I have the original Shen Hao 617 camera, made in conjunction with Mr Zhang at Shen over a decade ago.
This came about when I commissioned him to build a 6x17cm field camera around my [existing] DaYi film back.
There was a hole in the market when it came to panoramic cameras - the only movements available were rise/fall (incorrectly referred to as "Shift" by DaYi and Gaoersi), and the V-Pan was both rare and poorly designed for field use.
So, along came the non-folding Shen 617.
This camera has had hundreds of rolls go through it, on the continents of Europe, Asia, South Africa, Northern America and Australasia over the last decade+.
I have just given it a full overhaul, tightening everything on it and recalibrating the standards/detents/etc.
So, in closing, hundreds of rolls and tens of thousands of kilometres later, it's travelling well!
