K.B. Canham 8x10/4x10 Camera

I have decided to start a separate section for my venture into the 8x10 Large Format area. I will document my learning process and thoughts as I go along. It will be a fun adventure.

Below is a picture of the K.B.Canham 8x10 wood standard. The second picture is the 8x10 camera with my Toyo 45 AII that I have been using for 8 years.

Large Format and Medium Format is sadly becoming an area of Photography that is disappearing. Companies like Kodak and Fuji are gearing down their film production because digital Photography has taken the world by storm. There is a strong group of Photographers in the Large Format world that are going to keep this form of Photography alive. I do shoot Digital and have a wonderful digital camera. The Canon 5D is a beauty and takes great pictures with it's 12MP chip, but it is far too easy to use. I equate it to shooting a machine gun! You WILL get a good shot eventually!!!!!!! I have found that no matter how great the digital Image from the 5D is, I will take the Image from the 4x5 every time because I had to work for it! Large Format photography is far more rewarding for me!

I was in Death Valley in March and at Zabriskie Point on a Saturday morning there were 50 Photographers and 45 of them were shooting with digital cameras. Most were shooting with very expensive digital cameras. I was shooting 4x5, another guy and girl were shooting 4x5 and there were two guys shooting Medium Format. I had people on both sides of me at Sunrise and at best light I took three shots. Honestly it sounded like shutter war around me. Probably thousands of pictures were taken in 10 minutes, Amazing!

8/12/06  I sold my Fuji 6x17 camera four years ago and I have regretted it ever since. Over the last few years I have always wanted another Panorama camera but one with a little more versatility. I had always dreamed of an 8x10 View Camera and at the top of my list was a Canham 8x10. A beautiful hand crafted wood camera made by Keith Canham in Arizona. The best part about the Canham 8x10 is that Keith makes a 4x10 back that replaces the 8x10 back. He also sells 4x10 film holders that he assembles from Fidelity 8x10 holder parts. The only problem that has always held me back is that you must cut 8x10 sheets of film in half in the dark. Scary thought for me! In View Camera magazine last year there was a great article written by Kerry Thalmann on the 4x10 Format. It went through the whole process and it seemed very straight forward. Kerry used a Rotatrim cutter and it made the whole process much easier. It was a wonderful two part article for anyone interested in 4x10 Cameras, lenses, holders etc.

So I ordered a K.B. Canham standard 8x10 with the 4x10 back and eight 4x10 holders from the View Camera Store in Arizona. It is being shipped Wednesday. I have ordered the 12" Rotatrimmer and I have 6 boxes of 8x10 Velvia 100 from Badger Graphics in transit. I will post pictures and update as I go along in this new venture. In October I will be Photographing the Eastern Sierra, mainly Mono Lake, Bodie Ghost town and Yosemite high country. Perfect places to shoot 4x10 Panoramas!

Let the fun Begin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

8/24/06 My Canham 8x10 and all the goodies have arrived. It is truly a beautiful camera. The black walnut is stunning with beautiful grain. I have been practicing opening and closing the camera and have been working with all the knobs and levers for the various movements. This camera has far more movements than my Toyo 45 AII, so I have some learning to do. The Canham 4x10 holders are beautiful and are very well made and should last a long time. The Canham 4x10 back is very easy to install in place of the 8x10 back. One reason I decided on the 8x10 camera instead of Keith's 4x10 camera was that I wanted to be able to also shoot vertical panorama's and try 8x10. I had setup my old Lowepro Super Trekker for this camera but found that my Lowepro Photo Trekker will work with the 8x10, two lenses and my spot meter. The film holders will go in a Gnass carrier. This has made the whole setup much lighter as the Super Trekker is very heavy to start with. 

I have a Ries J100 wood tripod and J250 head that is really for 4x5/5x7. With the Fuji 250mm F5.6 CM W that I will be using for shooting 4x10 the tripod feels solid and should work fine for now. The Fuji 250 is equal to about 37mm in a  35mm camera. My Fuji 6x17 had the 180mm lens and was equal to 39mm. I found that this worked great for my eye and rarely did I wish for a wider lens. I will start with this lens and see how it goes. It does cover 320mm and 4x10 requires 266mm so I do have room for some movements.

Last night I setup my Rotatrimmer with a straight edge to cut 4x10 film. It took 3 tries before I got two perfect size 4x10 sheets from one 8x10 sheet. I mounted the straight edge semi-permanent as I will only be using the trimmer for cutting 8x10 film. Below is my Rotatrimmer and my straight edge setup for cutting 8x10 film.

8/28/06 I spent the weekend cutting and loading 4x10 film. It went very well and was not as hard as I thought it would be. I took 8 test shots of Provia 100 and everything was great. I have two places that will develop my E-6, so I will bring each one two holders and see how it goes. One has done 4x10 and the other has not. I have to say that during the test shots I also put the 8x10 back on and the view on the ground glass for 8x10 is amazing! What a beautiful sight!! I will do a few 8x10 shots before I go on my Eastern Sierra trip. I had my Fuji 250mm CM W on the camera and it looks like it will cover 8x10 as long as I keep movements to a minimum.  Most people including myself think that 8x10 is twice as big as 4x5. Actually it is four times bigger. Looking at an 8x10 ground glass is the same size as looking at four 4x5's. BIG!

Below are the 4x10 back horizontal and vertical and the 8x10 horizontal. Keith builds a beautiful camera doesn't he!!!!