Andre,

I had the opportunity to work with this camera for several weeks (wearing my Contributing Editor hat, researching a magazine article idea). There may be confusion about two points here--standard lockdowns, and detents. The lockdowns are just fine, as strong as you will find anywhere.

The detents are barely detectible, by intention. I questioned Keith about this, and his position is that heavy detents make it difficult to make small tilts with perfect accuracy. I argued that I might want exactly 1/2 a degree of tilt twice a year, but have to set up the camera every time I use it so I want monster, unmistakeable detents. He was not convinced.

The camera is sturdy as a rock once locked down. But the phantom detents make it much slower to set up in exactly neutral position than a wooden field camera with the expected strong detents. This is a concious design parameter and potential customers simply must decide whether they agree with it or not.---Carl

PS: Not all detents are created equal. A recent workshop student had a 4x5 Zone VI field camera whose front standard in "neutral" detent position introduced nearly five degrees of forward tilt. This 'feature' had quite a bit to do with why the owner was having focusing problems