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Thread: Advice regarding field camera capabilities

  1. #1

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    Advice regarding field camera capabilities

    My commercial days having concluded, I would like to replace my veteran Omega 45F view camera with an inexpensive, used 4x5 field camera, since I no longer need wide-angle and bag bellows capabilities or considerable movements. I do want portability, convenience, and a lighter load. I have no experience with the folding cameras, however, and the one feature I have used a great deal in portraiture (my primary subject going forward), is the raised back/dropped front combination, so that I can place the lens at eye level when desired and recompose the subject upwards in the frame. It seems to me that I may use a good 3" of displacementwith the camera level, a 210mm (my one lens now), and subjects typically 5.5-8 ft from the camera.

    Field cameras lacking (generally, at least) rising backs, I recognize that on such a camera without a drop bed and, say, a maximum 1" lens fall, tilting the camera forward and bringing the back and lens to perpendicular again adds effective back rise. My concern is whether the backward tilt will be adequate to restore perpendicularity. I'm no geometer. Some models have backward tilt of only 15 degrees. Perhaps someone with experience with this kind of work (pretty straightforward, traditional portraiture) would share whether this is likely to be a restriction, given the general parameters cited above. I don't have ready access to tryout models at present.

    Much obliged.
    Philip Ulanowsky

    Sine scientia ars nihil est. (Without science/knowledge, art is nothing.)
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  2. #2
    Huub
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    Re: Advice regarding field camera capabilities

    You should have a look at the Shen Hao HZXIIA. With 37mm front rise, 32mm front fall and 45mm back rise and a weight of 2.4 kg it fits nicely in your list of specifactions. From personal experience i can tell you that it is well build, capable and beautiful camara.

  3. #3
    Jim Jones's Avatar
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    Re: Advice regarding field camera capabilities

    The Pacemaker series of Speed Graphic offers a drop bed with compensating back tilt of the front standard. Unfortunately, they are landscape format only. Later Burke & James press cameras have a drop bed and rotating back, but less convenient back tilt of the front standard.

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    Re: Advice regarding field camera capabilities

    The Meridian 45B may work for you. The specifications are hard to find, but this link <http://www.largeformatphotography.info/meridian/meridian.html> explains the camera quite well. I weighed mine, and without a lens it weighs 5 lbs, or 2.27 kg. I use it a lot, with lenses from 90 to 254 mm. No complaints. This was my first large format camera, and will probably be the last.

    I could do some measurements (rise, fall etc.) if you need them.

  5. #5
    David Lobato David Lobato's Avatar
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    Re: Advice regarding field camera capabilities

    My Toyo 45A has a drop bed design. And interchangeable parts with the Toyo view cameras, of which I take advantage on my Toyo 45D.

  6. #6

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    Re: Advice regarding field camera capabilities

    Define "inexpensive".

  7. #7
    Camera Hacker
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    Re: Advice regarding field camera capabilities

    Busch Pressman Model D has a drop bed and tilting front standard. It also has a rotating back BUT is not a Graflock, just a standard spring back. That said, I've wanted one since I restored my girlfriend's Pressman Model C and admired the build quality.

    Phil Forrest

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    Re: Advice regarding field camera capabilities

    A number of you are responding with suggestions for cameras with drop beds and non-tilting backs (press cameras). Will they give the OP anywhere near the 3" of displacement he mentions? Most field cameras, with tilting front and rear standards, and using indirect displacement, are limited only by bellows flexibility and lens coverage.

  9. #9

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    Re: Advice regarding field camera capabilities

    Quote Originally Posted by Luis-F-S View Post
    Define "inexpensive".
    Well, there's wish and reality, of course. I'd love to pay about what I think I can sell my 45F (revolving back and removable bellows), case, and Manfrotto 3051 legs (minus cost of used 3021B to replace them) for, which is to say, somewhere in the $500 range. I suspect that $700-800 is going to be more realistic, and I'll sell something(s) else. More than that would be hard to justify in my present circumstances. I assume most cameras allow vertical and horizontal back orientation (exception in post above noted). Since I have plenty of film holders, lupe, meter, etc., once I mount the Copal 1 in an appropriate board, I'll be ready to learn the new tool.

    Thanks to all replying; very helpful. This is a wonderful place, and I'll contribute a few more images soon.
    Philip Ulanowsky

    Sine scientia ars nihil est. (Without science/knowledge, art is nothing.)
    www.imagesinsilver.art
    https://www.flickr.com/photos/156933346@N07/

  10. #10

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    Re: Advice regarding field camera capabilities

    Quote Originally Posted by Peter Lewin View Post
    A number of you are responding with suggestions for cameras with drop beds and non-tilting backs (press cameras). Will they give the OP anywhere near the 3" of displacement he mentions? Most field cameras, with tilting front and rear standards, and using indirect displacement, are limited only by bellows flexibility and lens coverage.
    The OP did say he wanted a field camera, so that limits the choices. I did not say much about the Meridian 45B, but it has a 2-inch rise, about the same or more fall using the drop-bed and tilting the front standard, and the back tilts and swings about 11 degrees. Three inches of displacement is fairly high, and lens coverage may be an issue especially when the back is in portrait position, even with a 210 mm lens. But 3 inches is probably more then necessary. I tried the Meridian with a 210 lens on a portrait set-up. With the lens dropped, the front standard tilted back (not quite vertically plumb), and the back tilted so that it is vertically plumb, the center of the image is about where the bottom of a person's neck would be sitting in a chair. The camera is at eye-level. There is more tilt available on the back, but the front tilt is maxed-out.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Meridians are not very common (I think only about 2000 were made), but they are not terribly expensive -- $400 to 500 if you can wait around. There is one on Ebay now http://www.ebay.com/itm/Meridian-Mod...MAAOSwxu5ZJ0xH (I just checked to see pricing) for $299, but it is for repair. I cannot see anything wrong with it (no lens, maybe the Kalart rangefinder). I don't have anything to do with the seller, and am hardly a Meridian fanatic, but this looks like it might work out for you price- and feature-wise.

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