Considering purchasing a Calumet Wood Field XM

[John Mauser]

There is a Calumet wood field XM camera in excellent condition for a good price. I'd like to get it but I had a few questions. The bellows have moderate wear but no pinholes. How hard is it to get ahold of bellows for this camera and install them. Are there any other concerns or things I should keep in mind about this camera? I'll be using it for landscape photography. This will be my first large format camera although I have used a Zone VI before. Thanks, John

[Edward (Halifax,NS)]

What is a good price? It is an older Tachihara. The new ones go for about $600-700.

[John Mauser]

$250 with a lens board.

[steve simmons]

If you are new to large format here is some suggested reading

User's Guide to the View Camera by Jim Stone

Large Format Nature Photography by Jack Dykinga

Using the View Camerathat I wrote.

all are books and should be available on Amazon.com

There are several free articles on our web site

www.viewcamera.com

Select a camera based on its features.

steve simmons
www.viewcamera.com

steve simmons

[Gem Singer]

Hi John,

The Calumet woodfield is an entirely different camera than the Zone VI. I owned/used a Calumet Woodfield in the early 1980's. It was my first wooden flatbed folding field camera. If I remember correctly, it was a re-badged Tachihara. However, I don't remember if it was designated as an XM model. Perhaps the Calumet XM is a different camera. You can check out the specs. for the 4X5 Tachi on the Badger Graphics website. Calumet discontinued their Woodfield cameras a few years ago.

As far as the bellows is concerned, there are several places where you can have a replacement bellows made. It will probably be relatively expensive. The bellows is cemented into place, and unless you know exactly what you are doing, it will not be a simple job to remove it and replace it.

[Jon Shiu]

Calumet XM is same as current Tachihara, so that is a great price.

[Steve Hamley]

John,

$250 is a good price if the bellows is light tight or easily repairable with one of the many things things people repair bellows with. This assumes everything else on the Calumet is mechanically perfect and cosmetically very good.

IMO, you could not buy this camera and replace the bellows for less than a new or used Tachihara. Jim at Midwest recently had demo Tachiharas for $450 or so.

Steve

[Mark Sawyer]

I have a little wood field Calumet 4x5 I don't use much any more, but I do like it a lot; small, light, stable, good movements, and cute as can be! The only drawback I ever found was that there are lots of little knobs to tighten/loosen every time you set it up/ut it away.

[John Mauser]

There are no lightleaks, but I was just wondering about repairing the bellows in the future if they did pop up. And since the camera is basically a tachihara, I figured it wouldn't be that hard to find bellows in the future. I would probably only buy one lens for this camera, a 90mm for landscapes. So there wouldn't be a lot of twisting and stretching of the bellows to wear them out quickly. I didn't know there was a lot of difference between the zone VI and the calumet woodfield. I read an article about this camera on this site and it seemed to give it a lot of praise for the price. John

[Brian Ellis]

Calumet Woodfields were Tachiharas with a Calumet decal and $200 added to the price. Anything you read about the Tachihara will be equally applicable to the Calumet. Used Tachiharas in excellent condition seem to sell for about $350-400 so your $250 price is very good if the camera's in good condition.

Tachiharas/Calumet Woodfields are excellent cameras, wel-built but light enough to backpack with ease, adequate movements for most types of photography, a flexible bellows that allows use of lenses as short as 65mm without the need for a bag bellows, and no major disadvantage except maybe the relatively short bellows (13") that necessitates the use of telephoto lenses if you want to use a lens longer than 300mm. There's a detailed review of the Tachihara at my web site, www.ellisgalleries.com.

Tachihara apparently made various changes to the camera over the years because the earliest version weighed about a pound less than the current version. The only obvious difference is the metal finish. The early version had nickel-looing metal while the later version(s) had brass-looking metal. The earlier version (of which I've only handled one) didn't seem to be as sturdy as the later version so if buying used I'd stick with one that has the brass-looking metal.