New to LF Journal 4: Portability

[Erik DeBill]

My Tachihara finally arrived, so I'm finally getting to use large format in the fashion I originally intended. The Tachihara itself is wonderfully compact and light, but there's a lot of other stuff to you need to shoot 4x5.

I load it all into my backpack.

I've had my backpack for about 5 years and it fits better than any photo backpack I've ever seen, so I didn't want to give that up. Instead I got a backer board and a couple cases from PhotoBackpacker. They have a very modular system aimed at letting you use normal backpacks to carry 4x5 field cameras. I like it so much I just ordered a second set that I intend to adapt for carrying my DSLR.

This is what goes inside the main compartment of my pack:

You can see the backer board peeking out at the bottom. I arranged everything with space at the bottom so I could put non-photography things there. The pack has a side zipper, so I can access them without too much trouble. Normally I'd want heavier items like water at the top of my pack, but I'm always afraid of water leaking out and soaking my camera gear. With it at the bottom I just get a wet butt if something goes wrong.

Since I've never found a good way to strap a tripod to the outside of my pack, I put the tripod inside the pack. The backerboard lets me put everything else off center so I have plenty of room to take the tripod in and out.

Here's another view, with things opened up.

This is more of what I see when I pull everything out of my backpack. The whole backer board slides out, with everything on it (though I usually pull the tripod out first). I've then got a small box with compartments for my lenses, loupe and level (the green bit peeking out from behind my 210mm Caltar). The camera goes in it's own case, wrapped in my dark cloth.

I haven't yet settled on a good way to attach the dark cloth to the camera. As it is, I try to avoid using it whenever possible, but sometimes I just can't get around the need for it. You can definitely see what you're shooting a lot better with a dark cloth, I just get annoyed with it trying to slip off.

The tripod is a Gitzo G1258 with an Acratech Ultimate Ball Head on top (same as I use for my DSLR). The Gitzo is one of the new models with non-twist legs. Much nicer to work with than the older legs. While the ball head tended to let my Cambo vibrate a lot, the Tachihara is much lighter and has a lower center of gravity. It doesn't vibrate at all.

The two boxes are a box of Velvia Quickloads and a box of Tmax 100 Readyloads. I haven't settled on the best way to pack these guys yet, but for now I'm just removing the inner foil and carrying the boxes. Alternatively, I can put a case of traditional film holders where the readyloads are. I have one from f64 that holds 6, and one of the Photobackpacker ones designed to hold 8 (and attach to the backer board) is on the way.
Not pictured are my light meter and readyload holder, which go in the upper pocket of the backpack.

Altogether the pack, camera, film, tripod, meter and internal cases weigh 19lbs. The camera gear itself is 14lbs (including a couple pounds for the PhotoBackpacker stuff). Not included are the weight of basic supplies like water, a compass, first aid kit, flashlight, etc. Depending on how much water I need, 25-30lbs is not unreasonable. I could shave that a little lighter by only taking 2 lenses or carrying less film. Instead I'll probably carry traditional film holders most of the time in order to save money on film.

6 film holders (12 sheets of film) weigh about as much as the readyload holder + 40 sheets of film. Additionally, readyloads are much easier to work with than traditional film holders - you don't have to load them and "unloading" them is much easier than getting your film out of traditional film holders. On the downside, Readyloads/Quickloads don't cost much more if you're shooting slides but they triple the cost of film if you're shooting black and white (to just over $3/shot if you don't get it on sale).

The major downside to this setup is that it just doesn't leave a lot of room for other gear. If I want to carry a water filter and cooking gear I'll have to strap some of it to the outside of the pack. I'll probably end up getting a larger pack at some point to facilitate longer/more luxurious treks.

For now, I'm really happy to be able to take my new camera out to places a bigger, heavier view camera can't go. I've taken it on a couple 8 mile hikes, and plan on taking it up into the mountains in a couple weeks.

 

[Ray West]

Hi Erik,

Although I'm not into trekking, or mf/lf, I found the backer board concept interesting. wrt the cloth, a few ideas you may have already considered - velcro, - you can get small self adhesive 'velcro buttons'. I guess these could be easily applied to/removed from the camera, a bigger mating strip stitched or glued (copydex) to the cloth. Small button magnets in the seam of the cloth or otherwise located. Some bendable (copper/lead) wire in seam of cloth. Gaffer tape??

A bit of a job to suggest ideas remotely, without having the camera or the cloth. One thing on a calm day, another in anything above force 3, I guess ;-)

Best wishes,

Ray

 

[Asher Kelman]

Erik,

This all looks splendid! Is the backer board stryofoam? The website isn't operating right now.

