I've owned a Shen Hao (briefly, not because of a problem with the camera but because it was misrepresented by the seller) and now own a Chamonix that I haven't yet had a chance to use very much. Both are excellent cameras, I don't think anyone would go wrong buying either one if it suits their needs.
I prefer the Chamonix myself, mainly because of the longer bellows extension (about 15" vs 12" for the Shen, the longer 14" Shen extension sometimes quoted is achieved by manipulating front base and axis tilts to extend the bellows out in front of the camera bed, manipulations that I didn't care to make); axis tilt (again, something that can be achieved on the Shen but with fiddling, base tilt is the norm), and lower weight (about 4 lbs vs 6 lbs). I also think the Chamonix is a better looking camera and I do care about the looks of things I use. While I haven't used either camera extensively, I didn't see an obvious difference in quality of construction, I thought both were well made and seemed pretty solid.
When I was considering buying the Chamonix I was mostly comparing it in my mind with the two Tachiharas I've owned. Again, I think both cameras are excellent cameras. But for my purposes the Chamonix was a clearer winner over the Tachihara than it was over the Shen, for the following reasons: axis tilt for the Chamonix vs base tilt for the Tachi; 15 inch bellows vs 13 inch bellows for the Tachi, which doesn't sound like much but was important to me because I use a 300mm lens that pushes the limits of the Tachi); Graflok/international back on the Chamonix vs plain spring back on the Tachi (the Tachi back severely limits choices in roll film holders which I keep saying I'm going to start using one of these days), interchangeable bellows on the Chamonix vs no interchangeable bellows on the Tachi (though the Tachi's very flexible bellows allows the use of shorter lenses without a bag bellows than is the case with many other non-interchageable bellows cameras).
There are other differences among the Shen, Chamonix, and Tachihara but the ones listed above were the ones that were important to me.
One difference that was unimportant to me was the availabilty of shift on the Chamonix (and the Shen) vs no shift on the Tachi. I've rarely used shift even with the Technikas and Ebonys I've owned that had it. When shift is used more of the area of the lens closer to its edges is used to form the image. With a modern lens and/or a lot of excess coverage that may be o.k. depending on the amount of shift. But I prefer to keep the film and lens centered so that as little as possible of the area towards the outer edges of the image circle is used to form the image. That's admittedly picky but I figure that I've gone to a lot of trouble and expense in using LF equipment to get the technically best image possible. So I'd rather move the tripod and keep the film and lens centered rather than just using shift to alter the composition (assuming, of course, that there's room in which to move the tripod).
Bookmarks