Graflex.org

[Discoman]

i was looking in an old photo book and i ran across this camera called the sinar e mentioned. i checked on the camerapedia, and it was made starting 1988, and the sinar e leaf started in 1993.
these are supposed to have electronic calculators for depth of field, tlt-swing, etc.
the 8x10 e cost 32900 new in USD.
does anyone know what they look like and how to use one? i want to keep my eye open for one at garage sales where people do not know what they are selling, etc, so i sorta need to know what to look for and how to tell if parts are missing! thanks


p.s.-might anyone be able to find an old manual for this? i doubt that the company will be able to help me there, as it's not on their website.

[glennfromwy]

You need to contact Sinar. They probably have what you need. Don't just go by what's on ther web site. The chances of finding something like this at a garage sale are only slightly better than finding Amelia Aerhart (sp?) living in New Jersey.
If 1988 is old, I guess I'm an antique. Well, I am anyway.
_________________
Glenn

"Wyoming - Where everybody is somebody else's weirdo"

[Les]

The E Sinar had a micro motor system so that you focused on a near point and marked it with an electric pen/wand, I believe, then the far point, mark it too. Then, depending on which button you pushed, it would either dance and swing the lens/ ground glass so those two points were in focus, or tell you what aperture would give you enough DOF to get those points in focus and how many pops of the Sinarbron flash you needed for a good exposure. A friend of mine joked with a Sinar rep that they needed to put a credit card reader on the rear standard so that every time he hit the shutter, it would debit the client's bank account.

The other model they had was a Sinar P with a video camera attched to the ground glass so studio photographers could see the GG image on a monitor at floor level, even though the camera was well above their head. This allowed them to manipulate the object and see the results in real time. No more "Up down Up down. Move that a little bit, no, too much back, no the other left. "

It was all about productivity.

Then the late 80s recession hit and Ad agnecies wisely chose not to cut THEIR rates, but put pressure on photographers to lower theirs, and cut the time in half. Suddenly products that had been exclusively using 4x5 and 8x10, could now be done on 120 and 35mm. Photoshop accelerated the process. Catalog houses with dozens of 8x10 cameras that had made money for the past half century were slaughtered on the auction block.

I'm sure most if not all of the dozen? or so E Sinars that were used in the US were on lease and when the lease was up it went back to Sinar.
_________________
"In order to invent, you need a good imagination and a lot of junk" Thomas Edison

[Discoman]

so I will need to contact Sinar, and thank you, FINALLY I KNOW WHAT THE E IS!! and I am motivated to acquire one, it sounds great...
thank you again

[Discoman]

oh hang on, does it also self meter and adjust the shutter like the expolux setup will? or is it just an auto adjusting auto focus auto tilt camera that still has the shutter speed and f stop manually set by a manual meter?

[Discoman]

there is a french website i recently found that offers the e control module, the e front standard, the e rear standard, the e metering back, and more!

http://www.legrandformat.com/Neuf/SINAR.htm

should I try to upgrade my C2 into an e? the P2 standards are REALLY nice to work with, and the productivity increase... is it portable or does in need to connect to a laptop or pc?
_________________
Lack of funds is a blessing, not a curse. Nothing encourages creative thinking like having no money.

[Les]

Well just the front standard is 7,000 Euros, that's $15K before you get to shipping and customs bribes.

By the time you finish finding all of the parts and put this together, you could have bought a very nice 6x9 Arca Swiss, a kick butt Phase one back, a top of the line Mac Pro and probably a blond in a red dress to take pictures of. (okay it's a felony to buy a blond, but you can rent her for a couple of hours)

And considering the difficulty of finding a good processor for E6, and even more--a client that still accepts a 4x5 chrome. I think the digicamera would be a much better 'productivity enhancer' than trying to piece together a Sinar e.

And no I don't think the Sinar e was intended to be let out of the studio.
_________________
"In order to invent, you need a good imagination and a lot of junk" Thomas Edison