Chamonix camera 45N-1 focusing error

[iamjanco]

You own a closet full of Charmin? How many rolls is that? 200? 300?

It's got to be at least a couple of hundred. But I won't go through the motion of calculating the closet size, the approx. size of each cylinder, nor will I subtract the volume the shelving takes up. And, if it really was true, I wouldn't explain why one might see any need or wealth in owning a couple of hundred rolls of an item that, when missed, some might consider worth its weight in gold.

Instead, I'll just share a photo I found on Wikipedia that illustrates how far we, as a species, have come along through the ages:


Wooden toilet paper from the Nara period (710 to 784) in Japan. The modern rolls in the background are for size comparison.

...note to Jan: I've got to get a life

Jan C.

[GPS]

...
Well, a design error? Surely. But what about the erroneous explanations afterward?

Speaking for myself, the answer is that the Chamonix I owned was the best combination of camera/value-for-the money of any of the 11 LF cameras I've owned and in absolute terms it was the best wooden camera at any price of any of the 8 wooden cameras I've owned, which includes two Ebonys that cost three times as much as the Chamnonix. So to me the focus error with which the OP appears to be obsessed is IMHO insignificant. As someone else pointed out, you could spend another $300 on a Maxwell screen if you didn't like any other solution and for $1,100 you'd have a great camera with the best screen available at what to me would still be a bargain price.

Brian,
opinions about the "best camera" varies as much as persons individual taste. None of that opinion answers the OP's question.
If now you think that to ignore the focus error is the solution of it I have to say that Chamonix was more clever than that. After suggesting this "solution" it soon realized it wouldn't work with customers...
Also buying a $300 Maxwell screen to complete the Chamonix camera is hardly an attractive solution for them either.
But the question was not about a solution of the technical problem. So it still remains unanswered...

[Darin Boville]

>After suggesting this "solution" it soon realized it wouldn't work with customers...<<

Hey GPS,

So let me get this straight. You don't own a Chamonix camera. You are, instead, a public representative for me, the customer. Do I have that right?

--Darin

[pocketfulladoubles]

Also buying a $300 Maxwell screen to complete the Chamonix camera is hardly an attractive solution for them either.

Really, because I did just that and it is a very good camera for the money - still. I'm curious why you think this would not be a good solution? People put these screens on far more expensive cameras, so why not the Chamonix?

[Curt Palm]

Brian,
opinions about the "best camera" varies as much as persons individual taste. None of that opinion answers the OP's question.
If now you think that to ignore the focus error is the solution of it I have to say that Chamonix was more clever than that. After suggesting this "solution" it soon realized it wouldn't work with customers...
Also buying a $300 Maxwell screen to complete the Chamonix camera is hardly an attractive solution for them either.
But the question was not about a solution of the technical problem. So it still remains unanswered...

isn't the OP GPS? why the third person references?

[Patrick Dixon]

Instead, I'll just share a photo I found on Wikipedia that illustrates how far we, as a species, have come along through the ages:

I assumed that was a photo of what GPS had done to his Chamonix camera in disgust .... then I remembered that he doesn't actually own one.

[Jeremy Moore]

Where does one buy a Bill Maxwell screen. A simple Google search turned up nothing.

[lilmsmaggie]

You'll probably have to drop him a line:

Maxwell Precision Optics
PO Box 33146
Decatur, GA 30033-0146
(404) 244-0095

[pocketfulladoubles]

Where does one buy a Bill Maxwell screen. A simple Google search turned up nothing.

You call him directly. Expect a good discussion in optics, and then you can order it.

[Jeffrey Sipress]

WARNING: While Bill's screens are great, he will chew your ear off for hours on the phone, and it is very difficult to end the 'conversation'. Make sure you have plenty of time to kill, or fake some sort of emergency to get off the phone.