hi bruce
i had and used a red-bellows graphic view II for close to 12 years, and really liked the camera. it is rugged, and with the fiber box you should have no problems lugging it around. i'm not sure which box it comes with - the one that came with mine was from the army signal corps. it had compartments for 12 film holders; cutouts for filters in the top-foam; and a compartment ( that snapped shut ) for 2 lenses on lensboards. the camera went upside down and the rail rested in v-cuts in the center. it was very well designed, and i wish someone made something like that box today, i would rather use IT than the tenba case i currently use.
one thing to think about is that the widest lens you will be able to use with the graphic view II is a 90mm lens. you will need to find a recessed lensboard ( or make one yourself ) if you go the buy-one-route, they can be hard to find, or command more than $50 for one used. the bellows are fixed, so you won't be able to use a bag-bellows with this camera if you wanted to use a wider lens. with the 90mm and recessed board, you are pretty squished, but you will still be able to get movements without too much of a problem. the camera was able to use a 210/370 symmar with enough extension.
from what i remember the problem that often happened with my camera was the standards' lock-down sometimes did not allow them to slide freely on the rail. you can either loosen the knobs and push/pull the standards on the rail, or you could pull the knob out ( there is a spring in there ), and it released the standard to move back/forth. sometimes the metal sleeve would move a little bit without the rest of the mechanism.
the compendium is pretty hard to find - i looked for years and eventually gave up.
its a nice camera, and if you don't see yourself needing a super-wide angle lens, or something really long, you won't be sorry you bought it!
