My travelwide arrived yesterday.
It was late in the day and heavy rain made the box it came in wet. Still much excitement about opening it up and setting it up, even though it was way after the time to break for the day and go home.
I set up the lens, rangefinder and cable release. I went with the smaller lens for starters as this would not really be a "travel" camera with an SA...
The "sports finder" is something i am having a hard time understanding, both function and use. What is it for? How do you use it? Mine arrived slightly bent, but i put it right, and still, i am not sure what to do with it. I remember a photographing in nature class with a professor who was an RIT graduate turned religious hippie who used to hand out frame mats of various sizes (to corrospond to various camera formats) and said things like "here you hold this up, and look, there is your frame on 6X9 can you see it!!??"... clearly, i did not see it then and do not see it now.
The printz rangefinder is one of those things, that is perhaps a generational gap too wide to traverse. I never could use a IIIf leica either despite years of trying. It does work, and does give accurate range, and given it was dirt cheap i am glad to have had it sitting in a box for 2 years while i waited for the camera to use it with.
The "ground glass" looks nice as part of the camera, but is less then functional when trying to focus, forget about seeing what it is you are actually framing. Wide angle, i get it, shoot from the hip, aim in the general direction etc., but then what is the point of that thing...? If you thought the 6.8 was gloomy, wait until i try the F8 SA... Has anyone seen otherwise? please enlighten me.
The overall external finish is something to be marveled at from a far. It looks serious. It looks like a mass made thing. It looks like it is completely natural that this is the way a camera would look. But dont look too close now. The inside of the camera is not quite as certain what it wants to be as the front. There is some flocking. Why? Some of it is not fully adhered to the body, i am sure thats to be expected given the shape of the inside and the nature of flocking which is not really a flexible thing. Still.
I am lucky enough to have a "real" lens wrench, but i doubt every LF shooter has one, or needs one. You need one for this set up, or you need some might small fingers to do up a lens mounting ring on the back side of the helical. This would have been a nice place to have the promised but not delivered lens wrench bottle opener smiley face bookmark gadget, or some kind of new methodology to explain how to do this. I did not delve into the tiny print manual though maybe i missed something there... Ill go again and look tomorrow.
The accessory shoes are tight. This is both a good thing and not so great thing, and i am not sure how this will behave in real hot climate. Pushing things on makes them stay and secure. Pulling them off without breaking anything is another story, but perhaps it will wear in eventually and still work as it should, only time and use can tell.
Then there is the helical. I read many a LFPF thread and KS update posts about this, fitment and other related issues. I am not sure what the deal with all those posts were, because its a tough cookie to turn, though it does move. I can't say for sure i am not doing something wrong, but smooth is not the word i would use to describe the motion of the helical. I like the material the camera is made of like i said above, i do not like the material the helical is made of. I am not worried it will break or something like that, but i wish it was smooth and cool looking like the rest.
I am certainly not sure what or how the two cable release tubes on either side are functional without some serious modification, though i guess with a nice 30cm locking cable release unit they would hold it somewhat out of the way, though that would make using it more complicated then the benefit. So far the shorty cable seems to be easier to work with, though, again, unless you are on a tripod, i am not sure how having a cable release really benefits anything at all.
Overall, this is a cool project, and the price point is 100% correct. . I love it, i really do, despite all the above mentioned minor and nitpickey pitfalls. You pay for what you get. Pay more, and get a more serious travel wide 4X5 camera with real glass on the back and real view finders. Pay less, and get a 4X5 shooting holga, with a fancy lens and more guessing added to the game. Will i enjoy shooting this? I doubt it. Can this be the next hipster advanced level men only merchandising magazine top 10 things to own before you grow out of it (and move on to the magazine where some point and shoot leica is in the top ten, right after maui jims and speakman shower heads)? Absolutely.
Does this mean i cannot be a hipster even if i carry this around? who knows, but it sure can take one most of the way there, just add some skinny jeans and thick framed glasses (http://www.wikihow.com/Be-a-Hipster - skip to part #3).
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Originally Posted by koh303
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