Carrying a horseman monorail?

[JZ]

I am just getting into largeformat photography and purchased a used Horseman LE monorail after reading largeformatphotography.info and being impressed with the versatility of such a camera and being overconfident that lugging such a thing would be trivial... Well I have realized that finding a way just to pack the thing into a backpack was going to be harder than I thought. I have an old camping full frame Jansport pack that is the biggest one they ever made and I can't seem to fit the camera in it very succesfully. At least not in one piece. I'm looking for any and all suggestions on how to pack this camera out into the wild while providing some protective foaming to keep the thing in one piece off the beaten path. Thanks.

Regards, -JZ

[David R Munson]

Monorails can be packed into the field easily enough if you can figure out how to pack them right. I'm not sure how the Horseman operates, but I'm sure there's at least a fairly efficient way to pack it. I carry my Linhof monorail in the largest LowePro photo backpack. I could pack it in a smaller pack, but the large size allows me to carry lunch, a jacket, etc in addition to the standard photo gear. Anyhow, my Linhof allows me to detatch the front and rear standards quite easily. I keep the two standards, bellows, and lensboard/lens all atached to one another in one compartment of the pack and the rail with the standard mounts and tripod mount in another. Assembly in the field is quick and easy. There may well be an efficient way to do something similar with your Horseman. If you can't remove the standards or fold them flat like you can do with Sinar F-series cameras, you might be able to take off the bellows and swing the standards 90º so you're at least dealing with a basic package that's flatter than the camera in its regular configuration.

[Geary Lyons]

The Horseman will fold quite flat. Remove the bellows, compress and secure with some sort of strap. Rotate the standards until they are parallel to the rail. You should have a compact form that is roughly a rectangle the length of the rail, the height of the standards and about 3" in depth. Should fit easily in the pack!

Cheers, Geary

[Ted Harris]

Geary is right with one caveat, it depends on the length of the rail you have. Horseman makes rails from 250mm up to 1000mm and two different expandable rails. If you have one of the longer rails then you may want to take the standards off the rail for backpacking. It is still relatively quick to setup. I'd be more concerned wit6h the weight. The camera is a hair under 10 pounds, then yuou need to add the rail, tripod block, lenses, etc. But when I started out I was carrying heavier so it can be done.

[Tadge Dryja]

I have an LE. I use a lowepro ... uh, trekker, AW something or other... at any rate, a big lowepro bag. It just fits. If you remove the bellows and rotate the standards so they line up with the rail the whole thing becomes flat. I usually leave the bellows attached to one standard, and the ground glass on the other, so I can put everything together more quickly. I keep lenses wrapped in "darkcloths" (black t-shirts) in the front pocket, have my tripod attached to the side of the backpack with the tripod pouch, and then carry filmholders in seperate f/64 bags.

While it all adds up to aroud 40 pounds, I find it pretty managable and have done all day treks with this setup. Then again, my shoulders and back end up very sore after a day with this setup. But it can definetly be done.