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dave4242
18-Jul-2015, 14:33
Hey everyone,

I am starting to look for a new camera to me, new or used, folding field camera that can handle a 600mm lens with movements.

suggestions???

thanks!

cheers

david

vinny
18-Jul-2015, 15:18
good luck. It may exist but there's no way it would be very solid. There are some 5x7's (with reducing back) which could handle the weight and be solid enough for a sharp exposure.

cikaziva
18-Jul-2015, 15:24
Wista SP or VX with additional bed extension rail and long bellows if am not mistaking its like 600mm or so.

this is one of the variations

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/167986-REG/Wista_214577_Tele_Macro_Bench_550mm_for.html


basically you need to carry that extra rail in your bag and its not big hustle to change the bellows. only question is: can camera be folded with 700mm bellows or not? there is several Wista owners on a board am sure someone will tell us

dave4242
18-Jul-2015, 15:24
Thanks!

hoffner
18-Jul-2015, 15:40
Without having the camera on 2 tripods you can forget about it. The shutter closing alone will shake the lens so that it will result in a fuzzy picture.

ic-racer
18-Jul-2015, 17:14
137115
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This goes over 700mm. I don't use this for 600mm (don't have one) but if I did, I think I'd get better results with a 4x5 reducing back on my 8x10 field camera. But, as with all things, the more attention to detail, the better the negative, though one may need to compromise if traveling or hiking etc. Also, consider the quality once can achieve with T-max 100 in a 35mm camera with a high quality 200mm APO lens and one's 4x5 camera tripod, mirror lockup, cable release, sand bags, etc.

Alan Gales
18-Jul-2015, 17:35
Congratulations, you now have an excuse to give your wife on why you need an 8x10 camera. Just don't forget to pick up a 4x5 reduction back for it! :cool:

Eric Leppanen
18-Jul-2015, 17:40
I use to shoot an Ebony SV45U2 with a Fuji 600C using a top hat extended lens board (I used a two inch). Enough extension to focus at bit shorter than infinity along with a bit of tilt. Be sure to use a lens hood as otherwise the huge lens coverage can generate a bunch of bellows flare.

You definitely will need either a second tripod or at least a long lens support arm (ideally two to support both standards) so that shutter kick or wind vibration doesn't blur your photographs.

cikaziva
18-Jul-2015, 21:17
Just simple magic arm will do. another trick that we in film industry use with tracks is to use a light stand as the end support. as long as you dont have a moving shot (and in stills you dont) this works 100%. instead of light strand you can use monopod as well

angusparker
18-Jul-2015, 22:10
Hey everyone,

I am starting to look for a new camera to me, new or used, folding field camera that can handle a 600mm lens with movements.

suggestions???

thanks!

cheers

david

Why such a long lens on 4x5? I rarely use 450mm on my Chamonix and on a windy day that is very challenging. Basically I don't often have the need for that long a FL.

AtlantaTerry
18-Jul-2015, 23:56
I use Cambo cameras, their front and back frames are exactly alike so lens boards, bellows and film backs can attach to either side of the frame.

So if I had to use a 600mm lens I would try using two of my standard bellows with a third frame in the middle to connect the two bellows.

A rough schematic would look something like this:

Front|||||||||||||Middle|||||||||||||Rear
========================
.....Tripod.............................Tripod...

IanG
19-Jul-2015, 01:23
Have you thought about what lens you'll be using, a Nikon 600T might be more practical.

Currently I'm shooting with a 17" f5.6 telephoto on a Speed Graphic and it's quite practical and sturdy, only needs one tripod, in comparison I found my Nikon 300mm M unwieldy stuck on my Wista 45DX at full extension, very difficult to stop vibrations a fair weather lens on 5x4 only to be used when there's no wind.


Congratulations, you now have an excuse to give your wife on why you need an 8x10 camera. Just don't forget to pick up a 4x5 reduction back for it! :cool:

Alan's comment is more sensible than might first appear, you can use any 600mm that covers the format 5x4 or 10x8 and you get the rigidity/stability needed for the required extension.

Ian

vinny
19-Jul-2015, 05:45
I use Cambo cameras, their front and back frames are exactly alike so lens boards, bellows and film backs can attach to either side of the frame.

