I got my Chamonix 4x5 recently. I've been taking a bunch of photos over the last two weeks and have found a lot to like about the camera.
However, I'm not entirely happy about how long it takes to set up and "zero out". It seems like the only real zero detent is back tilt. There are tabs supposed to keep front tilt at zero, but there is considerable play in this mechanism.
Anyway, tilt is the least of my concerns, since I'll be aligning this using bubble levels. The front shift is not really a problem either, one millimeter one way or the other does not matter. The problem is back and front swing.
Back swing could be aligned once and left in place, but since I sometimes use a 75mm lens I need to move the back standard forward. Doing this often introduces back swing since the position on the left and right rails can differ by millimeters.
Aligning it requires lining up dots, which is the same way the front is aligned. Doing this on both standards is not easy in the dark, as I've been finding out over the last week.
Does anyone have suggestions for speeding up setup of this camera? I could very well be missing something, as there is no manual included with the camera.
Edit: I realize this is an inexpensive camera designed around low weight, it is amazing with or without the problems described above.
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