Wanderlust 4x5 P&S

[plywood]

Ben, it may be that the requirements for the screens, fine focus and brightness across the entire field are at cross purposes. Optimizing one makes getting the other right harder. Personally, since the primary reason for the screen is to set up infinity on your lens I would consider the other screen, optimized for full field viewing as an extra cost item and would be more than willing to pay for it.
As to stress, boy howdy, wish I could help......Oh yeah, I can help, I'll try to be less of the pest who always writes wanting you to sell me extra parts.

[HMG]

Exactly. And those types of emails take a psychic toll even if we know they're not really going to hire a lawyer to recoup $99. It's just not a pleasant feeling to know you've made someone that upset.

If you try to avoid the jerks all your life you'll never get anywhere. From what I've seen on these pages and on APUG, 99.9% are supportive.

Now, think how much easier it will be when you do the 5x7 version.

[Ben Syverson]

Ben, it may be that the requirements for the screens, fine focus and brightness across the entire field are at cross purposes.

They definitely are. It's basically a three-way trade off of resolution, brightness and evenness. It has to do with the size and depth of the grain. As you get to finer matte textures, the brightness drops off a cliff, but the evenness and resolution increases. A rougher or more shallow texture will be far brighter, with a pronounced hotspot and more of an apparent texture to the aerial image.

The swatch that we're trying to match for the general purpose screen is a great compromise. It's darker than the screens we have, but it has good evenness and great resolution. To get that match perfect, we may need to send the mold to MoldTech and do a more expensive etching.

We will definitely have extra parts available! We've been preoccupied, but after we ship, we hope to have a section of the site with "seconds" and DIY parts.

[rfesk]

The three-way trade off of resolution, brightness and evenness is the reason Fresnel lenses were invented. You may be trying for the next to impossible.

[Tim Meisburger]

Good on ya mate!

I've actually been incredibly pleased with this project so far. For $99 I've got an inside view of a manufacturing process from conception through (almost) completion. I used to build stuff for a living, so am familiar with that struggle to cross the finish line. These days, when manufacturing has pretty much died in the US, and guys are no longer out in the driveway fixing cars or welding together the latest bright idea, I think few people get to experience that. But I can tell you when you do finish, you will have an incredible feeling of satisfaction and pride that will stay with you forever!

Best, Tim

[Tin Can]

Tim, I wanted to click, 'like'.

[AuditorOne]

Tim, I wanted to click, 'like'.

+1000

[Nigel Smith]

I recently did a family road trip and decided to take my 4x5 instead of my Mamiya 645 as my film camera (had dSLR & p&s too).

There were several times when I thought, "gee that Travelwide would have been good to have now!"

Next year hopefully, or else I'll be taking the Mamiya as well!

Good luck getting these out the door Ben!

[Scott Knowles]

Thanks for the information. I don't understand why not add another 500 cameras if they have already sold the first 1,500 and have interest from many others. How else will they recoup their investment if they don't sell more cameras, whether or not they get pre-orders for all 500. They'll have them to sell as more people discover the camera than to tell them they've sold out and won't make any more to recoup their investment? It just seems a little strange if they don't make more only to say, "If we had, we could have made it work, but we didn't."

[Scott Knowles]

Apparently not everyone on the kickstarter mailing list got an update. I registered and haven't heard a peep of news, but then I'm not one of the original investors.