Peter Gowland & his cameras??

[Chuck (CA)]

Does and one on APUG have experience with ANY of the Peter Gowland cameras?

I'm looking for general comments and recommendations.

Thanks
Chazz

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

I have an older Gowland 8x10" Pocket View. The front standard has tilt, shift, swing, and rise/fall. The rear standard has tilt and swing. 24" tapered bellows. I like it, because it offers the flexibility of a monorail with the advantage of extremely light weight, so it can easily be taken into the field. Setup is fairly quick once you get the hang of it, but not as quick as a folding camera that you can just unfold and focus. You also need to loosen four screws and turn the whole bellows and frames assembly to go from vertical to horizontal, but this is not the case on every model, and the 4x5's are light enough to turn sideways just like a small format camera. Gowland's prices are very reasonable, and he's a very personable guy, who is likely to handle your order himself.

It's not for everyone though. For that light weight, you give up independent geared movements, some interchangeability of parts, neutral detents, and it doesn't have the stability obviously of a Sinar or other much heavier camera. I found I was able to increase the stability substantially though, by adding some oversized large flat washers to all the knobs. Bear in mind that he's always tinkering with the design, so the latest versions are likely better than mine. I think the newer ones have interchangeable bellows and a sturdier all-moves rear standard and a more substantial tripod block. I gather that he will also upgrade older models at relatively low cost.

It works fine for me, but if you wanted more of a precision design in a lightweight monorail (at much greater cost), look at the Arca-Swiss F-line cameras.

 

[Chuck (CA)]

8 x 10 pocket camera! Hm.........! Grins.

Thanks for the comments
Chazz

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

I guess he just took the name from the 4x5", which could fit in a large jacket pocket with the rail removed (which would no doubt lead to jokes of the "is that a monorail in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?" variety).

I can carry the 8x10" Pocket View with about five lenses and usually 3-5 filmholders and the usual accessories in a small knapsack designed for laptop computers. The tripod goes on a strap over my shoulder. I've also made a short wooden rail for mounting the camera on a pistol grip with a 120mm lens, not unlike the Sinar Handy or Silvestri or Cambo Wide cameras. It's light enough not to be thoroughly impractical, but I need to build a wide angle viewfinder to complete the project.

 

[Chuck (CA)]

I have an idea that I want to return to 8 x 10.

I worked for a studio in Chicago (Maurice Seymour) that contact printed all the negs. The print box had 12 lights that were on dimmer switches and also had the ability to be moved up and down individually. Then we used the separation sheets from the kodak dry mount tissue for dodging areas. Total control.

Which model of the Gowland line would you recommend.

Thanks for your comments!

Regards
Chazz

 

[John Kasaian]

Chazz, I've got a Gowland 8x10 aerial. Very cool. It is basically a big point and shoot with a Nikkor 300M out in front. Very light wieght and good for action shots in 8x10(!) At f9 (wide open) the filter factor gets a little interesting but that is the trade off in using a copal 1 shutter at 1/400ths. Peter is a great guy to talk to, a real legend---check out www.petergowland.com---I wouldn't hesitate to get another Gowland if I could justify it. The 4x5 monorails I believe rival the Toho in wieght at a fraction of the cost and every time I come across a used Gowland Calumet I kick myself for passing it up(200-300 is what they seem to be going for.) They aren't Linhofs or Sinars with geared everything, but if you want something light to take into the field, or something as off the wall as an 8x10 TLR, Peter Gowland builds them and he builds good stuff.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

For general use, I would get the 8x10" Pocket View with the all-moves rear standard. Choose the 32" bellows if you do more portrait, tele, and macro work. Choose the 24" bellows if you do more architecture, landscape, wideangle work. Alternately, if he's offering interchangeable bellows on the current model, you might get a long one and a bag bellows. I can use a 120mm lens with the 24" bellows, so I don't see the bag bellows as a real necessity.

He does offer an even lighter 8x10" now with no rear moves and a lighter rail, but the standard camera is so light, I wouldn't be inclined to give up the rear movements to shave off a couple of ounces.

The 8x10" Gowlandflex TLR was a bit of a joke, but there are 6 of them in circulation. They might still have one at Lens and Repro in New York.

 

[photodon]

I have a 4X5 pocket view, and it is a little jewel. The whole works, with a mounted 150mm lens fits into a cigar box.

It is a monorail, so it has much more movments than most field views, and weighs next to nothing. No geared movements, and no detents, but how many field camera have that option?

I haven't used mine in years (moved up to 8X10) but it is still a great little camera.


www.doncameron.com

 

[John Kasaian]

Chazz, by all means give Peter a call. He always has an ad in Shutterbug and I think his tel.# is on his website. Tell him what you want to do with your camera and he'll tell you what model, if any, of his cameras will deliver the goods for what you need. He's a real "Pro" and a bit of a legend here in CA(FWIW, be prepared to talk!) If you want the lowdown on Gowlands, talk(...uhh, listen) to the guy that designs and builds them.-----Cheers!

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

One does get the sense that he's more interested in talking about his cameras than, say, shooting _Playboy_ centerfolds. I was pleasantly surprised one day, when he called me personally to double check some detail about some lensboards I had ordered.

Incidentally, another potential indirect weight savings with the Gowland monorails is that you can use a single-tilt tripod head (fore and aft tilt only) and level the camera horizontally from the tripod block, because it uses a cylindrical rail. There are Linhof and Reis heads of this type, as well as many video heads. I even toyed with the idea of going headless for a while, but decided that I needed the fore/aft tilt often enough that it wasn't worth it.