So if I had to use a 600mm lens I would try using two of my standard bellows with a third frame in the middle to connect the two bellows.

A rough schematic would look something like this:

Front|||||||||||||Middle|||||||||||||Rear
========================
.....Tripod.............................Tripod...

I wasn't aware that cambo made folding field cameras. Which one do you have?

Old-N-Feeble
19-Jul-2015, 10:15
The Chamonix 5x7 with extension rail and 4x5 reducing back offers 600mm extension... probably a bit more. Add a 100mm top-hat lens board and you'll have a little more than 700mm total extension. You'll probably need to add a second tripod for rigidity/stability. Might as well get an 8x10 instead.:)

Mark Sampson
19-Jul-2015, 19:23
Reinhart Wolf made a series of photographs of the tops of skyscrapers at magic hour (published as 'New York' in about 1981). Spectacular work; he used 8x10 and lenses up to 1000mm. Also a Sinar with multiple tripods and extension rails. Not a 'field camera' by any means but he used the gear that worked. In the mid-90s I took a 4x5 Zone VI field camera up on some NY skyscraper roofs and tried the same idea, using a rented Nikkor-T 500/11. Results were sometimes acceptable but I was at the limits of what the camera could do; wind and the magnification caused problems, and that was midday with Tri-X. If I was to try that again, I'd use my Sinar and a big tripod; I'd still love one of those 500/11s but not on a field camera.

neil poulsen
20-Jul-2015, 05:56
An Arca Swiss Classic F with the long, 700mm bellows can handle this focal length. One would need the extra rails, though. A possibility would be the 300mm telescopic bench with two 40cm rails.

While not a field camera, a much less expensive possibility is a Toyo G 4x5. One could use the primary center rail (female threads on both ends) with either a single 500mm extension on one end or two 250mm extensions on both ends. Given the length, you could use two clamps on a plate for stability. You would also need and extra bellows and an accessory, intermediate standard.

The cameras themselves typically can be found on EBay for less than $500. I'm thinking that one could put the whole outfit together for less than $1000, maybe even in the neighborhood of $750. With the two clamps and those beefy rails, it would be a solid, stable camera.

prendt
20-Jul-2015, 05:59
Arca Swiss with the long, 700mm bellows can handle this focal length. One would need the extra rails, though. A possibility would be the 300mm telescopic bench with two 40cm rails.

I wasn't aware that Arca Swiss made folding field cameras. Which one do you have in mind?

neil poulsen
20-Jul-2015, 08:56
I wasn't aware that Arca Swiss made folding field cameras. Which one do you have in mind?

Oops. I saw "field"; I missed the "folding" part.

prendt
20-Jul-2015, 09:08
Never mind. It happens even in the best families.

Luis-F-S
20-Jul-2015, 09:57
It's called a reducing back on an 8x10 camera.

Lenny Eiger
20-Jul-2015, 10:35
I had one of those Nikon Tele's. I was unimpressed with the results. Even tho' I could get in the lee of something, out of the wind, I was still shooting at trees in the distance that were moving (and out of focus as a result), into haze that was just going to make everything mush. I was hearing that pollution is worse than it used to be. I finally just got rid of it. I never made anything that I kept....

I also decided that I only wanted to photograph things I understood, and that the things far away were too far away to feel much about anyway, and therefore wouldn't transmit much of that intangible stuff that makes things work - at least for me.

djdister
20-Jul-2015, 10:49
Suggest getting a 5x7 field camera with a 4x5 back, like one of the Canham's (traditional or all-metal), and using a non-tele 600mm lens.

sun of sand
20-Jul-2015, 15:17
600 from a doable nearly 400 isn't much of a jump instead being more of a step and with a second support pod along with anything else I'd just crop

I did a very simple experiment with diopters to see longest fl possible and 800 was bout it and that's a lightweight filter
That was a real jump, though.

Dsllmayer adon gets some extension while being lightweight but optically is only poor-mediocre


Cropping bettered both but ad on has soft potential

AtlantaTerry
20-Jul-2015, 21:49
I wasn't aware that cambo made folding field cameras. Which one do you have?
I thought we had progressed from a field camera to other suggestions such as a 5x7" or 8x10" with reducing back.

As I said, if I had to use a 600mm lens, this is what I would do.