Process & Equipment

Updated June 2008

DARKROOM

The four enlargers on the left of my black and white darkroom are the finest available. The monster at the far end is a huge 10x8" (20x25cm) negative size DeVere 5108

The black and white film processing line opposite the big DeVere uses Agfa 17 replenished developer which is now over 21 years old and, like me, continues to improve with age

BLACK & WHITE PRINTING

Black and white photographic printing - here lies the possible death of photography. With Harman/Ilford/Kentmere being the only manufacturer of black and white photographic printing materials in the world I am in doubt about the future of photography. I have heard rumours of black and white photographic materials manufacture in Germany, Hungary and other places, but without Western Australian distribution they do not exist

My favourite black & white photographic printing paper was Agfa Record Rapid, but manufacture of this ceased long ago and Agfa themselves have folded completely. I have read that Record Rapid was discontinued because it contained cadmium, but cadmium used for beautiful photographic tonal resonance becomes non-toxic cadmium. Don't ask a toxicologist, take my word for it

I used Ilford Galerie graded paper for the English Littoral prints and would like to continue using it for the Australian Littoral, but this is now limited to what is left in England, with none coming into Australia. The nominal replacement for neutral toned Ilford Galerie is Ilford Multigrade Fibre Based, but this paper lacks depth. I plan to use Ilford Multigrade Fibre Based Warmtone for my otheer portfolios

CAMERAS history & personal experience

The 1950s and 1960s was a golden period for the development of mainly early 20th Century camera concepts. In this period the Rolleiflex F series, the SL66 and revolutionary electronic SLX were released.  Hasselblad evolved to the Compur shuttered SLR which became an industry standard. Leitz introduced the M mount cameras and the motorised Robot camera developed into the range finder Robot Royal series.  The Zeiss Contax went to Japan after WWII to become the Nikon S3, whence it evolved into the Nikon F. Other single lens reflexes were the Asahi Pentax, the first production camera with an instant return mirror, and its followers. In Switzerland Alpa went through an amazing evolution.  Also in Switzerland Koch developed the Sinar monorail and in Germany the Linhof quickly evolved from a not very nice metal field camera into the superb Super Technica series, virtually the camera in production today. Returning to twin lens reflexes Mamiya introduced the interchangeable lens C cameras

In England the startlingly innovative original 1951 Wrayflex prototype had instant return mirror, integrated side mounted pentaprism and through the lens metering - well over a decade before anything like it appeared from Topcon, Asahi or Alpa information from Michael Parker, Photographic Trader, Australia, nr.132 pp24-26

All these and many other cameras represent a breadth of design solutions for photographers unrivaled today.  They are all thoughtful designs which solved functional criteria in different ways and if well maintained will work for decades and produce high quality fine prints or digital scans

Camera collectors who have the cameras featured on this page should go out and find photographers who will exchange working cameras for prints.  By withholding working equipment collectors are contributing to the difficulty of traditional photography, as there is not enough of this equipment now available.  The point collectors should learn is that fine black and white prints will become vastly more valuable than the cameras themselves.  Therefore collectors, give up collecting equipment and concentrate on collecting fine photographs.  Web visitors with Rollei Bayonet IV filters, but no Wide Angle Rollei to put them on, or an SWC lens hood, can exchange them for a print of an image on this site

The cameras I know intimately - Alpa, Gandolfi, Hasselblad, Leica, Linhof, Nikon, Rolleiflex & Sinar The exclusion of other cameras is because this article is about the cameras I have used extensively and that have produced my favourite work, but I am adding the Zeiss Super Ikonta 533/16 "pocket Linhof"

Lenses are dealt with separately at the end of this page

REFLEX CAMERA

SWITZERLAND

My first Alpa Reflex camera was a 6b, similar to the first camera illustrated, but with a front to back lever wind like the 6c shown on the right - This was my favourite Alpa Reflex. This winding system was one of the many attempts to increase speed of shutter and film winding that came in to replace knob winding - another answer was the coffee-plunger Voigtlander Vitessa. Very soon the back to front lever wind of the Leica, Nikon etc came to be the standard. However, I remember the speed and the ease of keeping the camera to the eye that the Alpa Reflex system gave - no danger of finding your right eye hanging off your thumb if you are a left-eyed photographer