Is your 25-30lb including the tripod and the backpack?

I'd like to see a real weight list since this seems a bit light for all your gear and water!

This is a job for Clarke Kent or else to go as with firends so that one can share things like water or extra lenses or even the camera.

Also I hope you have some emergency kit and communication system! Do a search here on Rocky mountain spotted Fever! there's a list of safety tips by Mike spinak in those threads!

Have you included a GPS device?

Asher

P.S. can you introduce your B&W image? Where what how and then what was the sky that day! Well, I am interested to know if you would feel it would be against your sense of rightness to add sky from another image if there's no data there?

 

[Erik DeBill]

This all looks splendid! Is the backer board stryofoam? The website isn't operating right now.

They don't say what the backer board is. The whole thing is covered in velcro loop fasteners, so I can't see, but I suspect it corrugated plastic or something similar. It's fairly rigid and seems quite tough. You can lean it (with camera and lenses attached) up against a wall without it buckling. Definitely not styrofoam.

Is your 25-30lb including the tripod and the backpack?

That would include tripod, backpack, film, water, first aid kit, poncho and a little food. Minus first aid kit, water and poncho the whole thing weighed 19 lbs. 25lbs would include 2 liters of water (or 1 liter + filter if there's water available), first aid kit and poncho.

I'd like to see a real weight list since this seems a bit light for all your gear and water!

I need a better scale. I've got my bathroom scale, which obvoiusly isn't very good for small weights and is only accurate within a pound or so, and a kitchen scale that only goes up to 1 lb. I was able to get weights for the film items since they're all less than 1 lb.

One thing to keep in mind is that I bought everything with weight in mind. My lenses are all light weight, under a pound each, even with lensboards. The camera is the second lightest I could find on the market (3.4 lbs is the listed weight), the dark cloth is unweighted and the tripod and ball head are very light models, too (3-4lbs total). PhotoBackpacker offers two different sets of cases and I opted for the lighter ones.

I'll try and put together an itemized list tonight or some time this weekend.

This is a job for Clarke Kent or else to go as with firends so that one can share things like water or extra lenses or even the camera.

Also I hope you have some emergency kit and communication system! Do a search here on Rocky mountain spotted Fever! there's a list of safety tips by Mike spinak in those threads!

Have you included a GPS device?

I go on a day hike at least once on most weekends. Sometimes I go both Saturday and Sunday. It's quite easy to carry enough for one day, even with some basic emergency supplies. Because I'm using a true backpack, all the weight falls on my hips and it's quite easy to carry even a heavy load. I'm rather aware of the dangers of hiking alone (I've run into poisonous snakes, a bear, raced hail storms down the mountain, caught West Nile virus and had a couple close calls with leg injuries). I try to take steps to minimize those risks, but I also haven't found a suitable hiking buddy. I really like hiking alone, enjoying the silence, which is also conducive to photography.

P.S. can you introduce your B&W image? Where what how and then what was the sky that day! Well, I am interested to know if you would feel it would be against your sense of rightness to add sky from another image if there's no data there?

That image was taken early on a very cold morning at Hamilton's Pool, a local park and swimming hole. I drove through the gate of the park as the girl that unlocked it walked back to the office. It was about 40 degrees and the sky was very flat and overcast - it's blown out, but you're not missing anything. That particular version was made by doing a black and white conversion on the blue channel of a color slide (which is why the sky blew out - Provia couldn't hold that contrast range). The rock in the foreground is about 15-20 feet tall. The rim up around the top is probably 40-50 feet up. The stalactites probably ranged up to 8 feet long.

The picture was taken with a Tachihara 4x5 on a Gitzo G1358 with an Acratech Ultimate Ball Head. The lens was a Schneider Angulon 90mm f6.8 (dating back to early 1950). Exposure time was a couple seconds. No camera movements were used - I just stopped down to f22.

I also shot it with TMAX 100 and recently developed the negatives. I plan to process those and compare the differences. I've already seen that it held a lot more highlight and shadow detail, so the trick will be keeping some of that while not losing the drama of the higher contrast slide.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Thanks Erik for the detail.

Your best bet for a hiking buddy would be Mike Spinak. The advantage would be that he could recognize when you got Rocky Mountain Spotted fever and you would notice the West Nile Virus carrying female mosquito before she bit him!

How stable is the Tachihara? Is it as rigid as the non folding Ebony cameras and could you even accomodate a non folding 4x5 field camera?

What other cameras did you consider? I'm interested in also shooting Polaroids, but I guess that is what you are using for your ready-loads or not?

It's a thrill to hear about your progress in this LF journey!

Thanks for sharing.



Asher

BTW, you diodn't mention whether you'd add a sky if everything else was great?

