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Today I made an unusual purchase... A special Compendium - a sort of lens shade, especially made for the foldable TOYO FIELD 45AII-L - which is a so called large format camera.
The one I had ordered many years ago - was like most others for Toyo, made for the larger Toyo View 45- which for the smaller Toyo Field camera is too large and too heavy...
Now this smaller version, is almost impossible to get your hands on, it is so extremely rare - and has been in the past 11 years. I have every third year looked at eBay what there is available - but those that are sold for "Toyo Field" are often the wrong kind, for Toyo View (monorail) camera. And the few times i have seen the right compendium, the prices have been outrageous, up to 400 €
I can use the larger version with a special kind of screw - but the whole things is bulky and i sometimes have to detach the screw in order to work on the Toyo Field 45AII-L camera. While the original smaller compendium is designed exactly for the Toyo Field.
Why is a compendium important ?
Because a lens shade / compendium is CRUCIAL to shut out stray light - which i see in many amateur large format photographers, don't use any lens shade. Which degrades the image with flares and lower contrast. While that can be fine at times - I don't like it.
Large format lenses have ALL their front lens very shallow / superficially exposed to the surrounding light. Without any shielding - it means stray light reaches the lens, degrading the optical performance.
1377 SEK + 25% tax
I ordered from KEH in the US, and paid 124 $ for that compendium with a 5% rebate, and shipping. (The shipping was as expensive as the shade). I assume that a 25% tax + fee (40 €) will be added later once the package arrives in Sweden. *rolling my eyes*
But overall, it is still affordable for what it is (= aka a price that is still fair) compared to the very high prices I have seen for the Toyo Field compendium in the past 10 years.
For me the use of a compendium in largeformat photography is... mandatory. |
