New Autofocus 4x5"

[europanorama]

Back in the 90s a rich guy in Germany patented a modular AF view camera system that took backs from 23 to 11x14. Electronics were mostly within the rail system. They exhibited at Photokina one year but never produced anything other then a prototype and a couple of beautiful brochures. But the backer also owned a salmon farm in Sweden or Norway and featured all you could eat smoked salmon, if they knew you at their booth.
A friend of mine who had been export manager of both Rollei and later LInhof was hired to be export manager for this new camera system.
I hope this new design has a better future then this older camera had.

do you mean the computerized 4x5 developped by follower company of sinar. or sinar-people? i missed demonstration here- but could find out its naming.

[Bob Salomon]

do you mean the computerized 4x5 developped by follower company of sinar. or sinar-people? i missed demonstration here- but could find out its naming.

Had nothing to do with Sinar. The marketing manager came from Linhof. They also had nothing to do with it.

[John Layton]

...the all you can eat smoked salmon sounds great - but you really should also bring on the bagels (cut in half and fried in butter till golden brown), cream cheese, thinly sliced red onions and tomatoes, capers, and beer...then you'd truly have a feast!

[fist]

This is quite final body of the 45AF, in full carbon fiber.



The body is designed for grafmatic/kinematic holders.
Its only 24mm longer than the film holder, and this 24mm houses the complete motor drive and functions as an handle.
The bottom side is only 6mm thick, and this might still be reduced in future versions.
Its a completely new design by me. Enabling using regular double sided cassettes & graflock holders while keeping the dimensions as close to the film holders as possible.

[fist]

This is what's under the plastic handle, the redone drivetrain. This now gives a total of 63mm of focus pull, and overall makes the body extremely strong as the plastic only serves as a cover anymore.
It can move basically any lens, i have tested it up to 3kg.

Ill show the redesigned finder soon, and then it should be about done and shipping out for some field testing.



https://www.instagram.com/conflict.cameras/

[fist]

New looks:


New square finder with colors:

[fist]

Custom design compact universal 4x5" back that takes graflock & regular holders:

[John Layton]

So the focus sensor is located in the viewfinder? Good because this would (or could, depending on design) allow for "real-time" focus changes right up to the time of exposure. I could see this as being valuable in the realm of spontaneous street work, and especially portraiture while using medium long lenses while employing shallow depth of focus - where small movements by either photographer and/or subject can decisively "ruin" the most effective choice of focus.

[sharktooth]

Pretty impressive, I must say.

[fist]

So the focus sensor is located in the viewfinder? Good because this would (or could, depending on design) allow for "real-time" focus changes right up to the time of exposure. I could see this as being valuable in the realm of spontaneous street work, and especially portraiture while using medium long lenses while employing shallow depth of focus - where small movements by either photographer and/or subject can decisively "ruin" the most effective choice of focus.

Yes, thats the main point. This should enable fast and accurate focusing, with accurate framing. So you can concentrate more on the actual composition & subject and less on the fiddling.

It focuses where you want, and does it fast & accurately. The rest is on you.

The autofocus is just a way to achieve this goal, as rangefinders tend to be a bit fiddly in 4x5". Especially if you shoot with larger apertures.

It will of course come with its own limitations and quirks like every system.