My camera gear lust truly knows no boundaries. But in my defense, ever since I first got into large format photography, neither my Horseman L45 monorail camera (since sold) nor my Graflex Pacemaker 45 Crown Graphic quite seemed to completely scratch my large format itch. The Horseman is (well, was) quite simply too big and too heavy for serious field work (it’s not what monorails were even designed for), and the Graphic, as much as I love it, doesn’t provide enough view camera movements to be considered much of a contender for serious large format work — where perspective control, and depth-of-field control, through the use of those movements are central to the art form. Quite literally the only camera in existence that combines all the use cases of a monorail camera and a press camera into a single package is the Linhof Master Technika, or Master Technika Classic (more on that distinction later), and it’s the reason I’d wanted one for years. I never thought I’d have the opportunity, but it presented itself, and I think I have pretty well found my photographic capstone, not just for my large format endeavors, but for my film camera collection as a whole.
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5 Stupid Things You Can Do to a Linhof Master Technika (and How Not to Do Them)
The venerable Linhof Master Technika is a highly respected, highly regarded camera that represents a significant investment for its owners. It seems clear that they were designed and intended for professionals who don’t generally need to be protected from themselves. They are also extraordinarily poorly documented by Linhof, with owner’s manuals that, quite bluntly, contain misinformation and what I might call “errors of omission” — stuff important enough that it should have been mentioned, but wasn’t. That all might have worked fine if we still lived in a time when you bought your film camera from a local dealer, with real human beings there who could demonstrate and explain what (and what not) to do, why, and how. But we don’t live in such a time, and so the buyer of a Linhof Master Technika (or prior Technika models) is left to their own devices, free to screw things up with impunity, then blame the camera and its design. Some of that blame might be justified, but if you’re new to the Technika, let me — as someone who’s made multiple, expensive mistakes — explain how you can (and should) avoid them.
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