Buckshot’s Blog

The Ritter 8×10 went on it’s maiden flight this past weekend, and it was great! The weight savings was very noticable, I didn’t have to take my pack off until I reached my destination! Same with the return trip, wonderful! It does seem to pick up a little vibration in the wind, though I guess this is to be expected with a large camera that doesn’t have much mass. I’ll be rigging up (or purchasing) a stabilizing rod to connect the front and rear standards together, see if that helps out in windy condition. I’ll develop the negatives tonight!

A lens for my speedgraphic arrived today, I don’t know much about it, but according to the person I purchased it from, it’s a “Bausch & Lomb Theater lens”, about 145mm f2. I’ll be using this lens to see how I like the odd effects that this type of old lens can produce. First negatives from this lens are going to be developed tonight!

Here’s the first two shots from the Bausch & Lomb:

And the first 3 shots from the Ritter 8×10!

In an effort to make my 8×10 hiking photography easier on the back, I’ve picked up some light weight items to replace some of my current items.

First up is the lens 450mm Fujinon-C f12.5 weighing .6 pounds to replace my monster 360mm Sironar-N f6.8 weighing 3.4 pounds! And give me some extra length that I was wanting as well. Next up, the 8×10 camera made by Richard Ritter to replace my Tachihara 8×10. The Ritter comes in at about 1/2 as much weight as the 12lb Tachihara, and gives me room to store a lens inside the front standard while it’s closed up. This is a feature I really grew to like while learning on my uncle’s 4×5 Wista. The addition of front and rear lateral shift, as well as more rear swing and longer belows extension are a welcomed upgrade from the Tachihara as well.

The design of the Ritter is very different from the Tachihara! It folds up mostly the same, front standard supports fold backwards and the standard flips facing down, the rear standard folds forward on top of everything. However, the workings of the camera are quite different, most of which I assume are done out of the desire to save weight. It seems to be a very ingenious design, and seems simple to operate once I gave it a good look over. I’ve noticed the camera to be a bit less ridged than the Tachihara (which was very solid) However, I haven’t had a chance to securely lock down the Ritter camera to a tripods because my tripod screw isn’t short enough, so I haven’t been able to really evaluate it’s rigidity.

I hope to be out and shooting very soon, as soon as the shorter tripod screw arrives!

And some obligatory “pretzel” shots, showing off movements to the extreme that I’ll probably never do! But it’s a cool way to show the camera, haha!

While visiting friends in Phoenix, I ran out of my usual tri-x 320 (only brought a few sheets that fit in my holders) and had to pick up some film along the way. Tmax 100 was the only thing I could find in 8×10, so that it was!  I got lucky with some interesting weather and clouds!  In the last shot, it started raining (413th Avenue) right as I finished packing up my camera in the car, just in time!

So I’ve got a new toy, an old Zeiss Ikon 6×9 camera! It’s nice and folds up slim, fun to use!

Here’s some shots taken with it from the first two rolls:

I’ve been enjoying the wider aspect ratio of 4×10! Using 8×10 film, with a dark slide cut in 1/2, I can get two 4×10 shots onto each 8×10 sheet of film!

buildings around Hayden Ave in Culver City