Those sneaky devils...

[Frank Petronio]

Good artists copy. Great artists steal. Now I know where Ebony got their mirrored level design:


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=15247&item=3860635653&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=15247&item=3860635653&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW)

[tim atherton]

Absolutely Frank! I've mentioned it several times when people swoon over the "innovative" design of the the Ebony flip up mirrored level etc.

I've had an old Sinar one as shown in the auction bolted to the top of my Toyo 45 for years...

[Gem Singer]

Yes, but is it built out of titanium?

[Ben Calwell]

I saw that this morning. I was thinking of bidding on it and then taping it to the top of my wooden Wista. Then I would have kind of a poor man's Ebony.

[tim atherton]

"Yes, but is it built out of titanium?"

That's moving into male jewellery territory isn't it...?

My bet is Sinar probably has a huge stash of these and other goodies in that warehouse full of accesories they were trying to flog off - and Andrew Glover is, as we speak, combing through it in Switzerland and in four or five years time we will be able to buy it all from Dagor 77 on ebay (at rarity prices), along with a story about long lost Scottish uncles climbing the Matterhorn with Whymper, secret recepies for Rosti, alpenhorns and the gnomes of Zurich

[Ralph Barker]

That's nifty, but a truly innovative design would incorporate both a compass and a GPS receiver. The add-on accessory would then be a special film holder with an integrated LED that would imprint the data in the margin of your film. Or, maybe a pentaprism reflex viewer. ;-)

[Gem Singer]

Tim,

There's an old saying : "Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door". Ebony definitely "builds a better mousetrap". Their inique design innovations show up more in their non-folding camera models than in their folding models. Their build quality is first class, even in their entry level models. You get what you pay for. Rolls Royce and Ford both build automobiles. Money being no object, which one would you rather drive on a cross-country trip?

[tim atherton]

Michael

It does have a mirror (or should have if it's all in one piece) - it's basically identical to the Ebony one only it was made years ago and out of plastic.

It has that one little screw (sticking up in the picture) which normally has a small nut and washer on the end - in the slit on top of the Sinar standards, that nut/washer slips through the round "keyhole" section then you just slide it along the slot to where you want it and tighten up the screw

[tim atherton]

> There's an old saying : "Build a better mousetrap, and the world will
> beat a path to your door". Ebony definitely "builds a better
> mousetrap". Their inique design innovations show up more in their
> non-folding camera models than in their folding models. Their build
> quality is first class, even in their entry level models. You get what you
> pay for. Rolls Royce and Ford both build automobiles. Money being no
> object, which one would you rather drive on a cross-country trip?

A Range Rover...

[Gem Singer]

"A Range Rover"

Good choice for a guy that lives close to the North Pole.

Range Rovers are marketed by the same automobile dealers that sell the Rolls, here in the states. They are quality vehicles, and their price reflects that quality. Exactly the point I was attempting to make about the Ebonys.

[Frank Petronio]

I saw a fellow rummaging around Rochester pushing a shopping cart, he was wearing a kilt - could it have been Dagor77 buying Kodak?

[Ian Wilson]

Greetings everyone from those sneaky devils at Ebony.

Just for the record, Hiromi says he first made mirrored levels 34 years ago for a camera of his own design and for his own use, several years before he founded Ebony. He says he is unsure of exactly when Sinar introduced the mirrored levels for their cameras, but he says he came up with the idea of the mirrored levels for his own cameras by himself.

Ian Wilson
for Ebony

[Dan Fromm]

Eugene, if you had ever owned a Rover you'd be off them for life. As I have -- P6B -- and am. Typically english; not too bad ideas let down, and horribly for the poor owners, by terrible execution and choice of materials.

Sorry,

Dan

[Gem Singer]

Dan'

My neighbor across the street is on her second Range Rover. Her first one was a Discovery model (like the Arca Swiss camera of the same name). She recently traded it for the larger, more expensive model Range Rover. She loves her Range Rover. Raves about it all the time. I cannot relate to her Range Rover SUV. Some folks cannot relate to Ebony cameras, but that doesn't deter Ebony from making great cameras and selling more of them than they are able to produce.

[Frank Petronio]

You might remember the Murphy Brown episode where she mocks her date for being a pretentious prig because he owned an Ebony - err... Land Rover - by saying "Why not just strap $20,000 onto the front of a Ford Explorer?"

[tim atherton]

"You might remember the Murphy Brown episode where she mocks her date for
being a pretentious prig because he owned an Ebony - err... Land Rover -
by saying "Why not just strap $20,000 onto the front of a Ford
Explorer?""

I dunno, but they were great for chasing Russian Soxmis cars down the autobahn and for intimdating E. German Vopos in their Polski Fiats and Lada's....

[Andrew O'Neill]

Really nice, but I think I'll stick with my wife's makeup mirror....