Point and Shoot LF ?

The Littman is a beautiful camera. No contest. If I could afford one I'd have it.
Very recently I came accross fotomancamera.com They have a 4x5 coming out soon. I don't know if anyone has mentioned it already, sorry if it was.
I think the price is truly amazing and the build of the camera is very rugged.
Still not as fast as a Littman but it should be close behind in terms of operational speed. The nice thing is you can use your large format lenses with it.
Check it out!

dancqu said:

I'm in the woods where the trees and cliffs go up and down.
What one or two movements would be most usefull? I think tilt, front
and back. If I'm correct, I can then shot up and down, maintaining
verticals, and also improve depth of field.

Click to expand...

With front and rear tilt you can do indirect rise/fall. But rise/fall isn't that hard if you don't need gears. Make the hole that the tilt uses a long groove. Slide up or down the groove.

Speaking of handheld 4x5, has anyone experience with the Gowlandflex?

Gowlandflex? I'm quite sure that is a twin lens reflex and most
surely a studio or street camera. Compare with the
Graflex D series of SLRs; bulky, heavy. Dan

They(Gowlandflexes) seem kind of bulky from the pictures I`ve seen, but the weight is not that frigthening at 5 lbs.

Nick Zentena said:

With front and rear tilt you can do indirect rise/fall.

Click to expand...

" ... you can do ... " Rise and fall, and if I'm correct, depth
of field control. From a engineering view point pivoting is an
easy matter.

So what I'd like is a 4x4 P&S with front and rear tilt, square
bellows and some focus provision. Dan

If you are ever interested in a Sinar rail camera, you may want to look into what I am thinking about. The frames are modular and can be swapped out. I want to use either a bag bellows or a light solid center section and a light base that the frames clip into. I am going to use an old lens board and mill it out and mount a helical focus on it, So basically what I will have is a modular box I can shoot hand held or break it down in about 10 seconds and mount it on a rail. You could have a normal GG back and a helical focus mount front or........ the rear section is identical to the front so you could actually modify a lens board and permenantly mount a quickload holder on it and just clip it on or off the camera whenever you want (even lighter) or....... you could use it without any helical focus at all.

That would be really simple, no focus, no GG, just stop down frame and shoot. I still cant convince myself that the photos would be that much better than a mamiya 7, but since I have a Sinar I think I will give it a try. I have compared a Pentax 67 to 4x5 and the 4x5 was much cleaner and crisp, but the Mamiya 7 lenses are in a whole different league.

I still have to figure out the base though. Sinars are very modular. I am sure Arca Swiss camera are too. Sinars are almost like a box of parts. When I first got mine last year I was so impressed I had to take it apart and put it together at least ten times. Nice engineering.

Oh well its a thought anyway.

I've actually done something like this with my 8x10" Gowland. I made a wooden rail that I can attach the front and rear standards to in two positions, so that with a 120mm lens, I can focus it at infinity or 6 feet, and this rail mounts to a pistol grip.

It's quite handholdable, but I have to make a viewfinder for it. I'm thinking of making something out of a door peephole.

Troy,
This sounds Like a Sinar Handy. I had one in the '70s with a 75mm Super Angulon and it was a great camera either hand held or on a tripod. I keep thinking that I would like another camera of that type.
Richard

Do you have a picture of a Sinar Handy. I have never seen one.

Here's a recent eBay auction for a Sinar Handy--

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=15247&item=7500242517&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

Linhof's answer to the Sinar Handy was the Technar, and likewise, using as many standard bits as possible to put together an bellow-less hand-held camera.

A few years ago I had a camera-maker friend to make one for me, which was pretty much his routine job; but as I was going to use it on tripod as well, I wanted some movements too. After discussing in details for many weeks we devised a revolving system, where a revolving arrangement links the front and the rear main body of the camera. At the front the lens is mounted on a sliding panel so combined with the revolving arrangement it can be displaced in any direction: rise, fall, left or right cross, easily achieved.

The main body was machined out of a slab of composite plastics, the camera back was salvaged from the remains of a Linhof, the lens an old Linhof-selected Super-Angulon 90/8. Space (and budget) restictions induced us to modify helicoid focussing drive rather than using a matching Schneider one. If it hasn't got that revolving shift mechanism it would be a very pretty camera but hey I am practical... and it is also good for scaring digital photographers, animals, and small boys LOL!

If I wanted a current camera of this type, I'd be looking at the Cambo Wide DS. It's very compact and elegant with rise, fall and shift, as well as shoe-mount finders but those helical focusing lenses are expensive.

It seemed to take four pages before someone mentioned the two most popular helical focusing 4x5 cameras - the Sinar Handy (and Sinar Handy II with shift,) and the Cambo Wide (original w/o shift, 2nd generation w/shift, and current DS model.) I'd like to mention the ultra-rare Burke & James Orbitar from the late 50's. They were helical focusers with rotating back and shift, and came in 3 sizes 2 1/4 x 3 1/4, 4x5, and 8x10 (yes, 8x10!) Not many were made and I have been scavenging the net for three years to find one (got a 4x5 now with the schneider 65mm/8 that I am looking to replace with the Rodenstock 65mm/4.5.) Recently four popped up on FeeBay so some goverment or institution must have cleaned out their closets because I have never seen one on eBlah in three years and four popped up at once. I think that of the many 4x5 helical focusing cameras the Sinar Handy, B&J Orbitar, and the Linhof Technar with a right hand Linhof grip (good luck finding one) are the most useable handheld. With few exceptions these cameras were not meant or designed to be used handheld and often are unweildly or awkward to use. Most of us who started with 35mm or 120mm are acustomed to focusing with our left hands and gripping the camera with our right. All of the cameras mentioned in this thread are designed to be gripped in the left and adjusted with the right. It is like wearing shoes on your hands.

I am actually working on a website that I should have online in a couple of weeks that is all about 4x5 and larger handheld shooting. I will post the address when it is complete.

I've dug out the first 4x5 hand held from the camera I posted on this thread. It's in the standard gallery, 8x10 color picture on Fuji 160nps of some characters at a parade. Working on an article on how to build this type of camera with a couple more pictures to illustrate some of the building methods and techniques necessary. Not finished yet, but it's coming along.

Will post to this thread when I'm ready to upload. tim

P.S. Jeremy, I've weighed my camera and it tips the scales ay 1 pound 12 ounces. Certainly light enough to carry around easily and much less than a Crown or Speed Graphic.