Fatif 40 4X5: a thing of beauty

CatLABS · Jun 9, 2014

Every now and again one is confronted by the fact, that even though Italians invented electricity, in the sense that everything made in Italy must have a bucket of electricity waiting next to it in case you ever need to fill it back when it runs our of electricity, you find something amazing, that is not only amazingly pretty, but also usable, practical and well made.

I just got this Fatif 40 4X5 monorail camera because i was curious about it more then anything, and it ended up being a wondrous thing.
There are geared movements where you would not expect them, and while this camera has had the life beaten out of it by the previous used (a commercial studio) and it shows it, everything is super smooth, and precise. I doubt if this was ever lubricated, but the metal is so nice and the tolerances so close that everything works as good as the best linhof you might have ever seen.

I think the main difference that sets this apart from any other camera i have used, is that nothing is done with force here. All the latches, locking nuts and gears are extremely soft and require only a light touch to move, yet are very dampened so they do not move on their own. It is also surprisingly light for a monorail (under 6KG) when you consider the massive gauge of metal used, and the gears, pretty much everywhere.
Lensboards, are made of some type of thin tin like material, making them super light as well.

Add all this to the fact this thing looks like a Lamborghini Miura and you have a winner at every turn.

Read more and see all the photos here:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.575809349204572.1073741840.276274625824714&type=1

AgX · Jun 9, 2014

It is a pity that Italian photo-engineering is reduced here to Manfrotto and Durst. Partially reason for this is that other manufacturers had much less market share and for a part even addressed only the photo-industry.

snapguy · Jun 9, 2014

italy

The Italians invented electricity, did they? Did they also invent Al Gore who invented the Internet?

Pioneer · Jun 9, 2014

I'm not sure but Nature may have had a hand in that electricity thingy.

As for the Fatif, I had never heard of it before. Nice looking beastie and it certainly sounds like a wonderful machine.

E. von Hoegh · Jun 9, 2014

CatLABS said:
Every now and again one is confronted by the fact, that even though Italians invented electricity, in the sense that everything made in Italy must have a bucket of electricity waiting next to it in case you ever need to fill it back when it runs our of electricity, you find something amazing, that is not only amazingly pretty, but also usable, practical and well made.

I just got this Fatif 40 4X5 monorail camera because i was curious about it more then anything, and it ended up being a wondrous thing.
There are geared movements where you would not expect them, and while this camera has had the life beaten out of it by the previous used (a commercial studio) and it shows it, everything is super smooth, and precise. I doubt if this was ever lubricated, but the metal is so nice and the tolerances so close that everything works as good as the best linhof you might have ever seen.

I think the main difference that sets this apart from any other camera i have used, is that nothing is done with force here. All the latches, locking nuts and gears are extremely soft and require only a light touch to move, yet are very dampened so they do not move on their own. It is also surprisingly light for a monorail (under 6KG) when you consider the massive gauge of metal used, and the gears, pretty much everywhere.
Lensboards, are made of some type of thin tin like material, making them super light as well.

View attachment 89281

Add all this to the fact this thing looks like a Lamborghini Miura and you have a winner at every turn.

Read more and see all the photos here:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.575809349204572.1073741840.276274625824714&type=1

Nope. Ben Franklin. An Amurkin!! They told me this in school, along with the "fact" that that Genoese privateer proved the "world" was round - by getting lost.
Oh wait - it (electricity) was there all the time, allowing our neural system(and that of every preceding creature) to function.
You could possibly be thinking of Allesandro Volta? Or watching the history channel.

gone · Jun 9, 2014

Never heard of Nicola Tesla, Benjamin Franklin, Luigi Galvani, and Alessandro Volta? No one invented electricity (all you gotta do is rub some stuff together and there you are), but those guys were largely responsible for how we manage and store electricity even today. Actually, just talk about your old girl friends around your wife and you'll see where the real potent original stuff came from.

We invented the Ferrari and Sophia Loren. Much better than electricity. That stuff you can always steal, as my man Tom says.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPcKHhuwqBw

E. von Hoegh · Jun 9, 2014

momus said:
Never heard of Nicola Tesla, Benjamin Franklin, Luigi Galvani, and Alessandro Volta? No one invented electricity (all you gotta do is rub some stuff together and there you are), but those guys were largely responsible for how we manage and store electricity even today. Actually, just talk about your old girl friends around your wife and you'll see where the real potent original stuff came from.

We invented the Ferrari and Sophia Loren. Much better than electricity. That you can always steal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPcKHhuwqBw

And this - http://theoldmotor.com/?p=121365

Dan Fromm · Jun 9, 2014

momus said:
Never heard of Nicola Tesla, Benjamin Franklin

Hmm. Serbian, apostle of alternating current. British subject, later American citizen.

CatLABS · Jun 9, 2014

snapguy said:
The Italians invented electricity, did they? Did they also invent Al Gore who invented the Internet?

Should have said: The Italians invented electricity (according to James May - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuCff8nCxBU skip to 3:00).

Pioneer · Jun 9, 2014

Sidetracked Again

CatLABS said:
Should have said: The Italians invented electricity (according to James May - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuCff8nCxBU skip to 3:00).

