8x10 metal folding round up - Toyo 810m, Canham JMC , MasterView

[cikaziva]

BELLOWS EXTENSION

Now this is a tricky one. Toyo 810M is as close to monorail as it can be this sting at 950mm is rock solid!!! its fascinating i have to say! Canham has 850mm of bellows but in my opinion this is not usable, not without one more tropod in front or magic arm. This Kodak has maximum of 500mm it was my decision to shorten the draw in order to get maximum stability. is Canham usable with heavy 600mm+ lens, well not for me.
Also Toyo and Kodak have recent Rudy. his quality and materials used are radically improved over last year. on the other hand Canham bellows are not to par with the rest. there is some bizarre torsion kink, at bigger extension, they drape like crazy and material used for top layer collect tons of dust. for me personally bellows on Canham are the worst part after a nylon strap

[cikaziva]

MODULARITY and CLEANING

For me cleaning is really important, specially with cameras that we shoot in a snow, rain, dust. if i cant open it up, clean it and keep i cant trust it. jokes aside Toyo and Canham are grate in this department. Canham offers bag bellows and that alone is fantastic (i just hope they are made proper). Kodak is absolutely tribal in this department, only thing you can take off is a back and lens board. even changing groundglass needs a shimming and measurements on a test table... as i mentioned before Canham and Kodak dont have any holders for GG protector and this alone is a really problematic for a camera that should be used in a field. Canham and Kodak have similar back, with similar GG frame, something that am not really a fan. they keep film flat but i prefer Toyo.
Canham looks like it can be used forever and ever! everything is detachable, if you brake something its easy to repair and even if a K.B. Canham closes the shop and there is no more support any machine shop in the world can make you spare parts. this is not the case with Kodak for sure



and this is just funny to compare

[cikaziva]

BUILD QUALITY

Toyo is King of the group and probably one of the finest camera i ever worked on. the way Toyo is build is just another league. Canham is really basic, lack sophistication and its almost rude for the price it costs. On the other hand i am sure K.B. Canham was faced with hard calls: how to keep it low weight and to make it affordable. Kodak on the other hand is form another time: its 40 yers older then Canham and 30 then Toyo. materials used in Kodak are not by todays standards but still its a good nice camera same as Graflex SpeedGraphic is today

[cikaziva]

[cikaziva]

[cikaziva]

CONCLUSION

Canham is grate!!! A) its modern super light weight, all metal 8x10 that is made in US in a present digital age for that he has two thumbs up! camera is versatile has a lot of movement on a paper but its not as stable as expected and restricted in real life use. telescopic monorail exceeds my expectations. for what it is its solid as rock!!! Front standard is solid enough. rear standard is not to much wobbling and way to much tolerance for my taste. Machining entire new back frame otu of single peace of aluminum, adding locking nobs on a pivot point and making contact on entire length of bellows frame is on my to do list for this camera. Build quality could be better, i think i expected more... as for light weight: this is hands down, lightest most capable camera i ever used in my life!

Toyo is the King! undisputed champion for me. build like a tank, joy to use, tons of extension that can be used without extra tripod. Only down side is minimal rear movement and limited wide angle capability. i dont shoot wide so i dont care but lack of real swing and tillt is sad. finally at 6Lb more than Canham this is a heavy field camera. i dont have problem with that! for the price on used market Toyo 810M is undisputed champion of this group of cameras

Kodak MasterView: its old camera but still 100% usable. rock solid, limited in many ways but still good compact 8x10. its made in another era and my bo means it should be taken as modern cameras. IMO this camera is overpriced on used market and if i didnt have one i wouldn't pay asking price for KMV

hope this helps and hope you guys enjoyed. if there is a need i can make some specific videos of what you guys want to see. if you have any questions please shoot them and i will try my best to answer. thanks for looking

Luka


debate is open, fell free to post

[Ari]

Nice job, Luka.
I, too, was surprised by the stability of the Canham, and I am more impressed than is Luka; it felt quite solid at full extension with a heavy Copal 3 lens on it.
The build quality is not up to Toyo's, but the Toyo is massively overbuilt, and I'm guessing that weight savings was not a prime motivation for the designers. They went after stability.
In any camera, especially 8x10, there is always something missing, and none of these are the perfect camera.
Having lived with the Toyo for a few years, I accepted the extra weight as a trade-off for extra stability.

One more thing to add: the Toyo weighs in at 15.1 pounds, or 6.85kg; the Canham is 9.4 pounds, or 4.3kg. Your last paragraph stated a difference of 3 pounds, but it's closer to 6 pounds (2.5kg).

[Tin Can]

I guess Calumet C1 is not an option, Eh?

http://www.largeformatphotography.in...umetc8x10.html

[cikaziva]

Ari- thanks i corrected the weight difference in post above

Randy Moe- Nop! C1 is probably heavy as Toyo with Kodak duckt taped to back standard... C1 is still best starters 8x10 and best value LF on a market

[Tin Can]

Ari- thanks i corrected the weight difference in post above

Randy Moe- Nop! C1 is probably heavy as Toyo with Kodak duckt taped to back standard... C1 is still best starters 8x10 and best value LF on a market

My Green Magnesium C1 weighs 14.5 lbs.