SINAR Zoom II Roll film holder and/or Linhof Rapid Rollex

[Paul Schilliger]

I just picked some information on this page and will read it trough later. But w hat you should have in mind is whether or not you need the slide in back. I have recently added a binoc ular viewer on my camera and as a result, I am not using any more backs that require the glas to b e dismounted. I still use a modified Calumet 6x12 (I would not recommend it for many reasons) and adde d a Sinar Vario bought second hand (a delight in terms of precision and flatness). But I have no experience with the Zoom II. The Linhof 6x9 is "slide in" but not the 6X12 Techno Rollex, I think.

[Howard Slavitt]

I personally have been participating on this bulletin board for about a year now. I very much value Bob Salomon's contributions. It would be a loss for me, and I suspect others who participate on this bulletin board, if Bob stopped contributing as much. In rereading this thread, my impression is that, Bob was very aggressive in asking Andreas to correct his misunderstanding, but that Andreas overreacted. At any rate, I'd like to thank both Bob and Andreas for their numerous contributions during the past year. I began using a large format (actually 6 cm x 9 cm) camera in large part due to this forum and am l

[Paul Schilliger]

Thanks Howard for saying loud what certainly many others think. I have been personally greatly helped by Bob Solomon's technical advices, and in his "academic" approach, there should not necessairly be seen a rebuff but rather the fruit of many years of experience in this matter. In the other hand, I am not saying that Andrea is wro ng. He may have had a bad experience. The best can fail, but it's no rule. I also wish to thank each contributor for this forum which I greatly appreciate.

[Yong-ran Zhu]

I have used the large format camera for 2 years and am a relatively new user. I like this forum very much and should mentioned that I learned a lot from people both asking and answering questions. I have read a lot of Bob's information about the Linhof cameras. I do appreciate his effort for introducing the Linhof cameras based on his great knowledge and experience. I don't think that he did this because he is rep of Linhof for I did not see other reps have done same thing as Bob did. I like people do job seriously. Then you can trust them. I don't think I am qualified to comment anything about this issue. However, I hope that everybody will pay more attention to the positive side of any issues and be happy that we have a good forum to culture our common interests. We are all friends on the line.

[Skot Weidemann]

In an oblique way...I'm answering my own question about Sinar Zoom 2 holders, since I traded my 4 Calumet C2 6x7 holders and now have two new and one used Sinar Zoom 2 holders.

As with any piece of equipment that does a lot, they do have their peculiar qualities. First, there is no frame counter (by frame number) because you can change the format in mid-roll. There is a film length counter that counts down until an "L" appears that tells you you are on the "L"ast part of the film. Secondly, there is a felt light trap that the film has to go through and upon loading old test rolls (in the daylight) I found the felt scratched the film. I remember hearing about this in my previous research, so I called Sinar. The tech recommended taking a (low tech) length of Scotch tape and running it back and forth through the light trap. This I did with the used one and both new ones. So far, I haven't seen any visible scratches on the processed film. Sinar did send me a set of new felt traps gratis.

So far, I've only done a few jobs with the holders, but I do feel "empowered" with the possibility of changing the shape of the view to fit the subject, without having to swap so many lenses. I'm curious about whether clients will go along with the shape (ratio) of the frames they will be getting. I find that a lot of clients have trouble with ratios and want to order an "8x10" of everything and don't realize that a 6x12 or 6x9 or 6x6 format won't get a full frame 8x10 without cropping. By changing the format while shooting, essentially you are cropping the photos "on the job". I do see why they call the holders the ZOOM. I'm still excited about them and hope there will be the reliability I am expecting from Sinar.

Skot Weidemann