Cambo 8x10...whacked or not?

[Allen in Montreal]

I picked up this Cambo on a lark to play with until I decide how I will proceed and i what formats.

It arrived today and I took a quick look at it, it is out of alignment in my opinion.
The fact the standards are from two different generations does not bother me, but look at the rear standard.

Do I live with it and just tilt the back slight forward to compensate, or will this drive to nuts over time?

keep in mind, the camera set me back only 300.
If I return it, I will still loose 70.00 dollars in customs fees as the seller used UPS, not USPS as requested. USPS would have cost 7.50 in paperwork charges, not the almost 10 times that UPS charges.

Everything else seems to be in alignment and work fairly well.
Am I making too big a deal out of it, or do I ship it back??




http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/1332/cambo14222xli4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Glenn Thoreson]

It appears bent to me. However, it will easily correct using the back tilt. If nothing is cracked, I'd say use it. It wouldn't bother me to use it that way, but then I've never owned a Cambo. If the rear tilt has a degree thingy on it, I would forget using that and stick to a bubble level. If the degree gizmo is out of whack, that may be bothersome to look at. Appearance ain't everything, sez me. :D

[Allen in Montreal]

It appears bent to me. However, it will easily correct using the back tilt....... Appearance ain't everything, sez me. :D


If I level it all all, it seems to be out by 3/8 or so, if I make a marking to indicate true Zero along the area marked, it should be fine.

The seller wrote and wants the camera back, he thinks he can sell it for double what I paid! :rolleyes:

In the end, this was not such a great idea. At least it was only 3 bills and not a 2k.


http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/7346/1443xwh3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Harold_4074]

This is not the top-of-the line Cambo, so $300 is not a mind-blowingly good price. The
standard appears to be bent at the bottom, and this is an aluminum casting, so it is structurally compromised to some extent. A forging would be ductile enough to either bend back or trust as-is, but a casting is more problematic.

If the damage did not occur in shipping, and was not disclosed before sale, it would seem that the seller should refund the return shipping. Otherwise, the transaction begins to resemble fraud.

[Jan Nieuwenhuysen]

I would not accept it. Based on the pictures you posted I would say the standard is bent. If that is so, the standard is structurally compromised as Harold said. I would certainly not accept that for $300.

[alex from holland]

Send it back !
I sold a in perfect schape cambo sc for about 450$ yesterday.
Give a good search and you will get a very nice one for 300$

alex

[Allen in Montreal]

This is not the top-of-the line Cambo, so $300 is not a mind-blowingly good price. The
standard appears to be bent at the bottom........

If the damage did not occur in shipping, and was not disclosed before sale, it would seem that the seller should refund the return shipping. Otherwise, the transaction begins to resemble fraud.

Harold,

I agree the price was not the deal of the century, I guess what I was trying to say in my haste to post and get back to the office was it is not as big of a "hit" as buying at Deardorff at 1800.00 and finding it to be a wreck. I shot a test frame last night of my daughter which I will process tonight but I think the camera is going back. I guess this is a message for me to slow down and be more methodical in making my next move.

[Frank Petronio]

FWIW, I just found an 8x10 Calumet C1 w a 14" Ektar and 6 modern holders all in good shape for $350 locally. They even threw in some out of date but frozen film. Now I know the C1 is not that desirable but it will certainly do it's job and allows me to shop patiently for the camera I want.

Besides eBay it is worth checking in with your local studio photographers who often have these old gems kicking around unused. I actually offered him more money based on the proven eBay values but he felt it was an old obsolete camera and was happy to see me using it.

[Mike Fiction]

That's a good deal Frank, esp. with the Ektar - like buying a lens, and the seller throwing in a free camera :)

Let me know what you think of the Ektar btw, I was thinking about picking up a 12" or 14" Ektar once I get my 8x10 project completed.

the the OP - I'd return the Cambo - I wouldn't trust a bent standard like that and def. not worth the $300 in that condition.

[Mark Sampson]

One has to wonder how that camera got bent like that in the first place- perhaps it had been used to jack up a car with a flat tire.

[Allen in Montreal]

...... found an 8x10 Calumet C1 w a 14" Ektar and 6 modern holders all in good shape for $350 locally...... the C1 is not that desirable but it will certainly do it's job and allows me to shop patiently for the camera I want.


