Favorite Wooden Tripod

[Drew Wiley]

Sinar is a lot easier camera system to fulcrum balance, Bob, unless you're talking about the P system, which was oriented to studio and flash usage anyway. Life
is different out in the weather, year after year. Same goes for Ries versus generic wooden tripods. They're much less likely to freeze up when wet or literally frozen, yet still articulate tightly. It the track record thing.

[Alan Gales]

Cambodia??

I think spell check strikes again!

I'm assuming Bob meant Cambo.

[Jac@stafford.net]

Cambodia??

Youth in Asia?

[Drew Wiley]

Euthanasia is what I did to my Zone VI wooden tripod. It did freeze up when it was wet. Actually I gave it to a friend for his telescope hobby.

[Bob Salomon]

Sinar is a lot easier camera system to fulcrum balance, Bob, unless you're talking about the P system, which was oriented to studio and flash usage anyway. Life
is different out in the weather, year after year. Same goes for Ries versus generic wooden tripods. They're much less likely to freeze up when wet or literally frozen, yet still articulate tightly. It the track record thing.

That's because you haven't used a Linhof Kardan on the Linhof leveling heads for the Kardan. The rail is rectangular with a flange along the entire bottom of the rail. Loosen the lever on the head and slide the rail on. Stop at any point. Reposition by releasing the lever and sliding again.
However, maybe you buy a different head, from Linhof or anyone else with a ¼ or ⅜" screw thread. Screw the head onto the sliding plate on the bottom of the rail. Slide the camera till you get to the position you want and tighten the thread. Want to reposition? Loosen the screw thread. Reposition the camera by sliding the whole camera and retightened the screw.
With either of these the camera can be positioned continuously, anywhere on the rail, even directly under the front, rear or, if used, an auxiliary standard as the cameras do not use an encircling clamp.

[Drew Wiley]

Advantages of a round rail in a Sinar rail clamp: you can also tip it easily, side to side. Lots of different camera configurations possible, with components abundant. Includes realistic field options. With Linhof, you've got Technikardan, nice and portable, but with all the extension weight forward, then Technikas, wonderfully made but nowhere near as versatile as a monorail. I rarely encounter Kardans except for a few old studio beasts. But like I've already said, I don't use heads at all, other than the a rail clamp itself, in the case of Sinar. I have even shortcut that via a direct-bolt-down lower center-of-gravity tweak. I often use pan/tilt heads for MF, but not if a heavy telephoto is involved. I'm gotten perfectly accustomed to doing everything via legs alone, just like surveyors learned to do it decades before even bubble leveling transits were available, let alone modern autolevels and theodolites. Just as fast with some experience.

[Drew Wiley]

Dont' get me wrong, Bob - I'm not arguing your point. You know Linhof. But the simple fact is that the Sinar system is overwhelmingly more common in this part
of the world, pretty much "the" monorail system. Yeah, outside the studios one encounters this and that, and of course, more flatbeds and formerly, even Technikas more often than monorails. I've gone a bit retro, and now prefer the Sinar Norma to their later versions. But I'm a long lens addict, and the easy availability of rail
extensions and long bellows (including Horseman bellows) is another advantage of Sinar. There are still tons of components out there, and most of them interchange.

[Bob Salomon]

Dont' get me wrong, Bob - I'm not arguing your point. You know Linhof. But the simple fact is that the Sinar system is overwhelmingly more common in this part
of the world, pretty much "the" monorail system. Yeah, outside the studios one encounters this and that, and of course, more flatbeds and formerly, even Technikas more often than monorails. I've gone a bit retro, and now prefer the Sinar Norma to their later versions. But I'm a long lens addict, and the easy availability of rail
extensions and long bellows (including Horseman bellows) is another advantage of Sinar. There are still tons of components out there, and most of them interchange.

Drew, in my studio in the mid 60s till 1970 I had 45, 57 and 810 Sinar Expert outfits. When I went to work in 72 for EPOI I was one of the Sinar Reps. So I have used all of the Norma cameras plus the later F, F+, C and P models. Since EPOI was also the Nikon distributor in the USA we also had the first Nikon LF lenses, which were just coming out then, so I was well exposed to them as well. I only became involved with Linhof in 1978, although I did have a 3 lens Technika V in the studio, as well.

Sinar, at the time that I used them, we're not distributed by EPOI, they were distributed b Paillard in NJ who was also the Hasselblad distributor then as well as Hermes typewriters (I still have a Hermes Rocket portable) from those days. Although I do need a new ribbon for it as mine has pretty much dried out.

One of my advantages in the industry was that I had owned and used most everything. Including Exacta, Rectaflex, Contax IIIa, Hasselblad 1000, 1200, 500C, EL, Wide, Bronica, Rollei, Canon RF and Canonflex, RZ, Koni Omega, virtually anything that was a competitor to a product I was involved with I had working experience with them. That also included Leica IIIF, G, Leicaflex, IIIC, redial F as well as black dial, Miranda, Minox, you name it and I probably owned and shot with it before I joined the industry. So I well know how a round rail compares to the flat type rails of the Kardan.

[Jac@stafford.net]

Dont' get me wrong, Bob - I'm not arguing your point. You know Linhof. But the simple fact is that the Sinar system is overwhelmingly more common in this part of the world,

It is always about you and your part of the world. Enough.
.

[faberryman]

Would a Berlebach Reporter 342 be sufficient for a 4x5?