help with final 4x5 decisions

[b.cipolla]

So I made a thread asking for advice looking for my first 4x5 a few weeks ago and you all were a great help. Thank you very much. Now, I am stuck between getting a Wisner Traditional and a Chamonix 45N-1. I can get a Wisner Traditional along with a lens board and bellows from John Wilton for $725 plus shipping. On the other hand, I can get a Chamonix with a lens board, bellows, and case for $952 plus shipping. I am stuck because I am leaning towards the Chamonix but the price of the Wisner is also swaying me towards that. Ideally, I would like a Technical Wisner but I haven't been able to find one for the right price. I am really just looking for which one is the most versatile and can be set up in strange perspectives. I think that the Chamonix would be able to handle this the best, but once again, the price of the Wisner is persuading. So, what do you guys think. (Please only consider the cameras I have mentioned.) As always, thank you!

[Gem Singer]

While waiting for delivery of a new Chamonix you could be photographing with the used Wisner.

Money seems to be an issue here. By purchasing the Wisner, there will be enough difference left over to cover the price of film and some of the needed accessories.

If you don't mind waiting until the fall and paying the nearly $300 additional price, by all means purchase the Chamonix.

If not, purchase the Wisner and start shooting. Both are equally fine 4x5 wooden folding flatbed field cameras.

[Lachlan 717]

What criteria did you use to end up with these 2 cameras?

[neil poulsen]

Is there any kind of warranty with the new Chaminix? If so, consider waiting for that one. There's no warranty with the Wisner.

[MIke Sherck]

Is there any kind of warranty with the new Chaminix? If so, consider waiting for that one. There's no warranty with the Wisner.

I think it unlikely that the Wisner will blow a tube any time soon. If it's in decent condition (light-tight, no split wood, etc.) then there's not much which can go wrong with a field camera. I've had a Wiser Technical Field and now use an old Zone VI, I believe Wiser-made, which is pretty much equivalent to a Wisner Traditional Field, and I don't see anything the Tech Field will do that the Traditional can't do.

To be sure, there's a lot to love about a new view camera: there's that new camera smell, the virtual certainty that every mistake you make can't be blamed on the camera (think lens, tripod, focusing cloth, etc.) and so on. Personally, I'd love a new camera but being an, um, "frugal" Yankee, can't make myself give up an old but still perfectly functional camera. My fault: the entire economy is in dire straits and it's probably entirely the fault of cheapskates like me.

Mike

[Gem Singer]

Neil's point regarding a warranty is a valid one (read on).

Ron Wisner is no longer available to stand behind his cameras.

However, neither is Jack Deardorff. Yet people are willing to pay high prices for fifty year old Deardorffs. They use them, cherish them, and can have them repaired if necessary.

Whatever you feel about Ron Wisner, he was able to follow in Deardorff's footsteps for more than twenty years and made some fine cameras.

There still are a few people out there who are willing and able to service Wisners.

A view camera is not a complicated electro-mechanical device like some other types of cameras I could mention. Unless it's seriously damaged, a LF camera seldom needs servicing.

[Brian Ellis]

I just sold a Wisner Tech Field 5x7 with 4x5 and 5x7 backs, bag bellows, 7 Wisner lens boards, and Wisner ground glass protective cover for about $850 on ebay. It was offered here at a little more but no takers or even offers. You can find a 4x5 Tech Field if you look on ebay, when I was pricing the 4x5/5x7 I saw several that had been sold in recent months for something in the $700 range IIRC. Wisners are, IMHO, at the moment a great value-for-money camera. The outfit I sold was very close to like-new and the original cost was about $3,500.

OTOH, the Chamonix is a good bit lighter and Wisners aren't made any more so you'd need to have someone fabricate any parts that you needed unless you're handy with wood. And the $250 or so difference between the Wisner you're looking at and a new Chamonix is relative peanuts in the long run. I'd probably go for the Chamonix.

[b.cipolla]

What criteria did you use to end up with these 2 cameras?

Pretty much a field camera with the most movements and best quality that I could get for under $1,000.

[b.cipolla]

While waiting for delivery of a new Chamonix you could be photographing with the used Wisner.

Money seems to be an issue here. By purchasing the Wisner, there will be enough difference left over to cover the price of film and some of the needed accessories.

If you don't mind waiting until the fall and paying the nearly $300 additional price, by all means purchase the Chamonix.

If not, purchase the Wisner and start shooting. Both are equally fine 4x5 wooden folding flatbed field cameras.

Chamonix's are not available until the fall? Hmm I didn't know that. That will definitely be a deciding factor.

[Bill_1856]

It doesn't matter what you get. There will be problems with it, and eventually you're going to wish that you'd bought the other one and want something else.