Quote Originally Posted by Dustyman View Post
This week I obtained an unusual item: a Cambo TWR54, which is a 4x5 Twin Lens Reflex. It's a very rare bird that hardly ever surfaces. A nice Gowlandflex is hard to find, but the Cambo is even more so. It was very well made (in Holland), and this one is in real nice shape. I look forward to taking some portraits with it.

I am looking for the original side mounted hand grip w/cable release that was available for it when it was introduced in the early '70s. I know its a long shot, but if anyone out there has a grip, or knows of a suitable alternative, please let me know. The grip attaches to one of two tripod sockets that are on either the side of the camera, not the bottom, so regular L-shaped grips won't do.

Did I mention the serial number of this beauty? 00003. Third one ever made!

Anybody using these for portraits? I would love to hear your experiences.

Alice Gowland once told me that she and Peter had once sought-out an OEM manufacturer for their Gowlandflex. She could only remember that it was "some company in Holland", and that they (she & Peter) were eventually told something to the effect that 'the product couldn't be built cheaply enough to sell at a reasonable price'. I can only surmise that the company they contacted was Cambo. (I don't know this for a fact, and I don't mean to insinuate that Cambo 'stole' the idea... afterall, LF TWR's existed way before the Gowlandflex! Anyway, it's so long ago that I'm sure that no-one at Cambo today could confirm or deny the story).

Anywho, what matters is --coincidentally or not-- Cambo finally did build their own 4x5 TLR camera, and a great one, too. The TWR-54 has the usual Cambo high precision and ruggedness, yet it's lightweight enough to be easily handheld and it even accepts Cambo's easy-to-find mirror-viewfinder. On the downside, the models found on the secondhand market are often missing their spring-back, grip handles and certain lens cams. To note: These cameras were once used quite a lot by the Dutch police for ID photography.

My two cents!

Chris