Toyo 8x10 GII Monorail that needs mounting. Don't know where to begin.

Hi all,

I'm green at 8x10 photography so kind advice is welcome. I'm a 35mm shooter mainly, but I acquired a Toyo 8x10 GII Monorail camera and let's just say this is a whole new ballpark. I need help with what tripod and head to look for that can hold the weight of this 15 pound camera and the Rodenstock 5.6 lens I have.

The thing is a behemoth in terms of weight and the monorail element is confusing to me when it comes to mounting it on a reliable tripod. I don't know where to begin. I believe that it has a mounting block that clamps to the monorail, so I feel better that I've got something over nothing that can attach this thing to a tripod head. All the 8x10 mounting advice is mainly field cameras and little to no monorail mounting.

I'll provide any info that my post may be missing in the comments or edit on here.

Thanks
R

(everything related to my Toyo is shown below)

There will be a clamp that clamps the rail and has 3/8-16 bolt to mount on to a tripod. That looks like the item on the left of the picture in front of the recessed lens baord. The rail is clamped by that and to the tripod head. both the front and rear standard also clamp to the rail (the front standard holds the lens, and the rear standard holds the ground glass and film.)

It looks like included is a number of rail extensions. the longer the lens the more distance you'll need between the standards, so you'll potentially need to attach the extensions in order to get enough distnace.

Give the weight of the camer you will want a pretty heavy duty tripod and head. You may even want to skip using a head and just adjust using the tripod legs. My 8x10 tripod is a Gitzo 5 series, and is the low-profile 3-way head I use. The are sufficient for a Toyo 8x10 field camera, but that is lighter than what you have.

I think ideally a studio stand if you're serious about using it indoors.

For 8x10 I use a Bogen which is no longer manufactured. If I were to replace it, the closest thing is the Manfrotto 475B.

No big deal. For field work, just bolt that rail clamp DIRECTLY to the top platform of a serious tripod; you don't really need anything else unless you plan to point the camera almost straight down.

Welcome to Photrio! I have gotten by with an old Gitzo "weighs a ton no I'm not carbon fibre" tripod, with a their low profile G1570M for the past 30 years. Not only is this combo used for my Canham 8x10, but also my 14x17.

I’ll second the G1570M Gitzo 3 way head. I prefer it for heavy cameras like yours and they are reasonably priced on the used market. Yes, a studio stand would be pretty ideal if the Toyo is going to stay in the studio, but I have found they can be both expensive and hard to find. Alternatively the Ries wooden tripods/heads will hold just about anything. Berlebach also makes some heavy duty wood tripods. I’ve got an old Linhof Pro heavy duty tripod under my monstrous Linhof 8x10 Kardan. It works well with the weight on it but it’s not terribly portable. Linhof also made some nice heads and columns for it if you can find one complete

Thank you all so much for your input. Truly appreciate your help and will follow up individually soon! Happy shooting!