Zone VI camera

[Mark Sampson]

Vaughn, your last paragraph reminds me that when I bought my Z-VI 4x5 in 1991-92 there was a several-month wait. At the time, they attributed it to increased demand (having just held a sale). Whatever, it was worth it, the camera is still going strong.

I'm sure there was a thread on this forum, a couple of years ago, that was able to figure out the timeline and variations of the Zone VI cameras. The OP should try a search.

[martin-f5]

that's the one I got

[Louie Powell]

that's the one I got

That looks like the Zone VI Lightweight. That was a redesign of the camera Zone VI built in Vermont, and was designed and built after Zone VI was bought by Calumet. Like the Vermont cameras, the Lightweight was made of mahogany (although a few were made in cherry and walnut), but the metal components were black anodized aluminum rather than gold-plated brass. It was quite a bit lighter in weight than the mahogany/brass cameras, but otherwise had essentially the same features. I bought mine in 2001.

As I recall, Calumet itself was owned by a British company that was affiliated with a Dutch camera maker. So while the mahogany/brass cameras were built in Vermont (literally by Fred Picker, Bruce Barlow and Richard Ritter), I always suspect that the Lightweight was made by the Dutch company but I don't know that for a fact. Picker sold his company to Calumet, and was listed as a VP of that company for a while, but later focused his attention on fly fishing before he died a few years later. I never met him, but I do have several of his books and considered his photography to be very inspiring.

[Tin Can]

My second LF camera was beautiful with fancy Gold fittings

I have a deep aversion to GOLD

Sold it long ago

[RichardRitter]

The light weight was build in Vermont. Calumet just used aluminum instead of brass. It made the camera about 1 1/2 pounds lighter.

[xkaes]

My second LF camera was beautiful with fancy Gold fittings

I've got gold fillings too, but they aren't fancy.

[martin-f5]

thanks!

[martin-f5]

after some days with the new one I compared it to Chamonix N2 and a Nagaoka 5x4.
I do like the Groundglass with a kind of Fresnel, it's bright and beautiful to compose.
What I miss a little is the zero alignment of the front.
The Chamonix has levers to fix the alignment in the rise and fall rail, the nagaoka can also be set into a rail if you want.
Of course I can feel it with my fingers if the front standarte is aligned and it's easy to have minimal tilt, so it's great at all and checking focus with a loupe is essential if you want to be accurate.
But rising and falling always is added with a tilt which than has to be checked.
(sorry for my bad englisch....)