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Hi,
I am weighing the purchase of an all wood versus an all metal 4x5 for backpackin g. It might seem that the metal camera (Canham DLC) is a better choice, but the wood camera (Wisner Expedition) has the extra movement of a rear rise (and a li ttle more shift).
For those who shoot predominantly landscapes using a Wisner, how useful do you f ind the rear rise movement? In what kind of shooting situation have you found t he rear rise movement of most assistance?
Thanks!
When I first started into large format, I worried a lot about not getting enough of this or that kind of movement, and ended up buying a Wisner technical 4 x 5. It turned out that I very rarely used back rise, and even grew to dislike havin g it, because I associated it with a persistent difficulty I had in maintaining focus while inserting and removing film. I'm not saying that I know for sure th at the extra movement on the back causes a loss of rigidity, or that other photo graphers don't find this feature useful: I'm just saying that for me the _lack o f unwanted movement_ quickly became more important than movements I never used.
My uses for the Wisner were landscapes and close-ups, and included a lot of back packing. I sold it after a year and bought my current 4 x 5, an Arca-Swiss monor ail. It is tougher to backpack with this camera, but I do it anyway because it i s such a delight to use. After spending way too much time fiddling with the Wisn er trying to get and keep focus, I'm no fan of woodies. I found that rigidity an d precision are what I want in a camera, and I think metal better lends itself l ends to those qualities.
I want to emphasize again that there are a _lot_ of shooters out there who are v ery happy using woodies, and that my experience is limited to only two cameras. But whenever anyone asks, I have to say that the superb handling of my monorail more than offsets its portability deficit. If you can possibly rent or borrow bo th metal _and_ wooden cameras before buying, it would likely be a good idea to d o so. And finally, the Arca also has rear rise, but I still use it only rarely, and wouldn't miss the lack of it all.
Gordon Vickrey krmhlz@earthlink.net
When I purchased my first view camera I was greatly concerned with having every conceivable movement so I ended up buying the Linhof Technikardan, which has eve ry movement except rear fall. I found that for my predominantly landscape and ar chitectural work I didn't need many of the movements and absolutely didn't need rear rise. I don't think I ever used it.
As per usual I'm driving in late with my $.02.
I owned 2 Wisner T.F.'s 4X5 & 5X7. Overall I was quite happy with them but I believe I never used the rear rise for ladscape, portrait or even studio tabletop. I did wish he had put in more front rise and less fall. I have fantasized about getting Ron to make an 8 X 10 Traditional with the geared rear axis tilt, and no rear rise. All of that is moot now for me as I found the Kodak 8 X 10 Master Camera at significantly less. I'm happier with the metal and no rear rise.
I too am late with my US$.02, but for architectural exteriors and landscapes and cityscapes, I haven't felt compromised by the lack of Rear rise on my DLC. I ru n out of coverage before I run out of movements with the DLC with lenses that ha ve standard 4x5 or even 5x7 coverage(the exception being with the 300mm M-Nikkor which will cover 8x10.)
For studio work: portraits, tabletop still life and product shots, and copying a rt work I find rear rise to be immensely useful so I use an Arca Swiss 4x5 F-lin e (which is a yaw free design) for that work.
I actually use rear rise a lot. I have a Sinar A-1, and use it often for portraits. Puting the camera at or around eye level and using rear rise to get final framing works well for me.
I would however, be just as happy with front fall for this adjustment, and it's there on my sinar, except that the front rise and fall movements do not work smoothly at all, and in this case, the back movements are closer at hand, so that's what I use.
I'm giving some thought to a field camera, and rear rise is not on my want list.