Has anyone seens this easel before and what do you think?

Wow...that's...I don't know. It could actually be quite useful as long as you have a nice, sturdy surface to put it on. I don't think I'd pay $75 for it, though.

 

Looks pretty neat - I'd probably buy it if it were located nearer to me...but I have a few projects for which I could use something like this. Hope that helps

 

Yeah just get some strip magnets and a magnetic surface.

 

To me, it looks like it would be very fiddley to work with, and might not hold the typical double-weight fiber paper that is common now.
I'm with Stephanie, it's interesting, but I wouldn't pay that much for it. I only have slightly more than that invested in the two 4 blade easels I own.

 

Here's another vote for magnets and steel sheet. The easel you show might be great for deliberate distortions but heavy paper might just be too much trouble to keep flat and if you need to distort a photograph, you can most likely come up with something just as versatile.

When I made my magnetic easel set-up, I used really strong ¼" (6mm) rare-earth magnets, which I embedded into hardwood strips that were planed true and painted flat black. They're easier to lift and position for me and I've yet to meet the photo paper that can't be held firmly in place with these, though my prints are rarely as large as 16x20". You could even go so far as to embed some of these into your baseboard to hold your sheet of metal in place as a semi-permanent easel.

Eli

 

If you are bothered by slightly out of alignment edges with an easel, this would drive you right off the edge.