My best memory of my Alpa Reflex cameras, I had a 6b, 6c and 10d, was the fantastic and wonderful Schneider 35mm f2.8 Curtagon - At the end of last year I bought a 35mm f2 late model Leitz Summicron M - after testing it I compared some old negatives from my 35mm Curtagon - the Leitz Summicron is the first post-Alpa Reflex camera 35mm lens to better it, just a little bit

The reason I sold my Alpa Reflex cameras was to move up-format to Rolleiflexes as I was demanding better image tonality than could be achieved with 35mm, but without lugging my 5 x 4" kit around - It is worth noting that the limitation with 35mm is not sharpness but image tonality, a factor dependent on film speed and magnification, 35mm slow films do not to give the same results as medim speed films from medium format cameras - However, I like the quality of 35mm/400asa for the myriad of subjects it is right for, and in many situations only 35mm will get you in there

Apart from moving up format I was frustrated with the fact that all the lenses I had for my Alpa Reflex cameras were from different manufacturers, Angieneux, Kern, Schneider, Zeiss - they all seemed to have focusing and aperture rings, and a knob, that went in different directions - also, finding second hand Alpa Reflex bits was next to impossible

The Alpa Reflex camera, although later an anachronism, ushered in many design innovations and the series went through three major transformations - Alpa Reflex had the second, after Wray Cameras Ltd in England, patent on a through the lens metering system - however, through these transformations Alpa Reflex kept the superb front to back lever wind and the Exacta like front automatic diaphragm mechanism

I read in a UK magazine that Alpa Reflex's reputation for innovation caused them to be the but of an April issue joke in a European photographic magazine, possibly Camera Magazine Lucerne. The history/legend/myth was about the "Alpa Reflex XS", a camera which used an electrosensitive reflecting/transmitting plate instead of a mirror. This gave a staggering range of speeds and was without moving parts, noise or vibration - gone were the mirror, shutter and all those springs and things - this was a joke, or a joke about a joke, but just think. . .

GANDOLFI FIELD CAMERA

LONDON

The most beautiful camera ever built, with the possible exception of the Sanderson. The reason this camera is now sold is that mahogany field cameras do not keep straight when taken from cold wet Tasmania to the hot north west Pilbara desert region and on to Perth's humid summer - I should have kept it for one climate. Also, it settled back to square after a few days. Or I could have kept it on a shelf - but I hate having unused cameras around so I sold it - like other goodies, if it is not being used it gets passed on - however I regret selling the 165mm Zeiss Double Protar - that lens has an exquisite way of moving light

I now use the Linhof STv for field work, but the way the Gandolfi rear standard focused behind the front standard was superb - Modern Japanese copies of wooden field cameras have a sloppy sliding system to get the rear standard up behind the front standard for wide angle work, but these are rough and never get the back standard parallel to the front - Optical logic insists that at close range you focus the back standard, not the front - this is one area where the Linhof Technica is a pain in the arse

What really kills narrow bodied wooden field cameras as far as I am concerned is wind vibration. Wind buffets the bellows and makes them vibrate the front and back standards of a wooden camera. This was the crucial factor in selling the Gandolfi. After a special journey to photograph the subtle charm of cold, dank, toxic industrial mud flats at Severn Beach all the Gandolfi negatives showed signs of wind vibration. However, with their quality workmanship Gandolfis suffer less from this than newer Japanese and Chinese copies. Have you ever seen a 10x8" landscape photograph that was taken in high wind?

For the rest of the English Littoral Series I used the Rollei 2.8F - see English Littoral page

Louis Gandolfi and Sons made a series of beautiful cameras, of which the 5x4" and 10x8" are still being made. A new series of Gandolfis, the VARIANT are in production which at first sight look a bit traditional. However, the Variant is a new and advanced design and is designed for landscape work with very wide angle lenses

HASSELBLAD SUPER WIDE C

SWEEDEN, BUT THE LENS AND SHUTTER ARE GERMAN

Hasselblad Super Wide C, the World's most expensive box camera, is a narrow body with the lens on one face and a Hasselblad back on the other. The lens is a Zeiss f4.5 38mm Biogon, a classic symmetrical lens and one of the best ever made

In my opinion the SWC is one of the most delightful cameras ever made. The lens is beautiful, the body functional and light, the viewfinder is sufficiently accurate and the clip-on screen is precise

