Kodak No.33 5x7 Camera Kit
Almost want to cry putting this thing up for sale but it’s time I think. I bought this camera as a bag of parts on ebay and rebuilt it. I built the bellows from a kit made by Soren (?) who was making bellows kits at the time. The material is AWESOME. Very thick and stiff. Wonderful bellows and they came out great (more his work than mine, his kits were great). I stripped the old nasty shellac off the camera and stained it with cherry stain and then oiled it. It still looks pretty damn good. It could use a nice oiling but for me it’s always been a tool to use.
Included here:
Kodak No.33 camera, restored with new bellows
Dark cloth fitting the camera
Fuji non W 180mm f 5.6 w/ caps, shen-hao Linhof lensboard and shutter release
Fujinon W 250mm f6.3 w/ caps, shen-hao linhof lensboard and shutter release
9 mixed film holders (8 of which are loaded with HP5 [I think!!!!!!])
Degroff Air shutter release
Tamrac lens bag
Generic backpack that fits everything
I'm going to start and sit on the price of $1000 + $50 S&H (in the US) for a while. I think it's pretty fair for a nice turnkey system. A tripod and a light meter are the only other things you'll need.
I replaced the ground glass with a Steve Hopf gridded ground glass which is awesome. I had inner edge of the back routed so that there is a 45 degree angle all the way around to prevent any reflection onto the film plane. I also modified the front standard to take Linhof lens boards vs the oddball lensboards that it originally came with. I never got around to putting a gasket around the opening, so currently there is some gaffers tape around the edge, which has worked just fine.
I think this camera is a perfect portraiture camera. It does not have ton of movements. Not a great architecture camera. Could be a good landscape camera (because it’s lightweight) if you don’t need a ton of movements. It has front rise/fall, rear tilt and rear swing. I really just used the front rise. Since it’s so simple to set up, it has an immediacy to it that really worked well for me with portraiture. Also I think because it’s a little anthropomorphic looking (kind of a cute Cyclops), people are fascinated with it. It was always a conversation starter, which was perfect for me because I was generally photographing strangers anyway. It looks really old. People want to ask about it.
The only real issue with the camera is that at the joint between the camera and the tail section, there’s a little skip in the teeth. Sometimes when you are opening the camera the back will jump a tooth when you cross that joint. I just would firmly push the back into place, and that would be that. It’s a non-issue when you get used to it. It’s also missing one screw on the hinge. Never been a problem but it’s there. There are some scratch marks where the teeth from the rail hit the ground glass frame. A touch of furniture polish would kill those.
The backpack works pretty well. You can jam all 9 of these film holders in there, or comfortably zip it up with 7. It’s close to perfect for the camera, 2 (or 3 lenses), a bunch of holders and whatever else you need.
The holders are a mixed bag of Lisco and Fidelity. I can’t comment much about them, as I haven’t used this camera in a couple of years. I believe they are all loaded with HP5. It looks like one holder is exposed. If you bought this and were kind enough to develop the film for me, I’d send you $10. But no obligation. I can’t remember what I shot on it.
The two lenses make a pretty good combination for 5x7. I used 180mm almost exclusively. This lens sounds snappy throughout, aperture blades are clean and snappy. Lens is pretty clean, normal amount of dust. Same with the 250mm. A little more patina around the shutter dial but otherwise very clean.
There's a ton of pictures here:
https://plus.google.com/photos/10740...561?banner=pwaHere's some of the pictures I made with this thing:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulmce...7623159051495/I made a little video demonstrating the camera here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGJXrGEUJcQ
