Sunday, July 11, 2010

Frankie - An Introduction

Frankie!Meet Frankie our 4x5 Land Camera Conversion. He is a Frankensteins Monster of cameras, a creation made from 4 different "corpse" cameras. (Lens & Lens Board: Polaroid 110A / Body: Polaroid 160 / Rangefinder: Polaroid 900 / Back: 4x5 Graflok Back) It took months of hacking and fiddling around to complete this beautiful monster but since his first exposure I have been frankly in love!
The lens is a 127mm, f/4.7, 4-element Rodenstock Ysarex with a Prontor SVS shutter with speeds 1 - 1/300 plus Bulb. It has a most effective EV rating system on the lens. The rangefinder is accurate and I can shoot it at 1/8 sec. handheld with tack sharp results! I can also tilt the lens a bit and the focussing screen in the Graflok back allows for exact framing when a tripod is available. This camera really makes it easy to get beautiful 4x5 negatives or to shoot the huge Fuji FP-100C45 and FP-3000B45 instant films. We are absolutely loving it!
These were taken on our Pentax 6X7 camera with it's awesome Takumar 105mm f/2.4 lens. (Delta 3200, f/2.4, 1/30 sec.)

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3 comments:

  1. RiccisJuly 13, 2010 at 6:27 PM

    I'm in love with Frankie :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. BrianMay 4, 2011 at 2:52 PM

    Hey Brandon/Brian,

    Been a huge fan of you guys for a while now. I, too, share not only a similar namesake, but an obsession and/or romanticism for medium/large format analog film.

    Hacking up a bunch of Polaroids into a beutiful hand-held 4x5 beauty seems a perfect next project for me to sink my teeth into. From your "Sheep" pic, and this most recent portrait, I TRULY want to follow your lead as much as possible as I start to build. The quality, and soul of those photos are so sick, seriously.

    Would you be willing to nerd out with me over email and offer me some guidance? I am always up for some trade/$$/gifts for knowledge.

    Thanks SO much in advance, B&B...
    Brian

    ReplyDelete
  3. BrandonMay 4, 2011 at 8:36 PM

    Hi Brian,

    Feel free to ask away but I may or ay not be able to help. It took me 9 months to create this baby and it's not a refined work. But If I can help I will.

    Brandon

    ReplyDelete

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