Sanderson Regular hand & stand 5 x 4" plate camera c1902, results

Skulking in the back of the fridge was a box of Ilford FP4 cut film which expired 20 years ago. Though decidedly past their prime a couple of, slightly mouldy, sheets were exposed in the newly rebuilt Sanderson...and this is the result. A far from auspicious start to the new life.. the Unicum shutter dropped a screw and was stuck at about 1/100th, and it was getting late. The main task was to check for leaks, happily there aren't any. This is North Stoneham Church in Hampshire, where I was christened many moons ago. The rise was used and the verticals are all parallel as a result, which is exactly what Mr Sanderson intended when he designed this camera. One of his principle interests was church architecture, so the subject is appropriate for a first outing.

Just testing...or getting a bit weird. This was shot with the lens racked out a fair way, in dim light and using the Unicum at 1 sec... well the Unicum's version of 1 sec at least, which varies anywhere between half and one and a half seconds, depending on a whole host of variables. This would have been equally true a century ago when these shutters were widespread and was instrumental in the pneumatically governed shutters being superseded. This was stopped down to f/16, as I didn't want the depth of field to be too deep. The tripod I use is similarly vintage....and a bit rickety into the bargain, which adds another interesting, if frustrating, facet to the joys of using an old camera.

The Unicum shutter fitted to this camera has a mind of it's very own! Sometimes sticking open, refusing to fire altogether...or simply just gives wildly approximate speeds! Anytime anything approaching a printable result materialises..it's a success!

Fading light in windy conditions, setting the Unicum to 1/2 sec... resulted in an exposure nearer a full second! The rather dense negative produced this, hopefully the setting for a later image.

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