Does a new luxury 8x10 camera make sense in 2021?

[Jim Fitzgerald]

I'm building an Ebony style SW810 out of Walnut as true to the original as I can make it. No titanium but anodized aluminum and it is going to be a sweet camera. I'm about 85% done and if I sold one it would only be $3,000. Everything is relative.

[Drew Wiley]

The distinction between a Stutz Bearcat with or without a genuine brass front?

[ic-racer]

This day and age is the end of the 'good old days' when large format equipment was thrown away or given away for free. Yes, 'this day and age' one has to 'pay to play. '

[Drew Wiley]

Titanium is nice because it is almost as light as aluminum but a lot more durable. Aluminum can be surface hardened by anodizing. But that hardness is just a few mils thick. But aluminum alloys are superior for CNC fabrication, and titanium is relatively difficult to machine. The most cost effective high durability option is stainless steel, but the weight goes way up. Depends on how hard you use/abuse your equipment. Taking an average of a dozen rough mountain trips per year in my younger years, such hardware distinctions were indeed important. Things did get broken or wear out. At my age now, if I were starting out with fresh camera gear, they wouldn't - not enough time or energy left to rough it that hard ever again.

Options are always nice. But just for what another of my good ole distinctly non-rad-looking 8X10 Phillips would cost on the used market, I could upgrade my shop with CNC, a precision micro-mill, and a large enough stockpile of supplies to make a least half a dozen clones of that ! But once again, why at my age? I've already got pretty much all the gear and equipment I really need. Making nice things like a view camera can indeed be a rewarding retirement woodshop hobby; but so can spending that same amount of time making actual prints instead! Can't do it all, and still have time left over to feed the constantly nagging cats.

[r.e.]

The standard $5900 camera that Freestyle is selling is called a GP810. The one in this video, which has been on the market for at least four years, is called at P810. A check with the company's website would clarify what's what with models.

[r.e.]

This is a teaser, posted seven months ago, for the GP810 made with titanium:

[r.e.]

Looks like an interesting company: Gibellini Camera History

[Drew Wiley]

Sounds more like a small make-on-demand custom fabricator catering to a variety options feasible with especially modern machinery and materials. That's certainly welcome, and I wish them well. When it comes to style or pretty, I personally align better with the kind of project Jim Fitzgerald has in mind. As far as functionality goes, I prefer my simplified bare bones un-pretty 8X10 Phillips just the way it is. I do have a 4x5 Ebony.

[wager123]

anyone here own one of their cameras and if so how did you like it
Mitch

[Two23]

Depends on how hard you use/abuse your equipment. Taking an average of a dozen rough mountain trips per year in my younger years, such hardware distinctions were indeed important. Things did get broken or wear out.

If I had a $20,000 camera it would probably rarely even see the sunshine. It would be the camera I baby the most.


Kent in SD