Toyo View 45 for mobile studio and field work?

[analoguey]

You might be surprised how portable+ rugged The Toyo monorails discussed here can be. Try one if you can nearby - swing the front and rear standards so they line up with the monorail and you'll have a compact - about a laptop case size (including lens if it's a regular lf sized lens).
The rest - tripod, film holders, dark cloth all will be common for ALL 4x5s or larger formats that you'll think of carrying. [see the Home page of lff for tips on it - 'using monorail in the field']


That said, many of course use field cameras as they prefer them. For they way they fold, among other things - you might like that too.

[jonbrisbincreative]

This is the type of camera I was looking at for doing mobile studio and some field work:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/271710479214

It looks to be older, cast metal, so likely on the heavy side, even for a monorail. Probably not as heavy as one of the Linhof's, though (I've looked at those as well but everyone who has one says they're too heavy to cart very far).

[Tin Can]

Sinar F

Cheapest

Many spares

cheap bellows

Lens boards everywhere

Very lightweight

[jonbrisbincreative]

Sinar F

Cheapest

Many spares

cheap bellows

Lens boards everywhere

Very lightweight

Thanks for the pointer. I hadn't really looked at them closely because the Sinar P's are fairly costly for what I'm wanting.

I looked on eBay for Sinar F and it seems there are the plain F's, the F+'s, and F1 and F2. Is there a significant difference in functionality between them? The F1's and F2's look to have better scales maybe? What's a reasonable price to pay for them in decent condition (I don't need anything fancy as I'll end up banging it around myself)?

[Tin Can]

Thanks for the pointer. I hadn't really looked at them closely because the Sinar P's are fairly costly for what I'm wanting.

I looked on eBay for Sinar F and it seems there are the plain F's, the F+'s, and F1 and F2. Is there a significant difference in functionality between them? The F1's and F2's look to have better scales maybe? What's a reasonable price to pay for them in decent condition (I don't need anything fancy as I'll end up banging it around myself)?

They got improvements over time, thus model changes. They are totally modular and all Sinar parts fit on all Sinar rails.

Start with the cheapest, best one you can find. Search Sinar F sales on EBay. I mean sold units, to get an idea of selling prices.