Hi from Austria

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Martin Jan Köhler
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Hi from Austria

Post by Martin Jan Köhler » Sun Dec 18, 2011 12:36 am Etc/GMT-1+01:00

Hi all,

I'm from Linz / Austria and have started (film and) large format photography in March 2011.
So I bought a Toyo Field 45AII with a couple of lenses, development equipment, etc and started off...

Altough I went through some baptism by fire (mostly exposure related), so far this journey went well:
  • Handling the view camera ... easier than expected ... altough I've mostly only done landscapes
  • Developing my own color film with a Jobo CPE2 ... easier than expected, thanks again to Tim Parkin for the awesome instruction videos
  • Hand exposure metering ... this turned more difficult than expected, but now I'm more or less managing to get good exposures ... my beloved Fuji Velvia 50 film is quit stringent
  • Scanning ... after struggling with newton rings, problem with high contrast edges etc. with my Canon flatbed I bought a drum scanner at the end of April ... now works perfect
In July I had a great journey to Scotland for 3 weeks.

Here are some examples of my work so far: http://www.flickr.com/photos/martinjankoehler/

Regards,

Paul Mitchell
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Re: Hi from Austria

Post by Paul Mitchell » Sun Dec 18, 2011 2:55 pm Etc/GMT-1+01:00

Welcome to the forum Martin, seems like you've made a cracking start with LF. Love the first Rum from Eigg image on your flickr stream

Paul
When people ask what equipment I use - I tell them my eyes.

http://www.paulmitchellphotography.co.uk
http://www.arenaphotographers.com

Martin Jan Köhler
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Re: Hi from Austria

Post by Martin Jan Köhler » Sun Dec 18, 2011 3:39 pm Etc/GMT-1+01:00

Thanks Paul!

Eigg was awesome! Also funny, watching the cows sunbathing at the bay *gg*

Emmanuel Bigler
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Re: Hi from Austria and : cheers from France !

Post by Emmanuel Bigler » Tue Dec 20, 2011 7:03 pm Etc/GMT-1+01:00

Welcome to the British LF gang.
You are not the only Continental LF-er here ;)

While some Continental LF-ers go to Scotland, some others spent their family holidays not far from Linz (at least, not far, ahem, as seen from a Scotsman's point of view) since I could no resist to cross the Austrian border (from the Italian Dolomites where our family base camp was installed) in order to get refills of real Speck in ... Lienz, for our daily walking tours ;)

Post-Scriptum : Austria like France can be proud to host at least one Large Format Camera manufacturer; in the UK, to the best of my knowledge, there are at least two : Walker and Gandolfi; do I miss other British LF camera manufacturers still active today?

Martin Jan Köhler
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Re: Hi from Austria

Post by Martin Jan Köhler » Tue Dec 20, 2011 7:30 pm Etc/GMT-1+01:00

Hi Emmanuel,

the Austrian manufacturer is Lotus View Camera, may I ask you who the French manufacturer is?

(I assumed Arca-Swiss is at least in the French-speaking part of Swiss or are they really French?)

Best regards,
Martin

Emmanuel Bigler
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Re: Hi from Austria

Post by Emmanuel Bigler » Tue Dec 20, 2011 7:57 pm Etc/GMT-1+01:00

(I assumed Arca-Swiss is at least in the French-speaking part of Swiss or are they really French?)

From the company's point of view, Arca Swiss International is a French company.
And if you come to Besançon, France, you'll be able to meet the Vogt family, the owners of the company, who live there. And you'll be able to speak to them in ... French if you wish (hoschdeutsch is also spoken :D)
Otherwise Arca Swiss operates the Arca Swiss Phototechnik AG company, located in Horgen near Zürich, the direct continuation of a business operated by the Oschwald family before 1984.
Actually the Vogt family opened the Besançon company in 1999 in order to be also an EU-based company.
Last edited by Emmanuel Bigler on Wed Dec 21, 2011 11:35 am Etc/GMT-1+01:00, edited 1 time in total.

Martin Jan Köhler
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Re: Hi from Austria

Post by Martin Jan Köhler » Wed Dec 21, 2011 10:42 am Etc/GMT-1+01:00

Aaah cool, so the owners are your neighbours ;-)

Hmmm, what I've heard so far, Arca Swiss F Line 4x5 must be great.
I already thought about getting a used one to have a monorail at hand
next to my field camera ...

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