That was the logic behind my move too,
you applied it much better than I did! :(

I wrote the seller and told him I want to return the camera for a full refund plus shipping, no word back yet.

[Allen in Montreal]

Send it back !

I sold a in perfect schape cambo sc for about 450$ yesterday.

Give a good search and you will get a very nice one for 300$

alex

The seller refuses to pay the return shipping, this would be I take a hit for about half the purchase price between shipping and customs fees.
he is rambling on about how the bellows are new and cost him $450 and he is loosing money on the deal, but then filed a non payment complaint against me, I paid him the same day!

I think I will just keep it, chalk it up to experience as a lesson to slow down and map out my future kit with greater care. :mad:

[wfwhitaker]

Is this Ebay? Is this the same seller who wanted it back because he "could get double what you paid for it"?

Assuming it's Ebay, you should easily be able to dispute the non-paying bidder complaint if you can show you sent payment. And assuming it's Ebay, he probably filed same to keep you from filing negative feedback against him as a seller. Ebay's new policies are working against them here.

You're probably right to write it off as experience. If the seller were someone who is reasonable, I would say return it for sure. If you paid via PayPal, you could try to file a complaint against him that way in an effort to get your money back. Or you could just sell it for parts, eat the remainder as tuition and caveat emptor.

If this was Ebay, who was the seller so that others may be forewarned?

[Allen in Montreal]

Is this Ebay? Is this the same seller who wanted it back because he "could get double what you paid for it"? .........

You're probably right to write it off as experience. If the seller were someone who is reasonable, I would say return it for sure........

..... eat the remainder as tuition and caveat emptor.

If this was Ebay, who was the seller so that others may be forewarned?

Indeed, the seller who said it was "dirty cheap price".
I have cleared up the non payment issue.

He claims if damaged, it happened in shipping, the box is in perfect shape. I will say, he packed the camera very well. I think we (he and I) have vastly different ideas of what is very good condition.

All this grief coming from an idea of an inexpensive camera while I ponder overhauling the 5x7 and staying at 5x7, going back to an 8x10, or going ULF. :(

I leveled it all out and took pictures today, it is only out on a single plane, damned by faint (very faint) praise!

I will post his e bay tag later tonight.

[bbauer]

it looks like this has the 4x5 mount--I believe all of the 8x10 cambos had a dual-clamp arrangement to manage the longer rail.

it's fairly easy to make something out of wood that will help secure the camera much better than the single mount in the picture.

[Paul Ewins]

Allen, if you get stuck with it I'd be happy to buy it for spares. I've already got one the same as yours, so a broken one that I can cannibalise without remorse would be useful.

[Allen in Montreal]

Allen, if you get stuck with it I'd be happy to buy it for spares. I've already got one the same as yours, so a broken one that I can cannibalise without remorse would be useful.

Hi Paul,

That is very kind of you! I would rather give to you than to a dishonest seller who will put the screws to some else with it.

I shot my daughters again last night and processed the film
(12 year old Tri-x that has been in a holder in a cupboard all that time, it is still not that bad! You have to love Kodak, just not their marketing team).

The camera is functional, but it flops around too much with that small mounting block, it is missing two screws on the rear standard too! I will keep the camera until I find my next and final kit and then offer it to you for parts, the bellows are new "jobber" parts from what he claims and are in fact, very very clean but certainly not brand new, but very "newish".

it was really nice to look at that large negative again!

Allen

[Paul Ewins]

Thanks Allen, good luck in finding a suitable replacement. BTW, although there may be a proper dual clamp block my 8x10 uses two of the 4x5 blocks. It is attached to a Gitzo no. 4 head which has two screws so that arrangement is perfect. A ball head would be a definite problem.

[SAShruby]

Hi Paul,

That is very kind of you! I would rather give to you than to a dishonest seller who will put the screws to some else with it.

I shot my daughters again last night and processed the film
(12 year old Tri-x that has been in a holder in a cupboard all that time, it is still not that bad! You have to love Kodak, just not their marketing team).

The camera is functional, but it flops around too much with that small mounting block, it is missing two screws on the rear standard too! I will keep the camera until I find my next and final kit and then offer it to you for parts, the bellows are new "jobber" parts from what he claims and are in fact, very very clean but certainly not brand new, but very "newish".

it was really nice to look at that large negative again!

