Gowland Pocket View and architecture

[NoBob]

If you're shooting mainly architecture, but some landscape too, which Gowland Pocket View would you choose out of the two on this page?

http://www.petergowland.com/camera/index.html

The two cameras are in the photo just below the paragraph "Below are two versions of the Gowland All Moves Pocket View."

Which would you choose? and why?

I read that the rear standard mount can rotate on the rail, so for a LF newbie, would this be problem?

Thanks.

[Frank Petronio]

The one with separate controls obviously. It is a more challenging proposition to start with a Gowland (or one of the complicated wooden folding cameras for that matter) simply because the controls are often combined and it is assumed you know which move you want to make before loosening the knob.

Especially for architecture but also for learning, a monorail with locks for each control - rise, tilt, swing, shift - is ideal because you can clearly see what you are doing.

[Archphoto]

I fully agree with Frank.

They are both cute...... but I like the left one better.

Peter

[NoBob]

Thanks Frank, AP.

[Dave Brown]

As said above, go for the one on the left (I have the one on the right).

Have Peter put a focusing block on both ends, and give you two slotted rails. There are situations where you'll prefer to use rear focus, and this will also prevent the rear standard from rotating on the rail (one of my cameras is set up this way).

One final tip: for lenses wider than 90mm to focus at infinity, you'll have to put the tripod block behind the rear standard.

[Robert Oliver]

I agree with getting two slotted rails, that was one of the features I didn't like about my gowland...

It's a great camera because of it's light weight...

[William McEwen]

[QUOTE=NoBob;479197]


http://www.petergowland.com/camera/index.html

QUOTE]


I find the picture at the very bottom right really disturbing!

Or, I find the person disturbing, I should say.

The camera is WAY COOL!

[rdenney]

I find the picture at the very bottom right really disturbing!

Or, I find the person disturbing, I should say.

The camera is WAY COOL!

Heh, heh. I had exactly the same reaction. Photoshop would have made that image possible without the choker, but the choker makes it even more disturbing.

I first saw a Gowlandflex when Peter Gowland came to my university to give a speech. That was the only lecture sponsored by the college camera club that filled the auditorium, heh, heh. I was awestruck by the simplicity of his 4x5 TLR then, and I was using a Mamiya C-3 at the time for commercial work (late 70's) and that design really resonated with me. But now that I can afford it, I've moved on, heh, heh.

The Pocket View is slick, but I'm clumsy and it just looks too light. Plus, carrying the camera is part of my weight training program.

Rick "no pain, no gain" Denney

[William McEwen]

I first saw a Gowlandflex when Peter Gowland came to my university to give a speech. That was the only lecture sponsored by the college camera club that filled the auditorium, heh, heh.

I wonder if he's given any speeches lately. I believe most of us would enjoy it!

A lifetime of churning out cameras, and ooh lah lah, the pretty ladies!