Metal field cameras - what was the niche?

[xkaes]

Metal cameras in the winter time is a bad choice. Here in New England the temps get down below Zero. The best ice is found at a temp around o degrees. Problem with metal camera you can not work the controls with gloves on. Being aluminum they loss heat fast and become very cold. Prime condition for frost bit.

Winter gloves and wooden field cameras are not compatible either, and as to the metal body in the Winter, just don't stick your tongue on the camera. No problem!

[xkaes]

..the camera shown mounted on the stand is a Rittreck View.

And the top of the ad says "RITTRECK STAND".

[rfesk]

The Toyo 4 3/4 x 6 1/2 Field with the 5x7 back is much lighter and smaller
but does not have quite as many movements.

Added: My Toyo Field with an adapted 5x7 back from a B&J view camera weighs slightly less than 6 lbs.

[Oren Grad]

And the top of the ad says "RITTRECK STAND".

I think that was just the general branding at that point. There were other "Rittreck"-labeled products, for example a series of 6x9 cameras.

[Joseph Kashi]

It's all a matter of finding the right balance for the situation. Thanks to a preference for 5x7 and used low prices over the past few years, I'm in something of a position to make a few subjective comparisons.

My refurbished Rittreck 5x7 is a very nice camera, especially for the cost. They're built like a battleship, weigh nearly as much at 9 pounds 6 ounces without lens or tripod, and are nearly as indestructible as that proverbial battleship - it's a fine go-to 5x7 when near the car. I believe that it's underrated. I've seen ads for 5x7 Rittrecks in View Camera magazine as recently as late 1990.

There's also a new Canham MQC 57, weighing about 5 pounds 7 ounces bare, IIRC, along with an older 3 pound Tachi-style wooden 5x7 and a Toyo 57G monorail that's a beast, even in controlled indoor situations.

The Canham is the slickest and nicest camera without question, but the Rittreck is nearly as useful in the field when near the car. The Canham's in a backpack for situations where the complete Rittreck kit realistically would be awkward in its rolling tool box in the back of my Suburban.

The older wooden Tachi-like 5x7 is super-light, feels fragile even though fully refurbished and carefully handled, and thus carefully packed away in the office to avoid possible damage.

The Toyo 57G monorail is precise and solid, but heavy enough that it doesn't travel more than 30 feet from the front door of my office, if that.

Yes, I do use the metal cameras here in our Alaska winters.

[reddesert]

I can't "know" the answers to the original question, but suspect that part of it is that monorail cameras took longer to become the dominant studio / commercial tool than it seems in retrospect.

What are the first widely used monorail cameras? I think the Graphic View (1940?), Sinar (1948), Kodak Master view / Calumet (1950s?), Cambo (1950s), Linhof Kardan (1960)? The Rittreck and the somewhat similar original Toyo Field were introduced around 1963-65, while I can't think of a Japanese monorail camera that dates back to the mid-60s - I assume the Omega/Toyo View began later, although I certainly don't know first hand. Information on the chronology of view camera models is a little uneven.

[RichardRitter]

Winter gloves and wooden field cameras are not compatible either, and as to the metal body in the Winter, just don't stick your tongue on the camera. No problem!

I work all winter using a Zone VI camera and wear gloves all the time.
When the final design was being done on the Zone VI camera it was winter time and Fred had me get a set of bigger knobs that are now standard on the camera. Reason was we could work the camera with gloves on in the winter time.

A follow photographer had a metal camera that he insisted was the greatest thing since slice bread. Kept telling me I was nuts for using a wood camera. Well one winter day he came very close to getting frost bit.

In my collection of dead unrepairable camera are 3 metal camera that hit the ground. The only wood one was ran over farmer.

[Tin Can]

A positive is all metal cameras are cheap

But not a Calumet C1,

KODAK Master View

I owned both, but sold for their VALUE

please chime in

[ethics_gradient]

I can't "know" the answers to the original question, but suspect that part of it is that monorail cameras took longer to become the dominant studio / commercial tool than it seems in retrospect.

What are the first widely used monorail cameras? I think the Graphic View (1940?), Sinar (1948), Kodak Master view / Calumet (1950s?), Cambo (1950s), Linhof Kardan (1960)? The Rittreck and the somewhat similar original Toyo Field were introduced around 1963-65, while I can't think of a Japanese monorail camera that dates back to the mid-60s - I assume the Omega/Toyo View began later, although I certainly don't know first hand. Information on the chronology of view camera models is a little uneven.

That's a good point - when you mention it, monorails don't seem to have been all that widespread until later!

[Mark Sampson]

Certainly the market for large-format has changed considerably over the years. When the designs we are wondering about today were designed and introduced, there was a significant professional market for LF cameras. Of many designs and formats...
That market slowly evaporated as professionals moved first to smaller film formats and then digital, a process that likely began in the early 1960s. Yet the cameras remain, to be used (and pondered) by artists and amateurs. And by people like me, who have lived through many of those changes.
For example; for decades, Graflex ruled the professional market (at least in the USA). But by the time I was becoming involved with photography in high school, fifty years ago, Graflex had just given up camera production. When I began shooting LF, around forty years ago, there were many photo manufacturers;now how many are left? Change is a constant.