SWC view finding is by an optical viewfinder or a clip-on focusing screen like a view camera. I have always wondered why Hasselblad didn't install a paralax compensating range/viewfinder for the SWC. Scale focusing is tricky when working fast, hand held, wide open - a 38mm lens does not give enough depth of field close in. You can use the 45° prism or the stove pipe on the clip-on focusing screen, but this takes practice as the corners are a bit dark. For low level working a right angle viewfinder is available from  http://www.cameraquest.com - this viewfinder looks good, but I haven't bought one, 'though very tempted

The SWC is fast to operate and in landscape situations scale focusing is fine. The Compur shuttered Hasselblad lenses have a similar depth of field scale mechanism to the Rolleiflexes, but in this case two red markers slide over the focusing scale, so again there is no need to squint at tiny numbers.

For working close to the ground I prefer the Rollei WA with its' waist-level finder to the SWC, even with the 45° prism and screen.  The SWC will focus to 28cm, but this can only be used accurately with the focusing screen

In one of the illustrations the Hasselblad Bellows Lens Hood is shown, this is very useful with wide angle lenses, although it ocludes the lower part of the SWC optical viewfinder.  However, as the lens hood is easily removed this is not a problem in landscape photography or when the screen is in use.  For hand-held work the bellows lens hood is a nightmare

LEICA M

BAVARIA - GETTING IT RIGHT AND STAYING WITH IT

Any M series Leica, apart from the M5, is the ultimate in costume jewelry, no need for designer label jeans, if you are wearing an M series Leica, whatever jeans you are wearing are THE designer label. The Canadian M4-2 is considered a bit uncool, but from a distance it is difficult to tell, particularly if you stick a false red dot on the front. Actually, the red dot is the most important bit on a Leica. My M2 does not yet have one

Apart from this first priority, M Leicas are small, light weight, fast, reliable and produce the optimum image quality possible with 35mm - They are the first and the last word in 35mm cameras, 1914 for the Ur-Leica and 2006 for the M7

LINHOF SUPER TECHNICA 5

BAVARIA

Although awkward for wide angle and close work, this is otherwise a good landscape camera - for studio work buy my Sinar. The practical wide angle focal length limit for this camera is 90mm. Using a 75mm lens is fussy and for 65mm or less a secondary focus accessory is needed - so, if you want wider than 90mm go for a Gandolfi Variant

The complaint that the Linhof Super Techica series are too heavy for landscape is not valid - the slight extra weight of the Linhof body over a well made wooden camera is small and in any case the tripod, lenses, meters, dark slides etc are exactly the same weight for all 5x4" cameras - The mechanical stability of the Linhof Super Technica outweighs the weight benefits of flimsy Japanese wooden cameras

The linhof Super Technica has a relatively deep body shell, so the widest part of the bellows is protected from side wind with lenses from 150mm down to 90mm - also its heavy front standard engineering helps greatly here.

By using a 135mm Symmar I am making my Linhof kit as small as posible. The tiny 135mm Symmar will sit inside the closed Linhof body so it can hang of one shoulder by a strap. A meter, cloth, filters and dark slides then go in a small bag on the other shoulder. The tripod becomes a balancing stick. Backpacks have the problem of having too much space, which easily gets filled with heavy things that never get used. In Australia less camera weight equals more water equals greater range

More on 5x4" lenses, their drawing and "bokeh" at the end of this page

NIKON F

JAPAN

If ever a camera manufacturer got it right first time then cluttered a camera design it was Nipon Kogaku. My first Nikon was an FM, replaced by F2s and eventually I aquired the pinacle of Nikon design - the Nikon F - This is the most basic of the Nikons, and if you abandon the Photomic F'n head and use the non-metering pentaprism it is as simple as you can get

For steady long hand-held exposures I rest the tip of my right index finger on the slope of the Nikon pentaprism and release the shutter with the inside of my first index finger joint using a "soft release" shutter release extension

ROLLEIFLEX 2.8F, TELE ROLLEI & ROLLEI WIDE

WEST GERMANY

The next section is about the Rolleiflex 2.8F, Rolleiflex Tele and Rolleiflex Wide Angle twin lens reflexes. I write from the perspective of a professional user of these cameras.  I use them not because of some odd quirk but because they are direct in operation, produce outstanding quality and, from a practical standpoint, nothing better has come along.  My respect for these machines in not exclusive, I also use Hasselblad, but what I demand of all my equipment is that it is simple to operate, is reliable and is not dependent on batteries.  Complexity does not equal quality

