I can tell you with all the gear bolted on with a roll back
it topped 3kg, add the rest and you have a weighty pack!
I fettled with everything the week prior, discovered you
could load 120 into the 220 back so in that went the Plus-X rated at 80 asa, in
hind sight 50asa would be better. The 120 back got a fresh roll of Ilford FP4+
and four sheets of the FP4 went into 2 holders.
We set off from the shop at midday and ended up running for
the ferry, landing at Mountbatten we walked through the marinas and up into
Turnchapel, a refreshment stop at the Clovelly Bay Arms was forced upon us due
to the high temperatures! From there a slow return journey with an hour around
Mountbatten to finish. The frames that look like they were shot at sea, well
they were! 3kgs hand held of moving targets on a moving ferry with slow
film…the results surprised me.
I think all enjoyed themselves, I know I did. Met new people I would happily spend time with again.
How did I get on with the little Linhof? On the walk I stuck with the range finder, while simple in principle it clearly requires some practice! Rotating back, sliding parallax correction, three fixed stops for the bellows and masks for the viewer meant I had occasion to miss a step here and there! One blank frame, one total focus loss with some slightly iffy focus on some. I completely forgot it is set up for 6x9 so some 6x7 frames are ... cough… not quite what I planned! Also the viewer can deceive a little, in short familiarity is key, and for a first go I am pretty damn pleased to get 22ish from 24. I shot the sheets the following morning BTW focusing via the ground glass.
The fresh roll of FP4+ ran as expected, the four FP4 sheets
turned out really well considering and the Plus-X while a little fogged is
acceptable.
Cheers! Roll on the next one!