 

[Deleted member 55]

Hey Erik, Have you considered special foam padding for your back pack? I heard somewhere that they make it with helium for the bubbles. If you use enough You will swear the pack weighs nothing at all!

 

[Charles L Webster]

There's a material called "coroplast" that's like corrugated cardboard, but made of plastic. It's quite rigid in one direction and very light. Two pieces, with their axes at right angles might make a very strong, very light support. Wrapped in loop Velcro fabric, it might be just what I need.

I face the problem of how to carry my camera gear on day hikes. I won't hike without certain necessities (water, first aid kit, extra layers), but photo backpacks don't accommodate those things, especially a 2 liter water flask. I usually end up wrapping the extra lenses in my fleece jacket and stuffing them in my hiking backpack. But what to do with the body. I refuse to use a neck strap, I hate the camera banging against my chest. This "backer board" concept has promise.

Thanks Eric for your insights. And thanks for the continuing saga of your MF adventures.

 

[Erik DeBill]

I'll try and put together an itemized list tonight or some time this weekend.

courtesy of the kitchen scale, all lenses include lensboard, cable release, protective filter and lens covers:

Tachihara 4x5 59 oz (list)
dark cloth 9 oz
210mm f6.8 Caltar II-E 12 oz
135mm f5.6 Rodenstock Apo-Sironar-S 9 oz
90mm f6.8 Schneider Angulon 8 oz
Wista 3.8x loupe 2 oz
level .5 oz
Kodak Readyload holder 12 oz
10 readyloads 8 oz
readyloads box 4 oz
Minolta Spotmeter F 9 oz
lens case 5.8 oz (list)
camera case 11.7 oz (list)
backer board ~16 oz (unlisted, but shipping weight is 20 oz

tripod + ball head - too heavy to weigh, and Gitzo changed their model numbers so I can't look it up. I seem to remember the tripod was 3 lbs and the head < 1 lb, though.

total (minus tripod and head) is 166 oz - 11lbs. I only included 10 readyloads and one readyload box - 20 sheets/box times 2 boxes would add another 28 oz, putting me at 12 lbs - 2 lbs lighter than I weighed on the bathroom scale. Probably within an acceptable margin of error given the measuring devices in question.

One important thing to remember is that large format lenses are LIGHT. They have small apertures and don't have to include motors or focusing mechanisms so they weigh a lot less than all but the cheapest 35mm lenses. I suspect the difference is even more striking when compared to medium format.

 

[Erik DeBill]

How stable is the Tachihara? Is it as rigid as the non folding Ebony cameras and could you even accomodate a non folding 4x5 field camera?

The Tachihara is very rigid if I clamp down all the little knobs. Usually I leave the ones I'm actually working with loose enough to move if I push or pull - similar to a ball head with proper tension.

I'm limited by space to cameras that can be made quite compact. I believe Toho makes a couple monorails that can be very compact, but they're too expensive for me to buy as a first large format camera. I've never seen the Ebony cameras, so I can't speak to their rigidity.

What other cameras did you consider? I'm interested in also shooting Polaroids, but I guess that is what you are using for your ready-loads or not?

The Tachihara, Shen Hao and Toyo 45CF were the only ones I seriously considered. The Tachihara wins on weight and price, and comes in second on movements. All 3 have very similar capabilities in most respects, so the combination of light weight and low price won.

I'm using Fuji Velvia and Kodak TMAX 100 for my readyloads. I've got a polaroid holder, but it's heavy and polaroid film won't work in the Kodak Readyload holder. My polaroid holder is old, so it might be that the new ones are plastic and lightweight.

All in all, readyloads are MUCH nicer than traditional sheet film. Easier to expose (easier than polaroids, too - they fixed a design bug in the polaroids) and easier to extract for processing. The film itself is exactly the same as the normal sheet film (same size, shape, identifying notches, etc).

BTW, you diodn't mention whether you'd add a sky if everything else was great?

[/quote]

I'm all about making the best picture of what I saw. Clouds from a photo of another place wouldn't be the clouds I saw. I might combine two exposures to get enough dynamic range, but they'd be from the same location and time.

 

[Erik DeBill]

There's a material called "coroplast" that's like corrugated cardboard, but made of plastic. It's quite rigid in one direction and very light. Two pieces, with their axes at right angles might make a very strong, very light support. Wrapped in loop Velcro fabric, it might be just what I need.

This is the stuff I was thinking of. I think they only have one layer - the backer board is much more rigid in one direction than the other.

 

[Erie Patsellis]

for those with a diy bent (either because they want to or don't have the funds) coroplast can usually be gotten from any sign shop quite cheaply.


erie