Cadet 4x5

[Mitra Navi]

I am in process of buying a new Calumet Cadet 4x5 camera. I was wondering what people thinkl of this camera in general?

Thanks

Mitra Navi

[Ted Brownlee`]

I have tinkered with this camera at the Calumet Store in San Francisco. It seems to be a decent camera. I did notice that it is much stiffer than it appears in advertisements, therefore, less prone to wind shake if used outdoors. It's only real limitation seems to be that it has a limited bellows draw and no interchang eable bellows. If I were getting into large format now, and had a very limited b udget, I would consider this camera.

[Stuart Goldstein]

In three words, forget about it.

You might want to forego the Cadet for the time being. I bought one and discover ed that when I "locked" down the rear standard, the entire standard moved to the left. Calumet tested two other cameras (as replacements for the one I had), but their rear standards also shifted to the left on these as well.

At this point Calumet is going to contact the manufacturer and find out what can be done to correct this problem. In fact, they've told me that they might just ship all of the cameras they have on hand back to the manufacturer.

Although this has be a miserable experience for me, the people at Calumet have b een extremely helpful and honest. They get an "A+" for service.

[Tony Brent]

After several years of being without a view camera (used to have a Graphic View II and a cherry wood Wista) I have just placed an order for a Cadet. I will let you know what I think after I have exposed some film and tried a few set ups.