(2.Sept.2025) Today is Thursday and it’s somewhat dull out there. However yesterday was mostly sunny and, so I thought, a nice and propitious day for hauling a large case of photographic equipment down to the Copenhagen harbour and make a few exposures.

The equipment in question was my Toyo View-G 4×5″ camera in its case, the original makers fitted alu carrying case, that seems to be my next-largest specimen of this kind. That is, the original fitted case for my 4×5″ Plaubel Profia measures approx 30x45x60 cm while the Toyo case is abt. 30x40x60 cm.

The Toyo case fits just about perfectly on the front rack of my bike, although a gross weight of abt 15 kg on the front wheel makes biking approx half a doz km’s down to the harbour slightly more laborious, especially with respect to balance and wind sensitivity. No big deal, though, as I have more than once biked with two moving boxes of books of f.ex. 40-50 kgs gross on my front rack for shorter distances of around one km, or something.

Nevertheless the occasionally quite narrow biking lanes in Cph turned out to make biking with the Toyo a little something of a balancing act, even if – truth to tell – my fellow bikers mostly and very nicely seemed to tend to make allowance for my slightly increased need for room.

I bought the Toyo something like 15 years ago at a sale downtown, and for a pittance, really, even if complete with lens and film holders. But as far as I remember I never tried out the Toyo, possibly even never ever bothered to set it up on a tripod. Which, obviously, goes to prove that I still have far too much analog photo equipment!

The Toyo turned out to be a joy to work with. Everything lines up perfectly, all scales are precise and very legible, and of course – as we have come to expect from a japanese camera – the finish is immaculate.

I had taken my 300 mm Voigtlander Apo-Skopar lens, this one factory mounted in a no.3 Compound shutter. Basically the Apo-Skopars used to be unsurpassed with regard to sharpness and contrast, although I suppose the very latest apo-macro large format lenses made – I’m not sure anybody makes LF lenses now? – may surpass it, especially at larger apertures. The Apo-Skopars all have f.9 as the largest aperture, while more modern LF lenses sport f5.6.

I remember I bought this lens approx. 20 years ago from a gentleman in the northern suburbs together with a somewhat dilapidated Cambo view camera, but have only kept the lens. Sadly the lens is now starting to develop an amount of separation in the balsamed-together front lens group, an occurance rather common in Voigtlander (and Rodenstock) lenses from the period, i.e. the nineteen-sixties.

The separation, that almost certainly will be continually worsening, will eventually degrade contrast somewhat, or even to a marked degree, in contre-jour situations unless a deep sunshade is used. All of which is sort of a pity as this particular lens type is rather scarse; in fact in more than fifty years of dabbling with LF-cameras I’ve never seen another one in factory mounted shutter in actual real life, neither in our country nor on foreign camera shows. I feel I can say this with conficence, as I certainly would have attempted to buy it if I had seen it.

When I had set up the Toyo and waited for the sun to appear and the shooting line to be clear of tourists, I was accosted by a friendly elderly American couple. The man informed me that his wife was a photographer and clearly she was somewhat fascinated by the Toyo – strutting its stuff in the sun, all in polished alu and shiny black laquer – but apart from that she obviously hardly new which end was afore and which end aft.

But this is certainly not in any way unusual, as most observers come across as most likely having never seen any LF camera at all. You may encounter a retired Sinar-photographer once in a rare while, I remember two instances, that’s about all. But of course I don’t mind telling anyone about my hobby and gladly answers any and all more or less pertinent questions.

Over the last few years I and my LF-camera(s) have been accosted by fellow Danes and tourists from many parts of the world: US, China, Japan, Germany, India/Pakistan, Ukraine(?), White Russia and GreatBritain, perhaps others. Among these – rather unsurprisingly perhaps – the Japanese stand out as having the most pronounced fascination for shiny, well-designed photographic paraphernalia?

