Gowlandflex
4x5-inch Gowlandflex image by Nasir Hamid (Image rights) |
California glamour and celebrity photographer Peter Gowland (1916-2010) was also very active as a camera tinkerer and inventor throughout his career, addressing the unusual needs of his own and other photographers' work. He claimed he had invented 30 cameras,[1] which included aerial models and lightweight view cameras.[2] But he is certainly best known for the Gowlandflex large-format TLR, and in particular the Gowlandflex 4x5 Glamour Camera.
For magazine-cover and pinup work, a negative of 4x5 inches was considered standard (as retouching often was done directly on the film). But having originally used a Rolleiflex, Gowland wanted to preserve the mobility and continuous viewing of 6x6cm twin-lens cameras, as he often worked outdoors and on beaches in California's mild weather.[3] Thus the Gowlandflex was constructed—evidently in Gowland's own home workshop—in lightweight aluminum and at 8 pounds[4] can conceivably be handheld.[5]
The large spacing between viewing and taking lens inevitably leads to significant parallax error, but later[6] Gowlandflex models raise and lower the viewing lensboard using a simple ramp-shaped cam, to correct the viewing frame while focusing. This was one of several refinements over what was said to be 30 years of small improvements.[7]
Two variants of the Gowlandflex include an immense 8x10 version, of which only seven were actually sold[7], and the Wide Angle Gowlandflex (which is twin-lensed but lacks an actual reflex mirror).[8]
Between all of his designs Gowland claimed to have sold 1,500 cameras[9] with 600 of these being the most-popular model the 4x5 TLR.[1]
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 See an archived page about his cameras from the still-active Alice & Peter Gowland Photography.
- ↑ Only 21 of these models were sold to others, according to the 2023 "about" page at PeterGowland.com.
- ↑ Typical of this style is one July, 1948, Popular Photography cover by Gowland of a favorite model, Pat Hall.
- ↑ For the "30th-anniversary" model announced in 1985 this had been further cut to 6 pounds (December, 1985, Popular Photography page 108); via Google Books.
- ↑ Photographer Philippe Halsman had worked with Fairchild to create prototype 4x5 Fairchild-Halsman TLRs; but available images suggest they were likely quite heavy.
- ↑ A 1968 visit from Popular Photography's Norman Rothschild indicated this was then still a new feature (Vol. 63, No. 5; pages 132-133).
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 These details are from the Cameras Page of the Alice & Peter Gowland Photography site, although no cameras are currently available.
- ↑ A camera of this design appears at Barry Toogood's TLR-Cameras.com
- ↑ Stated in his 2010 obituary in the LA Times.
Links
- Sketch of Peter & Alice Gowland's careers at PeterGowland.com
- New York Times obituary of Peter Gowland
- A 2004 LA Times profile of the then 88, still-active Gowland.
- Gowlandflex pictured with accessories, 5x7 adapters and viewing hoods, from S. Katz on Flickr
Hand-holdable? image by Japan Camera Hunter (Image rights) |
1966 advertising |