For Sale Horseman Convertible with 2 backs $700

Selling my Horseman Convertible. Bought it to be my compact wide medium format camera similar to Hasselblad SWC or Brooks Veriwide. Tried shooting 35mm panoramas with it. It's really cool but not my thing.

Everything works great, 6x7 and 6x9 backs included, it takes standard Horseman backs.

$700 USD or 900 CAD shipped.

What an unusual camera. I do not recall seeing it before. The 62mm lens does not seem all that wide for 6x9. Any idea who made that lens?

Kodachromeguy said:

What an unusual camera. I do not recall seeing it before. The 62mm lens does not seem all that wide for 6x9. Any idea who made that lens?

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I also have one of these. Great for a walkabout kit. With a 6X7 back, I figure the 62mm is about 30-32mm equivalent fov. With the 6X9 back, it should be about 26-28mm fov. The only marking on the lens/shutter is Horseman & Copal. Attached is an image from the 6X7 back.

Kodachromeguy said:

What an unusual camera. I do not recall seeing it before. The 62mm lens does not seem all that wide for 6x9. Any idea who made that lens?

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I'm not sure who manufactured the actual lens but to me the combination of focal length and aperture is pretty good. Veriwide has a 47mm F8 which is a full stop slower. 62mm at 6x9 is about 25mm in 35mm equivalent which is decent at 5.6.

Apparently it's really easy to create a lens board for this camera to use a different lens, I have seen one with the 47mm.

The removable lens board slides in sideways. It’s not hard to fashion a 3mm thick black plastic board to fit in. I 3D printed a board that takes Mercury Works Universal Camera lens accessories so, once the board is in place, I can mount view camera lenses, Mamiya Press lenses, etc. In theory. This is an elegant, minimal, rangefinder design. As an engineer by training, I really like the design. But, as a portable, casual, camera, the challenges of framing, focus, metering, dealing with the dark slide, the small aperture, and shutter cocking...one might as well go large format, which is what I’m doing. By the way, the native 62mm lens covers 6x7, and 6x9 if you stop down to f11 or smaller aperture.

filmculture said:

6x7 and 6x9 backs included, it takes standard Horseman backs.

View attachment 239374 View attachment 239376 View attachment 239378 View attachment 239379

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As a Mamiya Press guy I apologize in advance as I am clueless about the Horseman line of cameras and accessories. But I recall Horsemans' filmbacks changed once or trice during their heydays. Are these the late " standard " film backs or the early versions.
Nevertheless I am very interested in the package

Horseman and Topcon are the same. Frequently the lenses are Topcors. I happen to be looking at this picture below (by Irving Penn) of when I was reading this thread. Looks like Richard Beattie is holding one.