Camera Kit Shaping Up

Well, my 4x5 kit is beginning to take shape.  Fellow APUGer, Barry (bdial), has been kind enough to offer a camera and lens to get me going.  Not without recompense, mind you.

Meet Ellie.

Ellie is a Calumet 4x5 with a rotating back so that both horizontally and vertically negatives can be exposed without needing to rotate the entire camera 90 degrees in either direction.  It will be accompanied by...

...a Symmar 180mm f/5.6 lens mounted on a Compur shutter.  180mm in 4x5 roughly translates to a normal 45mm lens in 35mm format photography.  In the coming weeks I will sink some more into some good glass for the front of this beauty.  I will be looking for something in the 90-120mm range.  I do not believe I am going to concern myself with a longer lens immediately unless a deal to good to pass up crosses my path.  In LF photography, as long as the bellows are light tight and the movements are smooth, the camera is just a camera.  You get your image with great film, spot on exposure and killer glass.  And the glass is where my investment will go.

I have five old film holders that need some work.  I will need to get some leatherette to breathe new life into them.  But this is certainly doable.  I have my Soligor 1 degree spot meter.  I would not be caught dead without a spot meter in large format photography, or any photography for that matter.  Sometimes you simply need to know and a spot meter if used properly will not let you down.

I have my tripod, given to me by my sister-in-law, Lyn, for Christmas three years ago (Hi, Beautiful Sister).  It should be more than enough to provide good stability for Ellie.  I will be carting everything around in an old army framed backpack.  Huge central storage and bunches of pockets for odds and ends.

I do have a few things I will need to pickup to round out the kit.  Once I have the lenses, I will pick up...

a good Cokin 'P' filter set, focusing primarily on contrast, Pol and ND filters
a good cable release
a few more film sheet holders
some Ilford sheet film
a hard case to carry the lenses, filters and the film holders
a big changing bag
a focusing cloth
a focusing loupe (10x)

I know there is more but this will do for a start.