Most travel-friendly 4x5 setup?

Looking to cut down on weight and bulk when travelling. I need (mostly) rise and (occasionally) fall movements and that's pretty much it. Lenses are invariably wide, I could probably live with carrying just a 90mm. Carrying film is a HUGE pain, I have to carry months' worth of the stuff.

What's the most compact and travel-friendly way to accomplish all this? Crown/Speed Graphic or Linhof Technika, and a fleet of Grafmatic backs?

(The original plan was Cambo Wide DS, but getting them to work with LF film seems impossible.)

On the film side, assuming the maximum sheets you shooting per session is 10, I would suggest five Toyo holders (the best and newest option), and simply have an unexposed box of film and an old empty box to hold the exposed film. If you have one film type you can load up the film in a bathroom at night and unload it it the following night. If you can find an empty box that takes 50 sheets that would be a help.

I have the original Cambowide with a 65mm lens. It is a very fast camera to set up and use. With an external viewfinder you don't even need a darkcloth.
You should seriously consider one with a 90mm lens.

Otherwise, if speed of setup is not so important a lightweight 4x5 wooden camera would meet your criteria.

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Originally Posted by spotless_camera

Carrying film is a HUGE pain, I have to carry months' worth of the stuff.

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Grafmatic 6-sheet holders might be a good way to go. A bit of a learning curve to load and use, and they aren't cheap any more.

Here are some interesting ideas:

https://www.largeformatphotography.i...LF-Carry/page2

Travel-friendly... Car, bike, hiking, backpacking, traveling by plane to distant countries, just what do you mean exactly.

I've done all the above with a 4x5 kit. Here are my methods for your consideration.

First, for your stated considerations, I'd be looking for a wooden field camera with a bag bellows or one of the dedicated wide-lens cameras. If you're planning on using any movements at all with a 90mm lens and shorter, you'll need that bellows option. My go-to has been a Wista SW, basically a DX with interchangeable bellows. The bag bellows takes up to 180mm lenses, so I don't often have to change to the standard bellows. The bellows itself weighs just a few ounces, so no problem taking both. Metal-bodied cameras are heavy; wooden folders are much lighter, even my heaviest rosewood Wista is just over 3 lbs. All my wooden folders have rise, fall, shift on one standard and front and rear tilts. I do have one larger (Zone VI) wooden camera. It's too big and heavy to really carry on trips and gets little use except close to the car. If you don't have a camera yet, look at the Chamonix, Shen Hao and Wista lines. Used DXs turn up often, but they are not ideal for shorter lenses. Shen Hao makes a dedicated wide-lens camera. There are lots of others too. The lightest camera I've worked with is the Horseman Woodman.

Car:
I like a full-featured kit when I'm car camping/road tripping. The car gives me room to store stuff and then choose options for day hikes, etc. I usually take two cameras, six or seven lenses and 50 film holders. These latter are stored loaded in an inconspicuous looking beat up cooler, which deters thieves. I choose what I need as far as camera and lens selection for the occasion, usually day hikes, where I take a compact folding camera (~3 lbs), three to four compact lenses (e.g., 100mm WF Ektar, 135mm Plasmat of some kind, 203mm Ektar and a Nikkor M 300mm on a top-hat board), six film holders, meter, etc., all carried in a lumbar pack and a photo vest or coat with lots of pockets (depending on weather). Tripod was carried in a free hand or strapped on to the bottom of the pack for scrambling. I always take extra film and film boxes so I can reload on the road, either in a darkened hotel bathroom or, in cases of extreme need, at night in my tent.

Bike:
I only biked around my home cities, so not really traveling, but my kit was similar to the above day-hiking kit, but adapted for architecture. So, the lens kit was skewed toward wider and more coverage: 90mm Nikkor SW f/8, 135mm WF Ektar, 180mm and 240mm Fujinon A lenses, a set of 67mm filters with adapters for all the smaller lenses, meter, four or five holders, etc. All this in a small backpack/rolling carry-on type bag that I could shoulder easily while riding. Tripod got strapped to the rear rack on the bike. For longer trips of more than a day, I'd likely have resorted to something like I took backpacking...

Backpacking:
Weight is of the essence here, so, 4x5 Horseman Woodman (really light) 100mm Ektar, 135mm Plasmat and the 203 Ektar only, one set of four 52mm filters and meter. No regular filmholders for this. Instead, I took a Mido clamshell and several holders, they are kind of like a reloadable Ready-Load system (Ready-Loads were great too when they were made...). The tiniest tripod I could get away with got strapped to the back of the pack. All this only took 7-8 lbs, but still added significantly to pack weight.

Traveling by plane and playing tourist:
My kit was basically my city kit (see above). For traveling by plane, I'd fill my rolling carry-on/backpack with filmholders. The rest of the kit went in the checked luggage. The film in the carry-on then got either a hand inspection or, when that didn't work out (damned Heathrow!) run through the X-ray scanners. Until recently, a few passes through the scanners did no visible damage. Nowadays I'd see what other options were available to avoid having the film scanned, such as buying and processing film at the destinations, etc. After arriving, my kit would be a handheld tripod and the little rolling carry-on. That's been on buses in dozens of cities, on water taxis and the vaporetti in Venice, on my back on bikes, etc.., etc.

Hope this helps a bit,

Doremus

If you only need rise and fall, its hard to go wrong with a stripped down crown graphic. For film, I do as Angus, take six holders on a trip, and a darkbag in case I don't have a light tight bathroom. I have also changed film under blankets in a dark room at night. Since I had an x-ray incident once, I tend to take chemicals and a patterson orbital on long foreign trips so I can develop as I go.

One interesting design is from Vist Camera in Lithuania: a 4x5 pinhole camera with bellows, which can be converted to a wide angle view camera with basic rise/fall capabilities. It should be very compact and lightweight.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/286614160071

For myself, I think either Chamonix 4x5 F1 or Wista 45 DX are compact and light enough to carry anywhere. The benefit of Wista is that you can keep a small lens on while folded. An Angulon 90/6.8 will fit, but not the bigger Super Angulon 90/8 or 90/5.6. I use a Manfrotto carbon fiber tripod leg with small ball head.

The Angulon 90/6.8 lens does not allow much if any movements. That is why Doremus uses a 100mm Kodak Wide-field for a lightweight set up. The Super Angulon's do allow movements.

You are totally right, the Angulon 90/6.8 does not have enough movement for 4x5. Other than the 100mm Kodak Wide-Field, some of the Wollensak Extreme Wide Angle are both small and have big coverage. But in my humble opinion, they do not have the image quality of modern 90/8 lenses.