Can a rail camera be better to work faster in the field?

[jeroldharter]

Not all 8x10 monorails are created equal for field use. If you can carry a monorail in a big box, not broken down, then you can just hoist it out and plop it on the tripod. Can't be much quicker than that. However, you are stuck working out of a car, baby stroller, etc. Hard to backpack a non-deconstructed monorail.

An Arca Swiss F-Line is a different animal and is really a hybrid monorail/field camera. It would be my choice for a monorail in the field. You can leave the rail extended in a view camera box like any monorail and have very quick setup. Or you can collapse the camera and stow it in a backpack. The telescoping rail is more solid than the collapsing rail (and therefore heavier). However, with the telescoping rail you can get a short piece, attach both standards and bellows to it, and have a very compact unit for a backpack.

I can't imagine lugging a Sinar 8x10 around. A Sinar p2 weighs 18 pounds. It would be less cumbersome to attach a fully extended Wehman Lightweight to a hat.

[Curt]

Yes, once they are located there by hauling, lugging, dragging or wheelbarrowing.

When I had my Toyo G 4x5 it was quick, accurate and a pleasure to use. I believe my photography was better then too.

[domaz]

I think a lot of this depends on the monorail. The Gowland 4x5 Pocket View is a very backpackable rail camera. It doesn't have any nice features like indents, gearing etc.. like a Sinar rail camera though. There was supposedly even a Gowland 8x10 that was very light- perhaps one of the lightest 8x10s ever produced. These cameras aren't necessairly easy or fast to setup because of the use of allen wrench screws instead of knobs but they are actually lighter to haul into the field then conventional folding cameras.