I'm new here looking for a 4x5 folding field camera

[BradS]

The Ebony is a wonderful, all around field camera. It's light weight and very rigid. It will focus a 90mm at infinity without need of a recessed lensboard and will easily handle a 210mm a portrait distances. Make sure to get the lens shade clippy thing. I tallows you to use the ground glass protector as a lens share - and is so, so handy in the field.

My only complaint about the RW45 is that the RW45 focuses only with the front - you cannot focus with the back. This is really of no concern at all in portraits and landscapes but maybe a very important factor to you if you are going to be doing much macro work.

One kinda fun bit of trivia about the RW45 is that a 210mm Geronar (and probably, many other 210mm lenses) is almost perfectly focussed at infinity when all the camera movements are in their nominal or, zero'd position.

[Brian K]

Welcome.

The Canham DLC45 has a very long and flexible bellows. Long enough for a 480mm and compressible enough for very wide lenses. It would give you more than enough bellows for macro work and yet it folds into a tiny box.

Regarding a macro you have to balance the need to have some stand off from your subject matter and not too much bellows. I would recommend a true macro lens in the 180mm range. The nikkor 120 macro is good, but you'll find you're right on top of your subject and will have little room for light. I have the Rodenstock 180mm macro Sironar and consider it an excellent lens. However it is at best fair at longer distances. The Sironar-S line, while not a true macro, is excellent at moderate close work and excellent at distance work.

[Pete Watkins]

Ebonys are really nice to look at. They are over engineered in my opinion, and you can't fit a 65mm SA to one on an ordinary lensboard but I can do this on my Wista 45DX, I can even get a bit of movement (mainly front rise and fall).
Could sombody tell Steve Simmons to stop pushing that bloody magazine of his at every opportunity, it's getting boring.
Pete.

[Rider]

My first was a Toyo monorail camera which I picked up for under $200 with lensboard and film holders. It was a great learning tool, much better for learning, IMO than the wood field camera that I use now. I would have kept the Toyo but for space considerations; happily, I was able to get my money back.

For lenses, everyone will tell you (and they're right): don't start with a wide angle. Because of movements, LF lenses appear "wider" than their 35mm "counterparts."

The 180mm is agreat all-around focal length, and works quite well with the 90mm that you are heading towards.

[Eric Woodbury]

I recently traded in my metal Canham for the RW45 Ebony. The Canham is a very capable camera, but not as 'friendly' as the Ebony. Had it been a wooden Canham, it would have been fine. I'm use the 110 and the 150 the most, but use lenses from 58 to 300. Have fun.

[Matus Kalisky]

Although my experience is after one year still limited, I do use a Tachihara with 125, 210 and 400 (tele) lenses here is my opinion:

300 mm of bellows is not too much, but botanical shots with 210mm lens (up to ~ 1:2 reproduction ratio) is quite feasible. I did try some 1:1 shots with 125mm lens and following issues appeared:
- 125 is pretty short - you are getting very close to your subject
- at this reproduction ratio focusing with front standard gets very difficult as you change focus distance and lens-to-subject distance at the same time. In praxis it means that as you try to focus closer and closer the subjet-to-film plane distance is first increasing, then reaching a minimum and afterwards starts slowly to increase. This sound weird, but if you do the math you will find it out.
- Solution - for serious macro work (~ 1:1) get a camera with rear focusing (Tachihara can move the rear standard but it is not geared) with longer bellows of about 450mm (or 5x7 with reducing back) so that you can use 210 - 240 lens.

Otherwise the camera is plenty sturdy up to bellows extension ~ 250mm (infinity focus with mine 400mm Osaka tele lens) but once the maximal extension is used with heavier lens (Osaka has ~ 500g) one should be more carefull.

enjoy

Matus