Wisner 4x5 SLR

Has anyone seen the new Wisner 4x5 SLR? It can be seen o their web

page. It's a Graflex style reflex with ground glass viewing from the

top using a hood. It also has a revolving back. But unlike the

Graflex ( I have three of those), it uses a lens with a Copal

shutter. I guess you will cock the shutter, focus wide open, then

stop down and shoot. The camera will take lenses from 150mm to 400mm.

Cost? $3500.

It looks like a monstrosity! I can't imagine hand holding it. The ergonomics are horrible. Anyone who spends $3500 for this has got to have more money than brains. I'd rather use a Rollei TLR before that thing. I can just imagine trying to take a picture with any decent depth of field hand held. Ya sure, 1 sec at f32, forward tilt, gimme a break!

A modern replacement for the old Graflex would be a nice thing.It would be interesting to find out what the operating procedure is.

?load holder/pull slide/focus/stop down/close shutter/raise mirror/expose? Sounds pretty cumbersome but I can't imagine how you could do it any other way with an ordinary Copal shutter. Of course on the Graflexes the shutter was behind the mirror...and of course I'm no camera designer. Let's hope more details are forthcoming soon. A camera design praised by Steiglitz, Strand, and Weston, to name only a few, deserves to be revived.

I would definitely go for the Gowland 4x5 TLR, at less than half the price (despite having *two* lenses), before I would be tempted by this thing. And it is not some wacky newfangled thing, it has been in production for half a century. Check out www.petergowland.com, click on Our Cameras.

 

CXC

Looking at the Wisner website, I think the new SLR camera would be just the ticket for 4x5 group photography and portraiture. I don't think the $3500 price tag is out of line for such a small production run camera. The old Graflexes were work horses for decades. The Rollei is a fine camera. My problem with any non SLR camera is the viewing plane is different than the optical plane. The separate viewing path is fine for fast work, but the viewed image is not the captured image. (With the mirror black out with the SLR cameras, "what you see is what you didn't get", but at least the composition is correct.)

 

I give Ron Wisner a lot of credit for producing such innovative cameras. He could make a good living selling only 4x5 and 8x10 Technical Field Cameras, and most likely keep better production schedules and happier customers. Instead, he has gone out on limbs and produced very fine cameras for very limited markets.

 

The Wisner SLR combines the on axis viewing of the Graflex with the X flash sync of the leaf shutter--a potent combination for today's photographer. I suspect its large size makes handholding clumsy. However, I haven't figured out why anyone would want to handhold a 4x5 today. In skilled hands, the "graflex type" camera is certainly quicker to operate for people pictures than the conventional view camera, even when mounted on a tripod.

Imagine being able to shoot 4x5 with an RB67 and you begin to understand the attraction of the Wisner SLR. Mark, I suspect that the procedure is similar as well; pull dark slide/compose/focus/expose. I believe that at least some Copal shutters are equipped with a wide open preset and auto stop down, but I could be wrong. For the majority of my portrait work I shoot wide open anyway, so the stop-down step is a non-issue for me. I would love to have one, but apparently I have neither brains nor money!

Me being a total newbie ( i just got my first package of 4x5 film and havent even taken a single shot) .. I have one question to ask.. ****WHY?****

 

-I mean, the whole idea of using a camera hand-held is that it is fast.. you can quickly meter, compose, focus and shoot and then be ready for the next shot. (or for you auto-types, you can skip all 3 steps and just shoot) Now think 4x5... it only comes in sheet film these days so you are limited to film holders. So even if the mirror flips up automatically, you still have to replace a darkslide and pull the filmholder, then insert another filmholder and pull the darkslde. -This limits you to about 1 shot in 10 seconds, not counting composing and re-focusing, so you better make that first shot count! One more thing on 'hand-held 4x5'... all the portraits of photographers who used the graflex RB had their camera on a tripod. hmmm...

My first thought was they must have missed April 1st with this announcement.....

Darin, you're missing the point. You set the camera up on tripod or off, insert the filmholder, pull the darkslide, and then compose, focus, and trip the shutter at the key moment. You can follow action, focusing until you take the picture. If you use a Grafmatic or Quickchange holder, you can cycle pretty quickly through 6 or 8 frames, respectively.

 

With a view camera, you don't get to look through the lens at the precise moment. With a press camera you have to switch back and forth between the rangefinder and the viewfinder, if you want to stay in focus with a moving subject and a wide aperture. With a TLR you might have parallax error (though I believe the Gowlandflex is cammed to correct for this). The reasons for using a 4x5" SLR are the same as the reasons for using any format SLR--you see what the lens actually sees up until the instant of exposure.

why drive a mercedes when you could drive a chevy. why use a mont blanc when you can use a bic. why keep time with a rolex when you can use a timex. Why? Because there are those who work very hard to earn their money and who want to enjoy the fruits of their labor. And why do some photographers put down cameras they have never used because they cost a certain amount of money. Probably because they are secretly jealous of those who would be able to afford and use one.

 

 

Kevin

Kevin, truely spoken as someone who probably doesn't have the money to spend (blow) on this Wisner. Personally I can afford to buy any camera I want, but I didn't get to that point by wasting it on poorly designed, grossly overpriced merchandise. Keep your chicken soup anaylsis to yourself please.

Interesting that Wisner keeps coming out with new equipment, but can't deliver consistently on what they have in the existing catalog.

While I welcome a new and perhaps more robust version of the Graflex I can't help but wonder if they will go the way of the Wisner Hypergon... paid for but never seen.

I echo Keith's comment. Seems to me that if Ron Wisner spent less time designing new cameras and more time building the ones currently in his line, there'd be far fewer pissed off people waiting months and months for their camera orders to be filled.