Rarely do I find much of anything photographic at a decent price in an antique store, so last year when I came across a Korona 8x10 view camera with tripod, I asked my wife to make that my Christmas present. Then I had to score a lens for it, as the camera had only a gutted GEM shutter on it, so I ebayed up an in-period Turner Reich (a so-called "combo" lens that can use the front and rear elements independently), and a later Gundlach Radar 4.5 300mm (huge hunk of glass with very bright focus).

There is no identification on the camera other than a plain-looking KORONA nameplate on front. Its distinguishing feature is a U-shaped spacer on the lens board tracks; in shots where the lens board is shifted very high, this offset allows swinging the lens downward without hitting the spacer. This particular camera is not among those described at this resource: http://www.fiberq.com/cam/gund.htm

To try out the camera after its thorough cleaning, I set it up for an incidental composition I noticed in a spare bedroom. At first, I contemplated using 8x10 photo paper and inverting the scans for prints, but then JandC had some out-of-spec Fomapan 18x24cm film at a throw-away price, so I purchased that to work on my technique. Its emulsion supposedly has occasional pinholes, not reliable enough for commercial uses. I had no problem with any pinholes in the few sheets I used on this first run.

After practicing my moves on a found subject in our guest room, I created cardboard adapters to center the smaller Foma film within the 8x10 holder I had. The first picture I ever took with this camera was with the Turner-Reich lens, and it turned out well, although not as sharp as good modern lenses. Emboldened, I took the next with the Radar lens, and this is it below. I like it better--the image is visibly sharper in 1200dpi detail scans.

One thing I like about the Fomapan film is its nice hold on shadow detail. My scan is a bit low key--I don't think I have a pure white in the gamut of this scan, even on the handle, but the mood of this scan does match the soft glow of the room at the time.