Ebony cameras. They're gorgeous cameras, no doubt. Perfectly valid reason to be sorely tempted.
Ebony cameras. They're gorgeous cameras, no doubt. Perfectly valid reason to be sorely tempted.
I have an Ebony, an SVTI. It is a fabulous camera. Working with this camera, what I can say is that its like butter. You put your hands on the dials where you expect them to be and there they are. Exquisite workmanship. If you love this format, go ahead.
Lenny
EigerStudios
Museum Quality Drum Scanning and Printing
Hey Kelly,
I see that you will have a chance to see the camera in person which is always good. BTW, I'm in Knoxville, so if you come this way don't hesitate to e-mail. I talk with Chris Holden quite a bit, but we haven't actually crossed paths yet.
I did have a 5x7 Shen Hao which was a copy of an Ebony SV57 and it was an excellent camera, I liked it a lot. Not the build quality of the Ebony, but quite good. Mine had the "rubber bands" on the knobs, and eventually those would go bad and have to be replaced. The knobs were not usable without them, and that's about the only gripe I had with it. It was in walnut and quite pretty.
Cheers, Steve
Ditto if you come to Nashville, Steve. I've thought about trying to get a Nashville-area LF club together. I know at least three others who have them. Usually I have ideas and they always seem to be the ones no one is interested in except myself. Maybe a TN and surrounding area club is a better idea.Originally Posted by Steve Hamley
Kelly Beard
The Ebony has been addressed, but my concern is spending that much money on lenses that someone else choose. That is to say that for $3600 I'd be choosing a different set of lenses. Having an "all-in-one" package is good at the introductory price level for the beginner. Most people that are going to be spending many thousands of dollars on an Ebony view cameras are going to be pretty particular about lens selection and may want something different than what is in that lens package.
I agree that a New-View is only really useful for breaking rocks.i had me one of those nue-view 4x5 several years ago, damn what a camera, dropped off a rock, it fell hmm 8 feet onto another rock...
Rick "happy to be a former owner" Denney
p.s., it seems to me that metal (and modular) monorail cameras emerged not for studio use but for field use where the precision, flexibility, and modularity of traditional wooden flat-bed cameras were deemed insufficient. The as a result of the subsequent domination of metal monorails in the market, field cameras improved to eventually become competitive again. People like them for all sorts of reasons, but in my view they are harder to use and less durable. Maybe if I owned one I would see the light. But seeing what I can do with a lowly Sinar F-series or Cambo SC, which in todays market cost some sub-1 fraction of what a Chinese field camera costs, I keep talking myself out of the experiment.
Kelly,
Maybe a quarterly get together on the plateau? Lots of good stuff there, and half way in between.
I'm also doing a Victorian-era church portfolio, so keep your eyes open!
Cheers, Steve
Do you have any of your work online or small jpgs you can send? I don't know what a Victorian church looks like. Also, tell me about where you would meet on the plateau.
Kelly Beard
I'll post some here, nothing on-line yet. I haven't really thought about a good central location. Crossville or Cookeville are good central locations with good lodging and food provisions, and of course Fall Creek Falls State Park comes to mind with plenty of photo ops right there.
Images attached.
Cheers, Steve
for some reason i was thinking of this thread today, i thought with all the good deals on 4x5 field cameras why would someone spend all that extra money on an ebony? this is what came to mind. about a year ago a friend and i was sitting in front of this service station waiting on the mechanic to finish up a bit of routine maintenance on my car, when IT pulled up to the gas pumps, i have never seen a car like this, i have heard of them but living in the mountains of north georgia it is a rare occurance to see a work of art with wheels such as this. A brand new Bentley with the sticker still on the window, i wanted to looks so bad at the price but i just stayed where i was at, I know these cars go well over 100,000 dollars, we sat there and chit chatted pretending not to be impressed, both of us glaring at the car out of the corner of our eyes, after the fellow drove off, i said, " why in the world would a guy want to spend that kind of money for a car?" my friend simply said "because he can". Hmmm "good enough"
"WOW! Now thats a big camera. By the way, how many megapixels is that thing?"
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