Brian, What was the outcome of your tilt problem with the Master Technica? Those dealing with this problem in the future may like to know. Also, did you discover you prefered metal to wood field cameras? What did you not like about the Ebony? Not to start a long discussion here about metal vs. wood, just curious about your reasoning?
I sent the camera to Marflex. They said the problem was that the tilt mechanism was "jammed." The person I spoke with (not Martin, the other guy whose name I can never quite catch, sounds like "Creekor")didn't know why it had jammed at that point because he hadn't yet removed the front standard. There were two other problems with the camera. A couple screws were missing, which caused the rangefinder housing to be loose, and one of the rods that attaches the back to the camera needed to be replaced. Total cost for the three fixes was $285 (paid by the seller). I don't yet have the camera back, it should be here next week.
There were only a couple things I didn't like about the Ebony, mostly I just preferred the precision of the Linhof and the way the various controls were operated. With the Ebony I didn't care for having three separate focusing knobs, I often seemed to grab the wrong one, and I didn't like the way a knob would just rotate freely when it reached the end of its line, at which point you had to switch to the other one to continue focusing (this wasn't a problem with all lenses, only with those whose useful range was within the area covered by the middle and front focusing knobs). I didn't like the fact that when setting up the front standard it would occasionally jam when raised to the top. I didn't like the fact that the focusing lock knobs would often cause a focus knob to lock in the middle of focusing so that I would have to stop focusing, drop the loupe, loosen the lock knob, then go back to focusing. These were very minor dislikes in the overall scheme of things. I'm sure that had I wanted to keep a wooden camera I would have adapted to them because the Ebony was basically an excellent camera. But you asked what I didn't like and that was about it.
As far as I'm concerned, the question of metal vs wood camera is totally a personal preference kind of thing, I just happened to prefer the metal Linhof to the wood Ebony.
Brian Ellis
Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you do criticize them you'll be
a mile away and you'll have their shoes.
Brian, I'm glad you're back from the 'dark side' (both literally, and figuratively:-) ) I purchased a MT a few months ago, and I'm *very* glad I did so. Sure, it's not as pretty as my Gandolfi, but it's lighter (can't say that very often about a Linhof), certainly more rigid, and fits my working style perfectly.
Most likely the last field camera I'll every buy (ouch, jinxed myself)
I have a MT2000 and also prefer it to the Ebony for much the same reasons as Brian plus the Ebony's ground glass image always seemed to "muddy" to me. The MT2000 with the Linhof fresnel is much brighter and easier to focus.
As far as tilt goes, I've not yet used the front tilt and like the way the back tilt works. I just loosen the top two knobs and pull the top of the back toward me for tilt.
His name is Krikor. There is also Sy as well as Martin. Krikor does the Linhof repairs.
Brian,
welcome home to the "Linhof gang".
Sure it's a d... good camera. I like it.
Wooden cameras are beautiful, and Ebony, Tachihara, Zone VI or Wisner really are.
But the Linhof is the ultimate proof that a metal camera can be also a beautiful tool, rock-solid and accurate as a swiss-precision tool.
Hi Brian, I see you got the camera. I was wondering if one of the folks may be able to tell me the approxmate age of my camera? I believe this is the serial number 66029. I'm not sure if it's a Tech III or IV.
"66029"
Technika IV from 1958/59
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