Recommendations for a 4x5 Monorail with Geared Movements

Hi All,

I've been looking at 4x5 monorails and there are a ton of choices out there so I was hoping for some advice to narrow down the field. I'm not looking for mint condition (I purchase 99% of my gear KEH BGN grade) just fully functional with good bellows. It will be used for all around duty, slightly packable would be nice but I'm not planning on any heavy hiking with it. I would like all or most of the movements to be geared. No ground glass hood or a easily removable one as I don't care for them. I'd like to keep the cost as close to $200 as possible, there's some wiggle room of course but that's the basic target. I'm willing to shop around and wait for a good deal.

Advice and info are much appreciated,

Jim

Best bang for the buck in a geared monorail is a Sinar P, but this is really a studio camera, not particularly suited to hiking, which is generally true of fully geared cameras. These were fantastically expensive and desired cameras in their day and can often be found for a few hundred dollars today.

I'm going to second the Sinar P, or the P2 is you want it to be even more...sexy. I went from a Calumet C2 8x10 and moved to a P2 8x10, and would never, ever, ever consider going back. If you're a hands-on, mechanically-minded person like me, it will be like coming home.

I too would say a Sinar P/P2. they are pretty cheap these days and are just so easy to use and precise.

Hi Jim,

If the Sinar is not a possibility, I would recommend the Omega 45F.
All the right features at a great price.


Ron

From The Long Island Of New York, and the
Long Island @ Large Format Group, right here on APUG
.

If you are going to do a little bit of "off road" work with the camera, and if you don't want a flat bed view camera then how about looking at an old Graphic View? They are relatively small and light compared to some other monorails, like the old Calumet view cameras, and I think they sell for roughly the same price as the old Calumets on ebay.