What is the lightest 8x10 generally available (new or used)?

[Bill_1856]

I guess the Phillips is super light, and the legendary Nagaoka, but they are not generally available.

[Carl J]

Ritter 8x10, http://www.lg4mat.net/LFcamera.html. 6.4 lbs.

[David A. Goldfarb]

My 8x10" Gowland without a lens, including 24" of rail, the slightly heavier late-style mounting block, and heavier knobs that I added myself, is 5 lbs. 14-3/8 oz.

My version has a non-reversible back, which means you have to loosen 4 knobs to flip the whole bellows and frames to switch between horizontal and vertical, which is why I installed more comfortable knobs, but it would be more convenient to have a reversible back, which some of the later cameras have, presumably at the expense of a little extra weight.

If I want to go lighter, I just bring one 12" rail, instead of both of them, and I can use the lighter mounting block, which is fine for a lot of landscape uses, if I don't need to use a long lens and can use a wider lens for close focus, and with maximum 12" of extension I can get away with a lighter tripod and head.

It's not generally available new, but if you keep an eye out, they turn up occasionally.

[James Pierce]

Non folding Ebony 810 gets down to around 3.2kg which is 7 lbs. Extremely practical and rigid too - most of the ultralight designs are ultimately frustrating to shoot with because of flex, shifting and vibration etc. They are also available brand spanking new from the factory.

[Mark Sampson]

When you look at the whole kit, it's the film holders where the weight adds up. But having used 17-pound and 13-pound 8x10 cameras in the field, I can see where a lighter camera body is a good thing.

[Alan Gales]

My Wehman weighs 8.7 pounds. The lightweight version is 7.2 pounds.

[Oren Grad]

The lightest wooden 8x10 camera I'm aware of is the Phillips Explorer, which has a back fixed in horizontal position and weighs around 6 lb, maybe a shade less. Unlike the 4x5 and 5x7 versions, the 8x10 Nagaoka is not especially light - it's around 8 lb, which is not bad at all, but not a low outlier for its format like the smaller ones.

I suspect 8x10 Gowlands were probably all made-to-order custom jobs. They were built over the years in a variety of configurations. With enough patience, to find one, and then some tinkering, it should be possible to come up with a usable Gowland that's not a whole lot more than 5 lb.

All of this assumes a bellows camera which accepts interchangeable lenses. With suitable choice of materials and design it should be possible to build a single-FL box camera that will weigh less than the lightest Gowland.

[Dan Fromm]

http://www.argentumcamera.com/eng/pages/other/home.htm

Cataloged weight of the Excursor I 8x10 without back is 2.1 kg.

[David A. Goldfarb]

http://www.argentumcamera.com/eng/pages/other/home.htm

Cataloged weight of the Excursor I 8x10 without back is 2.1 kg.

The back according to the catalogue is approximately 0.8 kg.

[mike rosenlof]

The Ilford Titan 8x10 weighs 800 grams.

You might be able to make something lighter out of cardboard.