What is the Aero Tac?

[Drew Bedo]

There is an item on The-Auction-Site-That-Must-Not-Be-Named that looks interesting. Its an areal camera from Japan named "Aero Tac" that looks like a Fotoman or a TravelWide. Looks to be metal with a crackle finish. Has a focusing helical too.

A low cost alternative to a Fotoman or a higher end TravelWide ?

[Corran]

I'm confused why a link to eBay simply for discussion purposes is not allowed. You aren't selling the camera, and unless the seller is related to you, and you are advertising it, I don't see an issue.

[vinny]

I commented on that other thread. Has the whole thing been deleted?
I'm confused as well. Are the moderators bored?

[Corran]

Thread deleted by Oren Grad
Reason Link to active eBay auction

[richardman]

It's impossible to discuss anything without seeing at least an image? May be you can just do a screen cap of the camera, and a price so we can compare it to Fotoman et al?

[Oren Grad]

My 2005 edition of the Nippon Camera Annual has an entry for the Aero Tac 45S. The camera was offered by a company named Tac Project, about which I don't know anything other than the three products they offered at the time: Aero Tac 45S, Fisheye Tac 45 and Fisheye Tac 67.

As best I can tell sifting through the Japanese description, the Aero Tac was offered as an aerial camera with focus fixed at an extension intended to allow using a 135mm lens at some unspecified aperture to achieve adequate sharpness from 60 meters to infinity. (No, I don't know what's going on with the helicoid mentioned in the listing - probably an aftermarket adaptation.) The camera came with an international back (apparently missing from the listed camera). It was offered as body only, or with 135 Apo-Symmar, 135 CM-Fujinon, 150 Apo-Symmar, or 135 T* Planar. The description doesn't say whether the fixed-focus setting was adjusted to accommodate the 150 focal length. An accessory optical finder with frames for 135/150/180 was offered.

The Aero Tac was not cheap - price for the body was Y225,000, Y437,000 with 135 Apo-Symmar, Y394,000 with 135 CM-Fujinon, Y450,000 with 150 Apo-Symmar, and Y700,000 with 135 T* Planar. At the time the 2005 Annual was published, the exchange rate was roughly Y100 per US dollar.

Please direct any discussion of the link policy to the Feedback forum.

[Corran]

Fisheye Tac 45

That's interesting. I wonder what fisheye they had for (I assume) 4x5?

[djdister]

There is an item on The-Auction-Site-That-Must-Not-Be-Named that looks interesting. Its an areal camera from Japan named "Aero Tac" that looks like a Fotoman or a TravelWide. Looks to be metal with a crackle finish. Has a focusing helical too.

A low cost alternative to a Fotoman or a higher end TravelWide ?

The short answer is no, it is not a cheap (or easy) alternative to a Fotoman or Travelwide. The Aero Tac (first photo) is an aerial roll film camera, just like the Fairchild Aerial camera (2nd photo). I'm guessing it is fairly heavy and would not be considered an easy alternative to the very light hand holdable LF cameras.

[Oren Grad]

Here is a picture of the Aero Tac that is not in an auction listing:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/sahinmurat/21780408808/

[Corran]

For purposes of discussing the eBay thing, I made a post in the Feedback forum, for those interested:
http://www.largeformatphotography.in...-of-discussion