Any Gowland 8x10 lite users out there?

[cameragearforyou]

I have a Gowland 8x10 light now. What is the fastest way to set this thing up in the field. i dont have the manual so I am sure I am doing it all wrong. :confused:

 

[Vaughn]

Since all of Gowland cameras are hand-built out of the various parts he has laying around, there tends to be little differences in each camera. Do you use a two-piece rail? That is what I use on my 4x5 Gowland. I loosen the swing on both standards (one one each rail), seperate the two rails and turn each standard parallel with the rails and compress the bellows. -- makes for a nice small, flat package.

Now yours does not have rear swing (as far as I can tell from the photo on Gowland's website). So it looks like to pack the camera away, you would need to back the back standard off the rail, turn the front standard parallel with the rail, then the whole camera would lay flat. (it might help to get the front standard snug up to the tripod block.)

Just reverse this to set it up. The thing that is toughest, is getting the two standards lined up. The front one is fixed due to the focusing system, so one has to get the rear lined up with the front. I would just do this visually with my 4x5 (I figured that it did not have to be exact). You can do the same or you might want to somehow mark the rail/back standard to indicate where the back should be to line up with the front standard.

Now one thing that this camera has advantage over most 8x10's is that it is so light that one can leave it on the pod while you walk around (remove the lens if it is a heavy one, and invest in some sort of GG protector, just in case). That way set-up for a photo is super fast and in changing light, you might get a photo that otherwise would be gone by the time you get your pack off and get the camera out of it.

I did not carry the camera on the pod when I was photographing in NZ for 6 mounths -- I figured that if I tripped and destroyed the camera, lens or GG, I had too much invested in the plane ticket, and the once-in-a-lifetime experience to risk it. But around home, the value of images captured that might have been missed if the camera was packed away was greater than the possible damage. But my Zone VI 8x10 is just too heavy to carry and distance on the pod.

Vaughn

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

I have an older 8x10" PocketView, not the "Lite" version with the fixed back.

An Arca-Swiss type QR plate makes setup quicker.

You can mark the rail with a china marker so you can find the infinity focus positions for different lenses quickly.

I've scribed the neutral rise/fall and shift positions on the front standard.

The handiest thing to have with this camera or any floppy camera like a wooden flatbed without detentes is a Suunto Tandem clinometer-compass, which will allow you to measure (and zero) the tilt and swing angles quickly, so long as the camera doesn't have any magnetized parts that would interfere with the compass (swing angles). It will also let you do things like measure the angles of the plane of focus for use with the Rodenstock calculator, if you're into that.

 

[Softie]

I am also a proud 8x10 Pocket View user. Mine is similar to the lite model, with a few more movements, the 8x10 rail, and a longer bellows.

To my knowledge, Peter never supplied a manual---I bought mine new, and it came in a large box.

The quickest way to set it up in the field is to carry it fully assembled on the tripod over your shoulder. This can lead to heartbreak if the head or camera unscrews from its attachment point.