According to the Wise and Wonderful Web, Rollei had plans for an interchangeable lens version of their twin lens reflexes, but the designs proved too complex and costly to introduce.  This idea sets my mind running to absolutely divine cameras, but if Rollei said interchangeable lens TLRs were impossible then they were!  So, despite the illusion, the Mamiya C series is a figment of your imagination.   Rollei did introduce Rollei Mutar clip-on supplementary lenses to give slightly longer and wider angles of view, but thankfully these have sunk without trace

During my 1993 survey exhibition, at a time when I thought I was using mainly Sinar, Hasselblad, Nikon,  I walked around the gallery with John Patterson.  He asked what proportion of the final selection of images were made with which camera.  A quick count showed the proportions came to 84% Rolleiflex, with 16% Gandolfi, Sinar, Hasselblad, Alpa and Nikon combined.  His point on simplicity was made, but in fairness the Rolleis and Gandolfi were used for personal work and the others for commercial work

Rolleiflexes are theoretically simple designs made from the finest materials built with superb craftsmanship.  Further, the Rolleiflex was one of the most copied designs of all time, which demonstrates the basic soundness of its concept.  Getting back to practical matters, twin lens Rolleiflexes remove the concern about the weight of the extra lenses - there aren't any

Because I live and work in the bottom left corner of the forgotten side of the least fashionable part of the planet, I need equipment which is reliable.  Rolleiflexes do not have mirrors, flaps, aperture blades, springs and levers flying around before the picture is taken. In my Fremantle studio I came across a subject who would blink at the cue of a Hasselblad starting up and have her eyes firmly closed every time the flash went off, a problem that does not occur with a twin lens reflex. Rolleiflexes let you see what is happening through the moment of exposure

A weakness of all Rolleiflex twin lens reflexes is the tripod fixing socket, which is attached to the folding camera back.  These sockets work loose, which means the camera can rotate slightly on the tripod screw, or even wobble around.  This can be solved with the use of the Rolleifix tripod fixing plate. Araldite squirted into the flange only works for a while.  Fortunately second hand Rolleis are often sold with a whole string of little pouches on the neck strap and hopefully one of them contains a Rolleifix

The placement of the feed roll and tripod socket was one of the great design improvements of the Mamiya C, which is not a Rollei copy

Although I personally find them awkward, the Mamiya C series are excellent cameras which are now cheap and have many good features, mainly interchangeable lenses. Anyone with a small budget who wants an interchangable lens 120 camera for landscape work is recommended to look for a clean, working Mamiya C camera

My main personal problem with the Mamiya C series is parallax error. I like the Rolleiflex parallax correction, which is simple and efficient. A lever attached to the lens panel moves a masking frame backwards and forwards under the focusing screen

Neck straps - if you are using a Rollei try to tear the leather strap off the camera attachment clip. Generally it will part with only the slightest tug. This in infinitly better than the leather breaking when jumping across rocks. The 5 minute shoe repair sites in shopping malls will undo the rivets and replace the strap with a nylon one for less than the cost of a beer. I have found I need to take in a the spare strap, which I cut to the correct length before taking it to the shoe repairer

The final and great weakness of Rolleiflexes is the lack of qualified service agencies outside of Germany. The sad loss of Jurgen Henning in Australia and the news I have read that Rollei no longer re-builds Rolleiflexes in Braunschweig is the greatest threat to these cameras. While simple in principle the F series is a complex piece of engineering. They are getting old and need qualified professional service every thirty years then they will work forever - the Stradivarius of cameras

Richard Avedon, Margaret Bourke-White, Bill Brandt, Carlotta Corpron, Imogen Cunningham, Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Horst P Horst, Lee Miller, Helmut Newton (Tele Rollei), Irving Penn and many other world famous photographers have relied on these cameras for much of their work

ROLLEIFLEX 2.8F/3.5F Zeiss Planar/Schneider Xenotar
ROLLEIFLEX T Zeiss Tessar/Schneider Xenar
ROLLEICORD Schneider Xenar

The standard lens Rolleiflex cameras are listed in order of complexity, cost and weight - any of them in working order will provide outstanding quality

85% Of everything I am not the first photographer to say that a standard lens Rolleiflex can photograph 85% of everything - when professionals were asked what they would choose if they only had ONE camera the answer mostly came down to Rolleiflex

ROLLEIFLEX TELE
135mm Zeiss Sonnar

The Rolleiflex Tele is a forgotten work horse, first introduced in mid 1959 only 4999 of this first batch were built.  A second batch was produced in 1971 with the facility to use 220 film and a slightly different direct vision frame in the hood, this batch consisted of 3377 cameras.  The f4 135mm Zeiss Sonnar lens has a tonal quality delightfully suited to produce negatives for fine black and white prints.