I made a couple of exposures on Ektachrome 100-S using my Horseman 6×12 cm roll-holder. This holder is a Goods gift to poor large format photographers, as you get 6 exposures for approx the same price – y compris development – as one 4×5″ or 5×7″ Ektachrome cut film. However 5×7″ dia film is not made any more, of course one can cut one 8×10″ film down to two 5×7″ films, but as indicated things then tend to get really expensive. The Ek. 100-s film used expired abt. 23 years ago, but surprisingly no problem there.

(9.Sept.’25) After a few days being busy elsewhere, day before yesterday – which, incidentally, happened to be the first day of the much advertised Full or Blood Moon – I decided to likewise try out my above mentioned Plaubel and its carrying case.

The Plaubel is the ‘newish’ (that is from the 1970s) Profia model, also in 4×5″ size. Likewise I’m not sure I have ever used this Plaubel, at least out-of-doors. But I have for many years owned a few of the older Plaubel models, a few of which I have used extensively. I remember once asking a large photographic dealership here in Cph if they had any old Plaubel view camera equipment left. The answer was, yes they had except a few days ago they had hawled everything into a container to be discarded. This only to indicate, that old Plaubel equipment, i.e. from the 1950’s, used to be almost worthless.

I bought the Profia model in question 10 to 15 years ago from a retired photo dealer, and although not as dirt cheap as the Toyo I newertheless think I got a good price. There weren’t that many potential customers 10 or 15 years ago either. The Plaubel came with 2 lenses and assorted accessories, everything in its fitted case.

As indicated above the Plaubel case has roughly the same dimensions as the Toyo case, and I had no problems biking down to the harbour area with it on the front rack. I had taken most accessories not neded out, which made biking something of a breeze.

Curiously, the Plaubel case incl. accessories – but excluding lenses – weighs almost exactly the same as my dito Toyo case – namely 15 kgs.

I had taken two lenses for the Plaubel. A Voigtlander Heliar 4.5/150 mm in Synchro-Compur shutter and a Carl Zeiss Apo-Tessar 9/300 mm in barrel mount, but front mounted on a Compur #1 shutter. The Heliar, that I have owned for at least 25 years, is from the 1950’s and coated, and I’m not sure I’ve actually used this lens before. The Apo-Tessar is pre WW-2, is uncoated, and owned for at least ten years. Found for a pittance in an odds-and-ends box, I seem to remember.

Both lenses turned out to be a pleasure to work with. Especially the old Apo-Tessar is strikingly sharp and contrasty even at full aperture. Exposure was in both cases at aperture 22, but the film is not yet developed.

One Japanase lady stopped up and took a long hard look at my Plaubel; but as the Japanese (and the Chinese) often travels in tightly knit and managed groups, it’s probably rather hard to fraternize too much with the aboriginals? The Plaubel may not be quite as slick finished and looking as the Toyo, but it’s still a nice and impressive piece of equipment.

But there is – so they say – something outside of the world of LF photography? At any rate I happened to visit the dutch book sale at Vangsgaards last Friday and Saturday, the two final days of the sale. The price was 10 resp. 5 dkr (1,50 – 0,75 US-doll), and I managed to make a get-away with approx a score of books, that I’ill give a short account of in a soon to come post. That is – if the internet can still be expected to be up and running later on in the month of September?

Because rumours all over the web seem to indicate, that September is set – or even planned for – to have a sharp increase of hostilities in the south-east of Europe? Something, that don’t seem altogether incredible to me, at least on account I’ve noticed a marked increase in the uzza-muzza interest for harassing my person. In fact in the last few weeks they have seemed so conspicuous as to appear almost frenzied?

Could it be that Lusifer and/or his minions are yet again planning for a false-flag on or around Copenhagen?

Link: https://www.gamleboeger.dk/2025/06/02/1392/

 

(11.Sept.2025 – to be cross-posted on gamleboeger.dk and blocnotesimma.wordpress.dk – tweets on X.com/gamleboeger )