It's just a wave of nostalgia. I remember when none of the local camera shops carried inexpensive 4x5 view camera equipment and most carried few specialty view camera lenses. In the hoary old days of photography if we needed something like a work a day view camera for under $500 we got out the dog eared catalog from Calumet Photo in Chicago, compared our copious notes and then picked up the phone and ordered. No Fed Ex back then. Everything came from the Brown Trucks.
I bought my first view camera from Calumet and used it for ten years before I could scrape together enough money to buy the always popular Sinar F. I bought my first Polaroid back from them and my first dark cloth and my first three view camera lenses. I bought my first professional flash system from them. And I am not being nostalgic for the store or some sales person who taught me an arcane photo secret because I never set foot in one of their physical stores. I ordered everything from the catalog.
The prices were fare, the selection (in the 1970's) was large and varied and the delivery was dependable.
My nostalgia is of the end of an era. The end of big cameras and big film. But I've been to this particular wake too many times to be maudlin about it now. I'm observing a passage that will resonate mostly with older pros and Chicago's well heeled, but aging amateur photographers.
Good buy view camera store.