The Rolleiflex Tele, and also the Rollei Wide Angle, use the standard Rolleiflex focusing cam, which only gives a lens extension of 7.5mm on a 135mm lens.  This means the Rolleiflex Tele only focuses to an embarassing 2.59m, a portrait from head to hips.  To work at closer distances Rollei introduced special Tele-Rolleinars.  These Tele-Rolleinars come in two sizes, 0.35x and 0.7x and are one of Rollei's less inspired ideas, but they do get you to 96cm, which gives a tight head shot.  For portraits you need smoothness of operation, and adding or removing close-up lenses does not make for smoothness.  The 0.35x Tele Rolleinars are hinged for rapid changing, but this means you can't use the lens hood on the main lens, only on the Rolleinar

Even with the Rolleinar swapping I prefer the Rolleiflex Tele for portraits because it is quiet compared to the Hasselblad

The Rollei Pentaprism is an accessory which needs practice until it feels natural  The pentaprism is improved in the new TLR Rolleis as a 45° version which looks very like the Novoflex prism for the Hasselblad

A thought I have often had is why Rollei never got Voigtländer to make their lenses, given they were both based at Braunschweig - a Rollei with a 105mm Apo Lanthar and a close focusing cam would be a gem, and it would work with Bay III accessories

ROLLEIFLEX WIDE ANGLE
55mm Zeiss Distagon

When I work in the forest I go as far as I can drive, leave the Linhof in the car, and walk the rest of the way with the Rollei Wide Angle and a medium sized tripod.  The Rollie WA now photographs most of my landscape work, even if I imagine and tell everyone it is the Linhof.   The Rollei WA is light, the lens superb and the mechanism works like new thanks to the late Jurgen Henning

Franke and Heidecke produced the Rolleiflex Wide Angle from 1961 to 1967, during this time they made a staggering less than 4000 cameras.  The body is an E2 equipped with an f4 55mm Zeiss Distagon.  The camera body uses the same 7.5mm extension focusing cam as the standard Rolleiflexes, which in this case, means it focuses down to a very useful 61cm.

The lens focal length of 55mm is equivalent to about 34mm on 35mm, great for landscapes where a great wide angle is not wanted.  The depth of field at f22 is 1.5m to infinity.  This is a usable f22, although normally I try to not go below f11 or f16.  Most lenses, while great wide open, show diffraction at small apertures.  For an on-line diffraction calculator, visit http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/diffraction-photography.htm.  

Scale focusing is perfect for landscapes with this camera, aided by the white line indicator on the focusing knob. In this system two black markers slide over the white line at the top of the focusing knob as the aperture wheel is rotated.  Just focus the infinity symbol forward to the end of the white line and the hyperfocal distance is set without having to squint at tiny numbers.

Because less than 3999 WA-Rolleis and 8376 Tele-Rolleis were made they are hard to come by second hand. So if one comes along buy it before a collector grasps it to hide in a collection.

Good news is the Rolleiflex Wide Angle is being reintroduced with a 50mm Schneider Super Angulon lens. As I am a pedant, I will say that as a slightly Retrofocus design it should be called Schneider Curtagon.  For details visit http://www.rollei.de   Not good news is the price is expected to be about A$12,000, but worth every pfennig.  A hope I have is that the new Rollei screen range will fit my Wide, Tele and 2.8F.  The new screen range could mean salvation for many old Rolleis

SINAR NORMA

SWITZERLAND - THE MOST ELEGANT MONORAIL EVER - more to follow

THE SCENT OF A LENS - DRAWING or BOKEH

ZEISS IKON Super Ikonta 533/16

"Pocket Linhof" I have not used this camera as much as it deserves. Although heavy, it folds flat for easy carrying - more to follow

BOKEH - The Scent of a Lens

A current photographic topic of the Wise and Wonderful Web is bokeh, the scent of a lens. Harold M Merklinger in The Wise and Wonderful suggests that bokeh is a function of the way spherical aberation is corrected, or not. See Photo Techniques May/June 1997

