Shen Hao vs. Chamonix

[sully75]

Stir it up. What's your experience? I'm looking for a 5x7 field camera that's a little more adjustable than the Kodak no.33 I've been using since I started. Shen Hao seems to have the price edge, Chamonix a possible quality advantage. Any bad experiences with either camera?

[Eric Biggerstaff]

I will be interested in this as I am looking at the same two cameras!

[vinny]

if you search the forum for your title you'll find a thread which I compared the two brands (4X5). The Chamonix is a better built, more versatile camera and the two are very different to set up and use.

[ImSoNegative]

i have a shen hao 4x5 and love it, quality seems to be great to me, i have never used a chamonix though so cant comment on those, my shen weighs in just under 3 pounds, its the ptb45, the camera i was used to was a toyo view 45gII that weighs in at around 13 pounds, the gII was very precise though, the ptb was kind of hard to get used to but now i wouldnt trade it for 2 toyo's, you can hike all day with this thing. I think i paid 679 for it brand new and it came with a copal 0 board. good deal i thought.

[Greg Y]

Sully, I use the Chamonix 5x7 horizontal as a back up to my #1 Deardorff 1938 5x7.
It's tight, well-built & easy to use, and easy to adapt to. I like it a lot. It also passed the eagle eye of one of my local large format buddies who used and nixed the Shen Hao for not being up to the standards of Toyo or Deardorff.

[Frank Petronio]

How do they compare with the made-in-America wooden Canhams?

[Oren Grad]

How do they compare with the made-in-America wooden Canhams?

The Canhams are beautifully made. But there are two aspects that make Canhams love-'em-or-hate-'em - the complex system of locks and controls, and the slight flex in the standards even after the camera is locked down. I had a 5x12 Canham for a while. It was a lovely object, but after a while it just became irritating to wrestle with. OTOH, others have been perfectly happy with theirs.

I have a WP Chamonix; I've written up a comparison with Phillips in another thread. It's more rigid than the Canham, and although it's not without some irritations, I'm comfortable with the handling. I'd take a 5x7 Chamonix over the 4x5/5x7 wooden Canham any time.

Afraid I've never handled a Shen Hao. But their various models are different enough structurally - they have Phillips clones, Ebony clones, and more traditional collapsing designs, though not all in every format - that it may be hazardous to generalize about the brand.

[Greg Y]

"How do they compare with Canham?" My experience is the same as Oren's. My first LF camera was the 4x5/5x7 Canham. They're beautifully made. The day I first used a Deardorff I saw the differences. As stated, the Canhams have a complex, difficult to access set of controls. Afterwards I owned an 8x10 Canham traditional.....once again it was replaced by a Deardorff. The Chamonix is quick & easy to set-up, by comparison.

[ashlee52]

If you don't mind weight the Ansco 5x7 is a real contender. I prefer it to my Deardorff. I use a Chamonix 4x5 and previously owned a Shen Hao. Both of those makers give you a terrific product... the Chamonix is probably a touch more precise. I prefer the Ansco work flow to these however. And they can often be had for around $250. But they are as big as your Kodak. Mine has front shift, front tilt, front rise/fall, rear swing, and rear tilt... and a built in back extension.

[sully75]

I just passed on an Ansco that was on ebay (by a forum member I think) because it looked so large. I want something that won't be ungainly hanging on the end of a tripod on my shoulder. But...it was tempting. The Kodak being big isn't really a problem though. It's just sort of clumsy and inaccurate. Never was a great camera to being with.

So...I'll think about the Ansco.

[ashlee52]

I wouldn't carry the Ansco held to a tripod by just a single 1/4" screw. Whereas I do that all the time with a Chamonix 4x5.

[Jason Greenberg Motamedi]

I don't like the Phillips set-up that Chamonix copied, it just doesn't made sense to me. That said, I have used a wooden 5x7 Canham for many years, and have no issue with its fiddlyness, although I can understand why Oren and others may find it irritating. Of course, the Canham is a lot more expensive. I briefly owned a 4x5 Shen Hao but found the build quality mediocre, and quickly sold it. From what I have seen the build quality of the Chamonix is higher, although not quite the same as my Canham. Of course, neither the Shen Hao or the Chamonix has Keith Canham, but if you aren't in the US this advantage is irrelevant.

[sully75]

The Chamonix is definitely at the edge of my price range.

Honestly, looking at it, I'm not sure how you do rear swing, looks really weird to me. I'm guessing it makes sense, but it looks odd.

[Robert Oliver]

I love my Chamonix 4x5 for it's quality and weight...

I used a Canham 4x5/5x7 and loved it, it was just a little heavy for my needs. Imagine it would probably be in the ballpark of other 5x7 cameras. Canham was a little hard to figure out fold-up technique, but once I figured out a routine it wasn't an issue.

[Oren Grad]

Honestly, looking at it, I'm not sure how you do rear swing, looks really weird to me.

You loosen the two big knobs that secure the "feet" to the camera base, twist the back as needed, then tighten. It's a bit awkward. If you use rear swing extensively or need high precision in that movement, you might find it annoying.

[ashlee52]

Oren

Try lostening only the knob on the side you want to pull or push on... leave the other one fairly tight (but not oexcessively tight)... you will find that the back pivots nicely... just as the base of most cameras pivot when you do back tilt. So focus on the far part of the plane you want to be in focus, then pull only one side of the back until the near part of the focal plane is in focus.

[yuexiachou29]

what kind of bag do you use for Chamonix 4x5?

[Brian Ellis]

I just passed on an Ansco that was on ebay (by a forum member I think) because it looked so large. I want something that won't be ungainly hanging on the end of a tripod on my shoulder. But...it was tempting. The Kodak being big isn't really a problem though. It's just sort of clumsy and inaccurate. Never was a great camera to being with.

So...I'll think about the Ansco.

I've owned a 5x7 Agfa Ansco. It was a nice enough camera but the folding tailboard made it quite bulky compared to a clam-shell and hard to get in and out of my backpack. I used it for a while but finally sold it after I decided that 5x7 wasn't big enough for contact prints I was making. I've never owned a 5x7 Chamonix or Shen but I've owned 4x5s of both. Based on that experience I'd guess the 5x7s are a sizable cut above any Ansco you'll find in terms of precision, smoothness, etc.

[Cesar Barreto]

I've both 5x7' cameras (please, don't ask me why!!!), but the Chamonix is the horizontal model and it obviously is a champion on the light weight league.
Both are equally easy to use on the field, although I feel a bit more safe with the Shen Hao when bigger lenses are in place and it also offers a kind of graflok back which allows me to use 6x17 format.
Hugo offered to adapt the back so I could make panoramics also, but I haven't made this move yet.