Can anyone give me an idea of what an "average" Deardorff 8x10 witghs on it's own - back included, but no lens etc.

Just looking for a ballpark figure.

Thanks

Tim A

-- Tim Atherton (ti@picturedesk.org), April 23, 2001

Answers

Mine is between 11 and 12 pounds. I keep seeing references to others weighing more than this but I don't know what would account for the difference

-- Carl Weese (cweese@earthlink.net), April 23, 2001.

My Deardorff weighs in at a hefty 18 pounds. I do believe that the average is somewhere around 16 pounds.

-- Bruce E. Rathbun (brath@iquest.net), April 23, 2001.

18???? Get that scale re-calibrated man! 18 ???

The wood partially accounts for the variations in weight (Spanish Cedar? Honduran Mahogony? Ecudoran ?) as does the metal (nickel plated brass or the later stainless steel?) the bellows material, etc.

But I've never heard of a 16 lber! The 11 X 14 weighs 30 lbs. 11 - 13 lbs is more realistic for an 8 X 10 Get with Ken Hough on this but I just can't imagine a Deardorff weighing as much as a Calumet C-1

-- Sean yates (yatescats@yahoo.com), April 23, 2001.

My Deardorff V8 weighs just under 12 lbs. I did however sand it when refinishing it and in may have lost a few micrograms!

-- Steve Barth (wsbarth@networld.com), April 23, 2001.

The different numbers might be partly attributable to whether it's weighedt with or without a lens board or with or without a lens. However, the number most commonly seen is 12 lbs. The spec sheet says 12 lbs as I recall (too lazy to dig mine out to double check but it was something close to that I'm sure). I've weighed mine by getting on a scale with and without the camera and came up with a little less than 12 lbs (the scale was a crude bathroom scale) without lens board or lens. I can't imagine how the typical Deardorff 8x10 field camera could weigh 16 pounds. Deardorff did, I believe, make a studio camera at some point. Maybe it weighed 16 pounds but not the typical 8x10 field camera.

-- Brian Ellis (bellis60@earthlink.net), April 24, 2001.

My Deardorff 8x10 from the late 1950s weighs it at 12 lbs., 3 ounces. That's without lens board, and with the 8x0 back and the round metal base plate at the bottom. I suppose earlier models that lack the base plate weighed less.

That being said, I'm certain that any Deardorff weighs closer to 30 lbs. after it's been hiked up and down a few miles of steep trails. Too bad I don't have room for a scale in my pack to confirm this hypothesis.

-- Rich Lingg (richard_lingg@aporter.com), April 24, 2001.

The Deardorff spec sheet indicates: 13.5 lbs. I have weighed a few DD 8x10s in the past four months in a lab in Columbia Univ (yes, scale calibrated and no lens boards), they ranged from 12.6 to 13.2 lbs. Averaged about 13 lbs. Lighter ones have bellows replaced.

-- Geoffrey Chen (DB45TEK@AOL.COM), April 24, 2001.

All the specs for the 8x10 are listed in the original Deardorff litterature, see scans at: http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~qtluong/photography/lf/deardorff/

-- Q.-Tuan Luong (luong@ai.sri.com), April 25, 2001.

Mine weighs in at 11 3/4 pounds.

-- David Munson (orthoptera@juno.com), July 08, 2001.