What bokeh reminds me of is advice from Derek Cooper in Bath, amongst others, who told me back in the 1970s that the quality of a lens is not only its sharpness but its "drawing". By "drawing" Derek & Co meant the whole quality of a lens, its sharpness, the beneficial affect of flare on shadow detail, the unfocused qualities, now called bokeh, and everything. Derek later sold me a 165mm Zeiss Double Protar in a dial-set Compur and an unshuttered 270mm Cooke Aviar IIIb. The Taylor Taylor Hobson, Cooke Aviar IIIb lens had beautiful drawing/bokeh. The Protar is the lens shown on the left hand pic of the Gandolfi above. They are both lenses I should not have sold. Barbara Lowry describes the Aviar thus "the Aviar was prized as the finest anastigmat ever propduced in any country". The 240m Rodenstock Apo Ronar has some similar qualities to the TTH Cooke Aviar, but is not designed for infinity work

The only lenses I have tried that had utterly wretched drawing were a Ross Concentric from 1888, a Leitz 35mm Summaron and a 500mm Mirror Nikkor, but all mirror lenses are bad in this respect, it comes with the design. I understand the Ross Concentric design was the basis for the later Georz Dagor and Zeiss Protar lenses

I have made some fairly basic tests of bokeh, but these tests were only to confirm how my lenses perform. I am not about to spend money on new equipment, except for a 120mm f6.3 Schneider Angulon, if it is in working order and cheap

LEICA LENSES, the theoretical standard for 35mm is 43mm, not the 52mm that Leitz introduced with the Elmax and has become the accepted standard length. Logic 24 x 24, + 36 x 36, = 1872, square root = 43.26. Zeiss introduced 45mm as standard on the Contaflex. Leitz and now Cosina/Voigtlander have produced 40mm standard lenses. Many Leicaographers use the 35mm Summicron as their normal lens

The late model 35mm Summicron has reputedly the most beautiful bokeh of any 35mm lens. The 35mm f2.8 Summaron by contrast has the worst I have seen. I tried a 35mm Summaron on approval in September 2006, before buying 35mm f2.8 Canon and 35mm Summicron lenses

I use the 35mm and 50mm f2.8 Canon lenses in addition to Leitz and Cosina/Voigtlander lenses. I like the Korean War quality of the Canon lenses. The 35mm Canon did the bulk of the work for the SFA documentation in the Arts section of this website, "flare with flair" or "retro-glow". Looking again at the SFA 16 x 20" prints I am struck by the beautiful quality of the 1950's Canon lens bokeh. I now wonder why I spent so much on Summicrons. 19mm and 85mm Canon lenses would complete that lens kit, if they exist at a reasonable price

NIKKOR LENSES, I use Nikon lenses from the 1960s and 1970s - including the legendary 2.1cm Nikkor - this lens did the bulk of my work documenting the late 1990s forest protests. I used the 2.1cm Nikkor to avoid threat to my 20mm f3.5 UD Nikkor. Now I discover the 2.1cm's US$ value, but this is a lens to USE, not to stick in a display cabinet. With its Super Angulonish symmetrical wide angle design the 2.1cm Nikkor has very little glass out at the front and the rear element almost touches the shutter

NIKKOR LENS BOKEH A recent test of 1960s/1970s Nikkors show them to have OKish drawing/bokeh, but not good. Before looking into bokeh I never really noticed anything bad about the unfocused areas with the Nikkor lenses. The early 200mm f4 is a bit rough and the 85mm f1.8 is bad if you have unfocussed points of light in the corners at f8. I have not bothered to test my 20mm and 21mm Nikkors as these are used with great depth of field, so bokeh is not an issue. The 85mm is still the Nikkor lens I will take on my planned trip to England

Rollei lens bokeh. . . The WA Rollei is out of the tests as I use it stopped down for great DoF. First look indicates the Rollei lenses are OK. As I have no intention of not using my Rolleis testing the bokeh of them is a waste of time and film, but it's test lenses or clean my kitchen

5x4" LENSES, I use a 1962 135mm Schneider Symmar lens for landscape work and this is the lens earmarked for the Australian Littoral portfolio. 135mm is equivalentish to 36mm on 35mm, given the theoritical standard for 5x4" is 160mm and for 35mm is 43mm. Logic 5"x5" + 4"x4" = 41, square root = 6.40" = 161mm,

