Originally Posted by
neil poulsen
I had a Wista SP. I thought that it would be nice to have a clamshell, in addition to my relatively light-weight rail camera.
Two Wista possibilities . . .
With Wista's removable bellows capability, they made a longer bellows, longer rail combination that could both be installed on their metal cameras. I bought a set on EBay and gave it a try. In my opinion it was too wobbly, so I returned it.
Another Wista option is an extension that fits onto the Wista lensboard. It includes an adjustable length tube with a fixture at the opposite end to receive a Technika lensboard and lens. This enables one to extend a 300mm lens out in front of the front standard. I tried this with a 355mm G-Claron, and I thought that the lens was too heavy for the camera with this device. However, it might work fine with one of the Copal 1 300mm lenses. (Nikon M, or a G-Claron?)
As a third non-Wista option, Rodenstock made a doubler that could be added to a 150mm lens to obtain a 300mm focal length. (One loses two stops of aperture using this doubler.) I bought one of these, but I've not yet had the occasion to use it. Depending on how often one needs to longer focal length, it may be an option. There's is some loss of resolution, as one might expect.
I usedd for their the Wista SP system a few times. But, I determined that I preferred my light-weight, rail 4x5. So, the Wista SP was sold.
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