Quote Originally Posted by dewsweeper View Post
Thank you for the encouragement and suggestions. I will be backpacking some, so I didn't think a monorail system would work well for me. I might try renting one, though, and see how that goes. Monorails seem so rugged. I am surprised by how anxious I feel about taking this wood camera outdoors. I'd love to hear how weather affects those of you with wooden cameras. I was never concerned with the Graphic outside.

Inventing some statistics, I'd say my location mix is 20% studio, 65% near car/short walk, and 15% trekking in the swamps and mountains. My subject mix is 20% product/still life, 5% portraits, 15% architecture, and 60% landscape (from macro to infinity and beyond...)

Early thoughts on the Wisner -- So far, so good. It has all the movements I need, so far. Some of the front movements are fussy, but once locked in, seem to hold well. I wish the front standards were beefier. They feel fragile. The rear movements are dreamy. Using a 90mm without bellows is possible, but with very little movement left. I'll probably go looking for a bag bellows soon. The camera design is such that the bellows will be astonishingly easy to change in and out. Finally, because of wood movement no doubt, not all lens boards fit alike. Some required a small amount of tweaking to seat properly. I think I will carry a chisel and some super glue with me in the field. ;-)
Glad to hear you're getting along with the camera. There's a general misconception that you cannot hike with a monorail. Untrue, and a few pros use them in the field. I was looking through the landscape images threads this morning and there are a lot of monorail shots in it. It might be worth the effort to rent one at some point. When I first joined here I met a member who let me shoot his old Calumet monorail and it was built like a tank compared to a wooden camera, but it broke down into manageable components.

Yes, the front standard on the Wisner can be annoying. I'm not sure whether he changed the design at some point but my specimen has minimal detents to help zero the front. Wood expands and contracts, and that might explain the issue you're having with the lens boards. I have two that I could swear fit snuggly when I first got them and now they have a fair amount of play in them, perhaps because my gear is stored in a cool dry basement.