Focusing with Silvestri T30 or Bicam II/III

**rpagliari** · 21-Feb-2019, 04:45

I have considered the Silvestri cameras as an alternative to view cameras as I mostly use rise/fall and almost never the other movements.

I still don't understand how focusing is achieved. I looked into the manual but it is not mentioned. Only with longer lenses, it seems that the extension bellows is used for focusing.

Thank you ,

**Pfsor** · 21-Feb-2019, 05:10

Don't they use lenses with helicoid focusing?

**rpagliari** · 21-Feb-2019, 06:02

I don't know much about LF yet. Is it a mechanism on the body that rotates and moves the lens back and forth?

**Pfsor** · 21-Feb-2019, 07:05

Yes, it is, indeed. More characteristic of MF cameras but used on some LF cameras too. Cheers!

**Oren Grad** · 21-Feb-2019, 09:08

Originally Posted by rpagliari

I don't know much about LF yet. Is it a mechanism on the body that rotates and moves the lens back and forth?

Each lens for the Silvestri cameras comes in its own focusing helical with a proprietary body mount. There's lots of information on the Silvestri web site:

http://www.silvestricamera.com/index.htm

Silvestri cameras and lenses tend to be very expensive and fairly scarce on the used market. If you want to shoot 4x5 with a rigid-body architectural/technical camera, the original Cambo Wide is likely to be both less expensive and easier to find. The Cambo Wide also uses helical-mounted lenses on proprietary panels.