Early Rodenstock Sironars and Schneider Symmars are described as "convertible", that is you unscrew the front lens component and use the rear component as a longer lens. I do not like the idea of unscrewing the front of a lens to let dust, fingers, dribbles of ice cream and salt spray into the shutter. It feel it was a sales gimmic and should be avoided

I also have a 1965 15cm Voigtländer Apo Lanthar lens with a black Linhof shutter bezel, this lens came with my S/H Linhof kit. Current prices for Apo Lanthars are mad. The 5 element Voigtländer lens was possibly the ultimate practical development of the triplet principle, but the symmetrical lenses that came soon after it are superior in terms of angle of coverage and sharpness across the whole field. Rodenstock and Schneider virtually stopped manufacture of their Ysarex and Xenar lenses after their symetrical Sironar and Symmar lenses were introduced. I think the Xenar continued because of existing stock and the f6.3 Xenar was sold as a cheaper lens for students

The Voigtländer Apo Lanthar achieved its quality, which is good, by using lanthanium and thorium in the glass. Perhaps the beautiful "drawing" of the Voigtländer Apo Lanthar is caused by pre-fogging of the film by radioactive alpha particles, like the light pre-fogging advised by Ansel Adams in his book The Negative pp 119-123. This notion of beautiful tonality from nuculer radiation fogging is, of course, silly

Bokeh tests show the triplet Voigtländer Apo Lanthar and Schneider Xenar lenses to be slightly smoother than the 135mm Symmar, but not enough to worry about. My newer 210mm Symmar S Multicoated is in Perth, so that is out of this set of tests, like the 240mm Apo Ronar

For a longer landscape lens I use a 1952 210mm Schneider Xenar. The lesser angular coverage ofthe Xenar does not matter with a 210mm as, being designed for 5x7", it has enough coverage for 5x4". My fondness for the Xenar may be due to it being single coated, a "Linhof approved" lens, that I have come to know its foibles or that I love the "kHHh----hHLOp" of the pneumatic Compound shutter. The real reason is that I like printing the 210mm Xenar's negatives. In the end, the only real test of a lens is how easily its negatives print

I have on loan a 21mm Cosina/Voigtländer lens. I don't particularly like this lens, originally for no known reason - 'till it dawned on me that this lens is characterless - it just records the image without any need to "learn" how to use it - it is boring

COOL

Cool, all the cameras listed here are cool, I do not use uncool cameras. Apart from the amazingly cool SWC, Hasselblad is no longer cool, they lost that with the Xpan and H series 6x4.5cm. No 6x4.5 camera is cool. Zenza Bronica is uncool. The Mamiya C series could regain cool, but it is unlikely. Rollei is almost always cool, but Rollei cool is difficult to quantify. Someone using a Rollei is very cool. Henry Moore and James Dean using Rolleis was cool. Film or rock stars wearing Rolleis in airport terminals is very uncool. Rollei Wide Angle is super cool. 6x17cm cameras are very uncool

The Zeiss Ikon badged Cosina/Voigtländer is impressive for the price, but it is not cool. If you want to be seen wearing 35mm it is Leica, Nikon F or Alpa. If you can find a Nikon S to wear that is super cool. Using 1950s Nikon or Canon screw mount lenses on an M series Leica is cool

Flimsy Japanese or Chinese wooden cameras are uncool. Sinar Norma, Linhof Super Technica and Deardorf are cool. Gandolfi is super cool. View camera lenses mounted in Compound pneumatic shutters are very cool

A cool camera owned by a camera collector is uncool

No digital camera is cool, well perhaps this little gem

EXACTAMITES

Now I use Leicas extensively I don't see much of my friendly little Exactamites. Exactamites are mites that live in cameras and presumably live off shavings of gelatine. Normally they can be seen running around on the focusing screens of my Nikons, Rolleis and Linhof. Sometimes they leave mite-shadows in the sky; then they loose just a little of their charm. A Perth camera collector told me has even had one in a sealed lens system, where it died. Sadly, the collector has yet to develop a fondness for them, but camera collector's souls are even smaller than their minds

The terms “Exactamite and Ihageemite” come from the observation, long ago recorded in the British Journal of Photography, that they were first noticed in Ihagee VP Exacta cameras from Dresden

If an Exactamiteologist states these specs of divinity are just dust mites I will be disappointed. To me they are special and keep me company when I am photographing the landscape