Choosing a camera for wide angle

[Alan Gales]

I would prefer having a camera with back tilt and none of those have that, do they?

How about a cheap light weight Cambo/Calumet or Sinar F series rail camera? All the movements that you will ever want and can still fit in a back pack.

[dave_whatever]

I would prefer having a camera with back tilt and none of those have that, do they?

Fair play, they don't. Although they do have front tilt and front rise/fall, which gives you faux-reartilt.

Ebony do have non-folding models with back tilt I'm sure, I don't know the model names offhand. They'll set you back some fair cheddar though!

[Henry Ambrose]

The Ebony cameras mentioned do not have back tilt. But you can work around that by tilting the whole camera and moving the front standard as needed. Same for back swings. The SW45 is out of the price range you asked about but its a great wide to normal lens camera. I really enjoy mine and can't think of any other camera I'd rather have for up to 180mm lenses.

[Rolle]

The Ebony cameras mentioned do not have back tilt. But you can work around that by tilting the whole camera and moving the front standard as needed. .

I'm afraid that the above mentioned method might bring the camera bed into the picture when using a 65mm. Anyway, Ebonys are too expensive for me.

[Rolle]

How about a cheap light weight Cambo/Calumet or Sinar F series rail camera? All the movements that you will ever want and can still fit in a back pack.

I thought a lot about the monorails, they would have all the movements, a lot to be found on the used market and prices are reasonable. But there are few monorails that are light and compact enough for me. Those which are, are hard to find (like Toho) or expensive (like the compact model of Arca Swiss).

[engl]

I can't say for sure, but I don't think you'd have the problem of the bed getting into the picture with a Shen Hao TFC45-IIB when doing "back movements" by tilting the camera. Being a non-folder it is extremely short, and you could combine back rise with front rise to give more clearance if needed. My guess is you will be using front movements for landscape/nature/urban, but I don't think you'd have issues if you needed a bit of "pseudo back movements".

[Henry Ambrose]

I can't say for sure, but I don't think you'd have the problem of the bed getting into the picture with a Shen Hao TFC45-IIB when doing "back movements" by tilting the camera. Being a non-folder it is extremely short, and you could combine back rise with front rise to give more clearance if needed. My guess is you will be using front movements for landscape/nature/urban, but I don't think you'd have issues if you needed a bit of "pseudo back movements".

Right, no problems with the bed getting in the way on such cameras.
The other thing to keep in mind is that real wide lenses don't have that much coverage available for lots of movements anyway. You're mostly gonna stop down to get DOF you want. The ultimate movement capability needed, especially in field cameras, is largely a myth.

[Mike Anderson]

I thought a lot about the monorails, they would have all the movements, a lot to be found on the used market and prices are reasonable. But there are few monorails that are light and compact enough for me. Those which are, are hard to find (like Toho) or expensive (like the compact model of Arca Swiss).

Here's a cheap one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...#ht_674wt_1141

...Mike

[Rolle]

Here's a cheap one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...#ht_674wt_1141

...Mike

"Weight of camera: 8 1/4 lbs" = 3.74 kg
Too heavy for me but thanks for the link!

[Kirk Fry]

If you can find a version of the Swiss-B or AB models with a bag bellows you will have a great camera. They pack easily. These predate the F-Series, also great cameras but out of your price range. Wide angel lenses tend to be shot straight on with only front rise or fall. Learning other movements with a wide angle lens is difficult (was impossible for me). K