Comments

I bought a second-hand Cambo Wide 650 at a very good price about two years ago. It is fitted with a 65mm Super Angulon lens which covers the 5x4 format with some shift possible, and delivers superb results. I too wanted a hand-holdable large-format 'street' camera and have found the Cambo Wide to be well suited to this purpose.I have to say, though, that I have found shooting 5x4 something of a problem simply because the camera is so nice to use for hand-held 'snapshots' that I run out of film too quickly - and it gets rather expensive! However, the camera is fitted with a standard 'international' back and so most rollfilm holders will fit. I use Horseman rfh's in 6x7 and 6x12 formats. 6x12, in particular, is great for dynamic street photography. My camera came complete with a Linhof wideangle viewfinder which fits into the standard accessory shoe on top of the camera. I subsequently bought a (new) Silvestri Shift Viewfinder (not cheap!)which I do recommend because it enables the effect of shifting the lens up or down to be seen directly which greatly enhances the accuracy and speed of framing in hand-held use. I also bought a (very cheap)second-hand rangefinder which, with a little modification to the foot, fits into the second accessory shoe on the camera body. I focus with the rangefinder, read off the distance given and set this on the lens mount. With practice this can be done pretty quickly and is perfectly accurate for most purposes. One point to note - the lens is calibrated to the particular camera body so that the infinity setting on the lens mount gives perfect infinity focus on the ground glass. However, I found that the film plane of my Horseman rfh's coincides with a position about .25 mm in front of the ground glass (the problem of different large-format manufacturers using different standards/tolerances is well known!)and so I could not get perfect infinity focus with these until, with some trepidation, I took the lens mount apart and found I could easily make the neccessary adjustment to the internal helical screw. The camera may not be quite as quick to use as a Mamiya 7, and it is certainly bulkier, but it does balance nicely in the hand, and the ability to shift the lens and to shoot formats up to 5x4 far outway the dis-benefits as far as I am concerned.

I recently purchased a Cambo Wide with 58mm XL Super Angulon. It is surprisingly light and easy to shot hand held. The angle of view is tremendous, something close to a 16mm on a 35mm camera. I don't have a viewer on it, nor do I have anything covering the bare ground glass.

However, if I were going to do candid street photography with it, I would remove the viewer, adjust the shutter speed high enough to avoid blurry pictures and preset the helicoid focus distance for greatest hyperfocal distance. I'd also pick a bright sunny cloudless day so the meter reading wouldn't vary much. With a Fuji Quickload (or Kodak Readyload), you could approach a subject and unobtrusivly take a picture, then walk away a small distance to reload for your next shot. You can hold the handle of the camera so the camera back is pointing towards the subject and turn it around just before squeezing off a shot. It might even be possible to have the camera underneath ones coat and just open a button or two to let the lens peek out while pressing on a cable release with the other hand in a pocket.

About two months ago, I purchased a Cambo Wide with the 58mmXL lense and was super happy with the results I am getting. I am no longer using the Hasselblad SWC/M anymore because the 4 x 5 format with the 58mmXL lense was better for my type of photography. For viewing, I am using the view finder made by Contax for their 16mm. Hologon lense. With the availability of Kodak's NC400 film in 4 x 5 format, I am even using the Cambo Wide for certain wedding shots. For general editorial photos with a wide view, this would be my favorite camera to use. I do not use a graduated center filter with this lense. The light fall-off was not as bad as I had anticipated. If Fuji or Kodak should come out with a chrome film with an ASA of 400, that would be alot of fun.

I agree that cambo wide with 47mmXL lens is a great combination but you definitely need a 3c central grad filter even when stopped down to F22 or F32! I will try to use this camera for my photojournalism work but it will be tough to keep it steady handheld because of the filter slows down the exposure by 2 stops.Another problem that I'm having is getting sharp images even when I use tripod and cable release. It could be because of uncalibrated camera back and lens focus point? I don't know, I am guessing here. I am not getting sharp images like what I always get from Mamiya 6. Any comment is greatly appreciated.