Fotoman is no more/IS BACK AGAIN

[Juergen Sattler]

http://www.fotomancamera.com/news.asp

Very sad news

[darr]

Indeed. I order at 617 yesterday and was assured by Paul that my camera will ship on Monday. Here is a clip of his email message:

Hello Darr,

Yes, I can confirm that you will be one of the very lucky individuals to receive one of the last dozen Fotoman 617's to be manufactured. The camera will be shipping on Monday, April 13th.

Cheers,

Paul

I am very disappointed. I wonder if they will go through the roof now as collector cameras.

[David Cerbone]

I came across this news last week as well and I too am saddened/disappointed. Fortunately, I put in an order for two more cone assemblies for my Fotoman 612, which will pretty much complete my set-up. From a financial standpoint, it may be for the best that I will not be subject to the temptation of branching out into the other formats.

[darr]

I did receive the Fotoman 617 I had ordered as well as an additional cone for my 180 lens. Paul is a man of his word, so if anyone has been putting off purchasing accessories for their Fotoman cameras, now is the time to order.

Darr

[Robert Oliver]

any chance this was an april fools joke?

It is with much regret and sadness, that Fotoman Camera Ltd. announces the termination of all manufacturing activities, effective April 1st, 2009.

[darr]

any chance this was an april fools joke?

It is with much regret and sadness, that Fotoman Camera Ltd. announces the termination of all manufacturing activities, effective April 1st, 2009.

No, sadly it is no joke.

[Wally]

There are 10 new Fotoman 4x5s up for sale on eBay - $800. each. These are the last production run, I'm assuming. I wonder who held on to them for so long.

I must say, these are considerably less expensive than the Cambo Wide cameras. Are they seriously less capable?

(forgot to post the link! http://www.ebay.com/itm/Large-Format...#ht_500wt_1180 )

[BradS]

I had one of the Fotoman PS45 cameras. Bought it used from...well, that doesn't matter. Anyway, it was a very nice camera and pretty fun to use. My only gripe was concerning the ergonomics. I did not have the aero grip handled though. I understand that they make the thing a little easier to use.

Ultimately, a good Crown Graphic with a well calibrated rangefinder beats the pants off the Fotoman and costs much less too.

[Dan Fromm]

It seems that Fotoman is back. http://fotoman.cc/~sdfgnl5/zh/

[Emmanuel BIGLER]

Dan probably prefers to read the original page in Chinese; for those like me who do not read, even simplified Chinese, there is an English version
http://fotoman.cc/~sdfgnl5/en/

I was surprised to receive an advertising for fotoman by e-mail. Most visible products seem brand new and inspired by the current trend of precision MF/LF view cameras for film or digital with helical focusing. The 6x9 (2x3") and 4x5" line seem to be newly redesigned.
However some traditional panoramic film cameras are still there like the 617
http://fotoman.cc/~sdfgnl5/en/fotoma...ody/39-fo.html
and the hand-held 810 http://fotoman.cc/~sdfgnl5/en/fotoma...mera-body.html

The accessories section no longer features the optical rangefinder but one can find a $150 120°-angle optical viewfinder of great interest for all kinds of do-it-yourself wide-angle camera projects.
http://fotoman.cc/~sdfgnl5/en/acceso...iewfinder.html