ideas for folding camera with tilt & shift?

[josef_kubicek]

<p>Hi, i'm looking for a medium format folding camera with tilt and shift abilities, any ideas please?<br>

thanks,<br>

Josef</p>

[Jochen_S]

<p>Linhof Technika 6.5x9cm.<br>

A bit painful to use its movements since that requires exchanging film back and ground glass. - With wide lenses a monorail with dedicated short or bag bellows might be more fun. But the Techniuka folds and is rather versatile</p>

[josef_kubicek]

<p>Thanks Jochen for the reply, that looks good, love the rangefinder there.<br>

Looking for something more versatile then monorail as you say ;)<br>

Cheers.</p>

[Jochen_S]

<p>Linhof are still in business but have lots of history. Support for some heritage products ran out / got limited. - With older Technika models the lenses were factory adjusted to that camera and got individual rangemeter cams.<br>

Before you buy something: read up how far support will still go, where to get a replacement bellows if needed (Linhof's vintage ones are likely to break) and if the supplied lenses are (still) good enough for your standards. <br>

Schneider Kreuznach behaved as if their old stuff was a case for the recycling bin and barely worth a shutter CLA, at least compared to their current product line.<br>

If you want to use a new lens with an old kit you'll have to send everything (old lenses & cams too!) to Linhof and will end paying a pretty penny for the new cam, in case tghey are still supporting your camera. - Thats all I am recalling. </p>

[rodeo_joe1]

<p>Zeiss Ikon made the compact Ideal and Tropen cameras that had limited rise/shift and (I believe) tilt. These were plate cameras however and would need to be modified to take a rollfilm back. The rise and shift were controlled by neat screw knobs on the front standard. However I think that lens tilt was only available on models larger than 6x9cm IIRC, taking them out of the medium format category. But I might well be wrong on that count.</p>

<p>A company called Nagel made a model called Recomar that was a cheaply made copy of the Zeiss Ikon designs.</p>

<p>Then there's the Graflex Crown Graphic, and that's about all I can think of that would fit into the category of MF folding cameras. All of them would need some modification to take 120 rollfilm and a modern winder back.</p>

<p>There's also the Mamiya Super23, (note - not the 645 Super but a variation on the earlier Mamiya press 23). The back had the ability to be tilted or swung. Not sure if there was any rise/shift, but it would have been by means of an eccentric lens plate or sliding back if so. One of these would take 120 film directly with a suitable holder, but it's not really a folding camera - more a fixed metal box with a hole in the front for interchangeable lenses and a bigger hole in the back to take various film-holders.</p>

<p>You might want to consider getting a fixed-lens rollfilm folder and modifying the struts to allow tilt/shift. The film-lens parallelism on some of those old cameras was pretty ropey anyway!</p>

[joseph_dickerson]

<p>Consider the Horseman VHR or VH. VHR will have a rangefinder and the VH does not.<br>

JD</p>

[mag_miksch]

<p>if you are in the USA look for Graflex cameras, same as the Technicas but much cheaper</p>

[dhbebb]

<p><em>same as the Technicas but much cheaper</em><br>

... with absolutely nothing like the range of movements of a Linhof, but enough for landscape, very much lighter in weight and much more affordable - look out in particular for the 6x9 Century Graphic</p>

[dan_fromm2]

<p>Graflex Inc (including predecessors and successors) camera names are quite confusing. In Graflex speak, a Graflex is an SLR. A Graphic (not Graphic View) is a press camera. I think a press camera was suggested.</p>

<p>I shoot 2x3 Pacemaker Graphics. Speed, with focal plane shutter; Crown, without focal plane shutter; Century, bargain version of the Crown with molded plastic body. </p>

<p>The only generally useful movement these 2x3 press cameras have is ~ 19 mm of rise. </p>

<p>Although they appear to offer ~ 10 mm of shift, this is constrained to ~ 0 mm by the bed struts. Shift can be used only with lenses that focus to infinity with the front standard in front of the struts. This is very limiting.<br>

<br />As for tilt, again, yes, drop bed plus the front standard's backwards tilt appear to make front tilt. Forget it for most focal lengths.</p>

<p>OP, if you want movements don't screw around with folders, get a proper 2x3 view camera. Galvins turn up from time to time, as do Cambo SC-1x and Arca Swiss.</p>

[dhbebb]

<p>... front tilt ...<br>

can in fact be obtained quite easily with short focal lengths by mounting the camera on a tripod upside down. This is particularly easy with the Century Graphic, thanks to its super-high-tech "Mahoganite" material (OK it's plastic really).</p>

[dan_fromm2]

<p>David, my little Century Graphic has tripod mounting sockets on the bottom and on the left side under the strap. How, pray, can I mount it upside down on a tripod?</p>

<p>Are you thinking of another camera model?</p>

[dhbebb]

<p>dan, to mount upside down you need to turn the camera through 180 degrees. using the side tripod bush gets you 90 degrees, tilting the tripod head gets you another 90. this is probably easiest with a big ball and socket head but can be done with a pan and tilt as well.</p>

[dan_fromm2]

<p>David, thanks for the explanation.</p>