Allen

Hi Allen,

You can open an Ebay dispute as "Item isn't as decribed". If you paid Paypal via Credit Card, check your options with card provider, I think you can get some refund from CC company. What you're dealing with it's considered as fraud. So you should be protected.

[eddie]

if nothing else you can make problems for the seller. my friend had had a problem with a guy from china. the buyer complained about dust in a lens......long story short paypal had my friend's (seller) paypal was shut down for some time while it was in arbitration.....it would have been easier for the seller to just pay the return shipping. it would have saved a lot if BS.

just file a "not as described" complaint with paypal.

oh! what is his ebay handle?

eddie

[Tracy Storer]

Allen,
can't tell from the photo whether the rear carrier is bent, or possibly only the screws that go up into the rods that support the rear frame.
If you can get a (probably metric) allen wrench into one of those screws and back it out, see if it's bent. If it's only the screws, you'll have the camera fixed for less than $1 for 2 metric screws from your hardware store.

[Allen in Montreal]

Allen,
can't tell from the photo whether the rear carrier is bent, or possibly only the screws that go up into the rods that support the rear frame.
If you can get a (probably metric) allen wrench into one of those screws and back it out, see if it's bent. If it's only the screws, you'll have the camera fixed for less than $1 for 2 metric screws from your hardware store.

Hi Tracy,

Thank you for the tip, I checked after reading your post. No luck however, the screws are fine. I am amazed at how easy it would be to remove those two posts, I guess I could try to straightened them but given they are bent equally (what luck, I guess...) I am not going to mess with it.

The ironic part of this is, there seems to be a huge amount of nice gear that has come on the market in the last few weeks. I wish I had waited just a little longer, but I really wanted to shoot some large frames before the snow comes so I could have a stock of negs to print over the winter. Minus 20 or 30 degrees in Jan and Feb makes perfect darkroom nights!


Peter,

I paid for the camera with a balance holding in Paypal from other E bay sales etc.


The seller wrote and asked me how we could settle this, I sent him a few high rez detailed pictures of the issues, it would be very had to say this camera is fine! He tried to blame this on a local photographer that sold him the camera and he does not know "this" camera well enough to have spotted the issues. His feed back shows enough cameras sales to prove that false!

The threads in the mounting block were also stripped, fortunately, he had badly inserted a step down to 3/8 so I just popped it out and mounted with a larger thread.

The seller is:


http://myworld.ebay.com/nsfw

He has three negative feedbacks only, but in hindsight, his replies to those negatives typify his interaction with myself and are a glance at his character!

[Tracy Storer]

It doesn't look like the rods are actually bent, maybe you can take it apart and straighten out what IS bent, or find a way to shim the base of the back to bring things parallel?
Just another thought.

[Allen in Montreal]

It doesn't look like the rods are actually bent, maybe you can take it apart and straighten out what IS bent, or find a way to shim the base of the back to bring things parallel?
Just another thought.

Hi Tracy,

When you suggested removing the screws under the posts, I took the whole standard apart just to see. The bulk of the damage is the flat (once upon time it was flat) plate which is now bent into a slight V. The shimming does not show the true degree that the posts are out, I shot it this way to show the seller that it is in fact bent. Given it appears to be an aluminum casting, the chance of breakage during a straightening is very high, I will not mess it with it.


http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/4330/9892xtg4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Frank Petronio]

That nsfw seller has been around for years, they try to sell a lot of high end Linhof gear yet claims ignorance of a lot of things... their descriptions have always been short and vague, yet they clearly know what they are selling. They seem to use English "as a second language" quite selectively.

Camera$ is another one to avoid, they ask extra high prices and claim rusty old junk as being "nice".

I think these guys lurk in hopes of someone falling for their traps, usually a foreign buyer so communications and returns are difficult and not worth the hassle.

I've never gotten a screwing buying here or from a reputable dealer... I am so sick of eBay I am starting to think I should just be patient and pay a reasonable premium just to have a good transaction.

Allen, you could probably "part it out" and make 2x what you paid if you really need to recoup your losses. Otherwise offer it here minus the shipping hit you would have taken returning it, and it will still be a good deal as it still is usable. At least someone will get some use out of it that way.