This Korona 5×7 camera was purchased around 1910 by my great-grandfather, “Pappy” Lockwood, whom I never met. We’re pretty sure he used it to take photos that were published in the Los Angeles Times in about 1912. My grandfather, Francis, used it for some casual photography, as well as to photograph buildings as part of his architecture practice in the Bay Area of California. I inherited the camera after he passed away, and after some experimentation in the early 2000s, got serious with it around 2010.
The original Acme (pictured) and Wollensak lenses are still in decent shape, but the shutters are very sticky, and at least one repair firm has declined the opportunity to clean and lubricate them. Rather than flog a dead horse, I have added two of my own, more modern lenses to the setup: a Schneider Symmar-S 210mm f/5.6 “normal” lens, and a Schneider Super-Angulon 120mm f/8 wide-angle lens.
The Korona shoots 5×7 (approximately 130mm x 180mm) negatives, and I typically use Ilford HP-5+ (400 ISO) or FP-4 (125 ISO), depending on available light, and develop in Kodak XTOL. I scan the images at 6400 DPI, resulting in a nearly 1.4 GB image per scan. The practical resolution is in the 400-600 megapixel range.