About a year ago, I was surfing the Craigslist photo ads here in Dallas and up came an ad for a free 8×10 view camera.  I quickly emailed the person and within 15 minutes I received a message back.  A gentlemen was moving out of town who had an old Burke & James Grover 8×10 that he had been meaning to restore & use but had never got around to it.   He asked me if I was into large format and stated that he really wanted this camera to go to the right home.  I enthusiastically conveyed to him that I was the right person and would eventually make my way up into the world of large format.

The Burke & James Grover is a utilitarian view camera that is meant to get the job done.  It doesn’t have some of the bells & whistles that current 8×10’s have…