Isn't just amazing how one little, innocent statement can completely sidetrack a thread.

bernard_L · Jun 10, 2014

Isn't just amazing how one little, innocent statement can completely sidetrack a thread.

+1
And also how some responders seem to be mentally programmed to bark at certain nations (I'm not Italian). Like, not understanding that mentioning "Nicola Tesla, Benjamin Franklin, Luigi Galvani, and Alessandro Volta" in one breath was precisely to point out that no single person, italian or not, can claim to have "invented" electricity. The irony was lost and the knee-jerk reaction was immediate.

E. von Hoegh · Jun 10, 2014

Dan Fromm said:
Hmm. Serbian, apostle of alternating current. British subject, later American citizen.

Nikki or Benji?

Mr Tesla designed the polyphase A.C. power transmission system we use to this day. He didn't get along with Mr Edison, and went to work for Mr Westinghouse, which started a rather bizarre contest regarding D.C. (Edison) vs. A.C. (Westinghouse) that led to such strange events as the public execuition of large animals and the introduction of a new word - 'electrocute' - to the lexicon.

AgX · Jun 10, 2014

Agfa later owned the remnants of the Tesla lab.

Did I get the thread back to photography?

TheToadMen · Jun 10, 2014

momus said:
Never heard of Nicola Tesla, Benjamin Franklin, Luigi Galvani, and Alessandro Volta? No one invented electricity (all you gotta do is rub some stuff together and there you are), but those guys were largely responsible for how we manage and store electricity even today. Actually, just talk about your old girl friends around your wife and you'll see where the real potent original stuff came from.

We invented the Ferrari and Sophia Loren. Much better than electricity. That stuff you can always steal, as my man Tom says.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPcKHhuwqBw

You're all misguided by those myths. Tesla is Dutch and still made in Holland: http://www.teslamotors.com/en_GB/goelectric#

(image from site, not mine ... yet)

tnabbott · Jun 11, 2014

snapguy said:
The Italians invented electricity, did they? Did they also invent Al Gore who invented the Internet?

I thought the Americans invented everything.

miha · Jun 11, 2014

AgX said:
Agfa later owned the remnants of the Tesla lab.

Did I get the thread back to photography?

You did. Let's talk about Silvestri, another fine Italian company. Or the beautiful Gamma cameras from Rome.

ntenny · Jun 11, 2014

Does Gandolfi get partial credit based on their name? I always assumed they were Italian until looking them up just now.

What amazes me is that everyone seized on the "invented electricity" part and let the adjacent "bucket of electricity" image go. I've stayed in Italian hotels quite a few times, and a bucket of electricity might have been helpful in some of them.

-NT

E. von Hoegh · Jun 11, 2014

ntenny said:
Does Gandolfi get partial credit based on their name? I always assumed they were Italian until looking them up just now.

What amazes me is that everyone seized on the "invented electricity" part and let the adjacent "bucket of electricity" image go. I've stayed in Italian hotels quite a few times, and a bucket of electricity might have been helpful in some of them.

-NT

' It's like saying someone invented air, or granite. Completely swamps the bucket bit.
So few understand what the word "invent" means.

CatLABS · Jun 11, 2014

E. von Hoegh said:
' It's like saying someone invented air, or granite. Completely swamps the bucket bit.
So few understand what the word "invent" means.

So few can take a joke (which is an amusing reference on its own...), but ehh, i guess no one bothered to look at the images either...

AgX · Jun 11, 2014

miha said:
Let's talk about Silvestri, another fine Italian company. Or the beautiful Gamma cameras from Rome.

Silvestri is the only italian camera manufacturer left. They are a relatively new company anyway

At least 3 of their models accept film backs.

blaine.minazzi · Jun 12, 2014

The bucket was filled with electricity, which though shocking - left nothing to hold the humor that was needed later. Thus the potential for humor met with too much resistance, and everyone got all amped up over the "invented" comment. The thread has been beat into the ground in short order.

Blaine Minazzi <--- Genuine Italian Moniker!

DREW WILEY · Jun 12, 2014

What a bunch of ignorant ... Ben Franklin merely copied an experiment first done by Erasmus Darwin. Ever hear the phrase, "cook your goose"?
Erasmus correctly surmised that lightning was analogous to static electricity, so ran a kite into a lightning storm, with the line getting soaked
due to rain. It got hit. A length of wet line happened to be lying on the ground, and one of the farm geese just happened to be standing on it
at that point. The goose was completely cooked - they even ate it afterwards. And there were a few distinct lessons. First... don't try this at
home folks, or you might get cooked instead of the goose (so maybe Ben Franklin wasn't so smart after all, cause he did do it to verify
the theory of Erasmus). Second, this is where the hypothetical concept of an electric oven actually originated - long, long before one was
actually build. Erasmus had quite a propensity for wild inventions that put his own health at risk. He also invented the coil shock absorber
to make his own buggy more comfortable over the crude roads of the day. It worked superbly, but then he kept making the springs taller and
taller to optimize them. Then one night his horse-drawn carrier hit a chuck hole so severly that it outright bounced off and flipped, and Erasmus broke his his and required a cane for the rest of his life.

Pioneer · Jun 12, 2014

Thank you Drew.

Great story. Needed that.

Fatif 40 4X5: a thing of beauty

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