I will try my best Tim.

My Gandolfi Variante level II weights in at 8 pounds 2 onces if I remember correctly. The focusing with the rear standard is done via a flexible thumbweel (Not very fond of this feature as the gizmo seems very easy to break, so far been lucky though). The rear standard is locked via a friction lever, very much like a linhof TK45, but the front standard is locked via the traditional thumb wheel. The camera middle or front standard support is a complete piece of wood, as opposed to other cameras that have a frame to move the front standard back and forth (Look at Deardoff or Canham). The front standard has two locking knobs for the rise and fall on each side, one of them is to be used to tighten the board when there is a heavy lens on it....very handy feature. The camera has yaw free movements as well as front shift (about 30 cm on each side) front raise and fall and front swing. The front tilt can be on the lens axis or on the base of the front standard. the front swing is only at the lens axis. All these movements are controled and locked with thumb wheel or knobs.

The back standard has tilt, swing and shift and they are all controlledd by locking friction levers.

The camera can be had with tha tecknica style board or a Sinar board. I would recommend the SInar board, as the Teknica board is too small and blocks the lens with the bellows when using extreme movements.

My camera did not have a tripod plate, but one person who bough one on my recommendation told me his came with one, so I guess they are now shipping them with a tripod plate con protect the wood. You will have to ask them. The URL for Gandolfi is www.gandolficorfield.co.uk.

I hope this helped.