As some respondents to this thread may recall, I’ve been trying to hunt down a 57GII for some time now, but to no avail. I can only kick myself for failing to secure what could have been the last brand new 57GII on planet Earth (at Tokyo’s Map Camera), complements of taking too long with a confirmatory check on the required importation paperwork.
I’ve since gotten in touch with other Japanese retailers listing this 5x7 monorail and very quickly found out that in reality it is available neither new or used. Map Camera and Mediajoy even contacted Toyo and a few other local retailers (not sure if some of the other names mentioned by Gary were among them), and confirmed that not a single such item seems to be lying around in a Japanese storefront or warehouse, including Toyo’s. It would appear that only Gary has the power to disprove this thesis, as only divine intervention can cause a Toyo 5x7 monorail to appear outside of Japan. So far the divine has refrained from intervention.
Why do I find Toyo’s 5x7 monorail so desirable? My first LF camera was a used Toyo 45G, which was great for everything other than scaling mountains. I foolishly got rid of it and got a half-as-heavy 45AII field camera, thinking I could get away with it for architecture. I assumed that I would occasionally need to tilt the bed to get extra rise but I did not realize that I would nearly always be running out of rise in an urban setting and that the lack of precision and lack of axis tilts would be driving me nuts as well.
In the meantime, I also went through the usual yearnings for something larger, flirting with the idea of a sturdy 8x10, driven mainly by an appreciation of contact prints. I ultimately concluded that I should smack myself in the face a couple of times and not yield to gear hypertrophy. Prudence dictated seeking out a 5x7 monorail, especially after rejecting the idea of switching to a metal Canham field because of its lack of geared rise and numerous reports of its relative flimsiness.
Being in the market for a monorail, wishing to dabble in contact prints, and already owning a Toyo 4x5 field implied that complementing it with a Toyo 5x7 monorail (only 300g heavier than a 45G) would make the best of both worlds – or so I suspect – by creating an opportunity for using the latter as a 4x5 architectural machine and at once experimenting with something a notch larger without needing to buy new lenses, a new tripod, and a new backpack. An 8x10 would have created too much upheaval, also in terms of boosting the nuisance factor to potentially unacceptable levels. And if in, say, 10 years I feel that my fling with contact prints is not merely a fling and that I’ve bettered my craft sufficiently to deserve something even larger than 5x7, might as well consider going for an all-out ULF revolution.
So much for the gratuitous confession. I first need to find a damn 57G or GII to see if my cunning plan works…
Regards,
Jaroslaw
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