6x14 Roll Film Back for Plaubel Peco Junior (2009)

The Plaubel Peco Junior has spent the better part of the last 15 years lying in the cupboard, and it surely will not become my everyday camera, but I do indeed come back to it again and again... Touching the knobs and feel the mechanical parts slide is very special, hardly any other camera feels like that...

While I only had a sheet film back initially, I later acquired a Rada 6x9 roll film back and then a "quick change" sliding adapter with an original Plaubel 6x9 back.

This allows for nice tilt movements:

Until then, I  had no wide angle, my Xenar 4,5/150 is a short tele focal length on 6x9, (buit still performs well). 

I eventually bought a dated Super Angulon 8/65, and fitted it to the Plaubel using a recessed DIY board. Unfortunately this was no fun either, because the original "quick change" sliding adapter is such a heavy and sharp edged beast, it is a nightmare to use and totally defeats the initial purpose of making life easier.

On top of that, I now had a pretty big camera with a comparatively small film format...

I certainly didn't want to go back using sheet film. Using roll film (plus scanning and digital processing) just works too well for that.

The Schneider data sheet revealed that the Angulon image circle is huge (155mm) - so I began looking for roll film backs that would better match the Angulon image circle and fit to the size of the camera ... and I stumbled into an Ebay offer of two Graflex 6x9 backs, which triggered the idea of making one large back out of those two.

then came glueing and painting

Finding the correct frame counter positions was a bit tricky, I eventually drew a table that indicates (for each of the five frames per film) the counter positions plus an individual amount of additional knob turning angle. While this leaves room for improvement, it is accurate enough if performed with care.   

Unfortunately, the Plaubel ground glass can only be used in the center of the frame (it will anyway not show the whole frame because of its 9x12 cm size). Added to that, the image is pretty dark, due to the small f=8 aperture, and let's not talk about the brightness in the corners anyway...

Even if I can live with that, it is pretty difficult to accurately align the camera to a particular subject if you don't see it entirely. I turned to use the finder of an old Horizont panorama camera for that.

The provisional magazine slide was made from cardboard, which worked so well that I decided to keep it. On the first test roll I saw some light leaks, also on the second roll, but apart from that, everything worked well.

All in all, this is a fine photographic tool, far better to use that the "quick change" sliding adapter, it is just not very portable (you need a stable tripod...)

Now how about the results?

The negatives are sharp, for sure, even in the corners, so Schneider didn't lie with regard to the image circle. On slide film however, the lens vignetting is heavy (negatives are fine).

The horizontal vield of view is approximately that of a 16mm lens in front of a 35mm camera. 

Two pictures from Cologne Cathedral:

With light leak:

If I had put a hat in front of the camera, I would have received some donations, I am sure. 

Lastly, this is the castle of Orr, north of Cologne:

A full size section (scanned with 2400 dpi, makiing the entire picture 13,448 x 5,026 pixels large, i.e. 67.6 Megapixel):

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