After taking the shutter out the lens and putting it all back together we decided to test this bad boy out with an old fashioned camera obscura using the window and curtains.
The image below is what was projected on the wall on the other wide of the room approximately 4 metres away. The grey areas you can see are bricks and to give it some context of size on the right of the image you can just make out a radiator.
To give us some kind of idea of what it would be like work with focus on huge plates we used a towel which measured about 25" x 50".
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And below is another projection on the towel of the house behind which is at least 25 metres away.
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Focussing the image was a matter of moving the towel a few centimeters in either direction. This is the lens fully open but when we tried with the lens closed down we experience vignetting, I reckon this is down to the aerial camera being design for 9"x18" photo which at such height would need to be closed down to get any kind of detail .... I think.
Next .... thinking of ideas for the "camera back/darkroom space". We've got something in the pipeline but we think it won't be until after Christmas till we get a little further with this. Until then we have all the chemicals and silver we need to be shooting with my 5x4.
