New Shen Hao PTB 45

[GPS]

The Chinese moral to the power of 2 or licensed production? Must be already in the maternal milk, I suppose ;-)

[jb7]

Am I seeing a description of cultural differences, or something more sinister?
From the "some of my best friends are..."
to "the Chinese moral", and "maternal milk'
Thinly disguised comments, and not describing cameras.

This to describe people from a society barely out of feudalism,
a society with very limited space and resources,
an extremely competitive society, in general, very low paid-
and admittedly, a society I know very little about-

While there are obvious similarities visible between the pictures of the cameras presented,
perhaps it has as much to do with convergence of design principles as anything else,
considering the properties of the materials being used-

The use of carbon fiber is an obvious difference between the two,
and may very well explain the reason for the reduced price of this one-
and as has been mentioned, the potential for reduced performance.
But the shen, from this little picture, does not look as well considered or made as the cham-
admittedly, that's only from other pictures I've seen;
I haven't had direct experience of either.

4x5 is an obvious standard, the use of timber and other materials another-
surely we can expect the forms to be similar between folders these days?
We're not looking at the re-invention of the wheel, are we?
Or even a good thumbscrew-

I know there are other ethos at work-
pictures of Mr Ritter's cameras look like they're from a different mould, so to speak-
but manufacture of this equipment is still very much a cottage industry- in my uninformed opinion-

Somebody mentioned that this competition will be good for users of LF-
I can't disagree-
I look forward to the head to head comparison-

joseph

[Rafael Garcia]

So what!?

Not anybodys business but the makers of the cameras. They may be fine with it and I don't care.

[Geary Lyons]

Good luck with you Chinese cameras. I'll not be buying one. Thank you very much.

What? You mean that the Can Ham 57 was not Chinese? You never mentioned that!
Cheers,
Geary

[Dave Wooten]

The cameras will probably soon be available at Walmart once the wally boys zero in on the large format Revival that is sweeping the country. Once mass produced they should sell off the shelf in your home town for around 39.95 tops at present US dollar rate.

Personally for use here in the desert I'd much rather have the wooden base and not the metal.

[Gudmundur Ingolfsson]

It's nice to know that the thieves have been robbed!

[C. D. Keth]

Obviously we need to wait for actual reviews, but this seems like it might significantly affect the solidity of the camera.

Maybe, but if it's as solid as the other Shen-Hao design it's all good. They're not the lightest field cameras but they are solid.

[Terence McDonagh]

For how small a 4x5 bed is, the difference in rigidity is probably negligible. Obviously wood beds have been used for 100+ years without much complaint.

Now for 11x14, the dimensional stability would be another matter, if it was a square bed. Interestingly, Chamonix doesn't use the carbon fiber base for cameras larger than 4x5 and 5x7/8, at least from all the photos I've seen.

[Brian Ellis]

Every wood LF field camera on the market today has copied most of its design elements from earlier cameras. The first one was designed in 1890 or thereabouts, everything since then has basically been a copy of that one with a few refinements here and there.

[Michael Jones]

90 years ago Cadillac's advertising was based upon the slogan: Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Mike