4 x 5 Is amazing!!

tedwhite said:
JT:

What's your opinion of the Shen-Hao? I've been looking at it on varios websites and am seriously tempted.
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I think it's great -- the bang-for-the-buck is simply tough to beat on any level. I really wanted to get my feet wet with a solid 4x5 field camera and this has fit the bill perfectly. Nicely made, solid, a very complete set of movements for such a relatively compact camera -- and I haven't even really "pushed" it's capabilities yet (that is slated for a 3-week trip out west in August 😀) . It has been very nice to learn on and I cannot imagine needing to trade up for a very long time, my goal is to eventually pair it with a 90-135-210 (or 240) set of lenses and learn as I go. And William is not kidding about those 4x5 chromes on a light table -- as a matter of fact, if I can ever get my day job to settle down and give me more spare time I am going to start doing some E-6 processing at home. Frankly, even simple 4x5 B&W contact prints are fun.

It was actually X-ray on this forum that gave me my final "push" on the Shen-Hao, I feel like I owe him a good beer or single malt!

Oh my, William-- I know exactly what you mean about the song of the 5x7, 8x10 -- but after my serious film camera outlays over the past year, my better half would fly out the window! 😉

Best,

JT
 
My first lurk into LF forum on RFF (for LF I used to go APUG), but just noticed mentioning Shen-Hao 4x5 camera on this thread.
I used to own one for about a year now, unfortunately haven't being able to put it through a really demanding conditions to check its endurance merits, but so far, for just a plain amateur use for please it works fine and delivers. So far made about 50-70 sheets through it on short nature hikes (day-long), handles my Fujinon 150mm/5.6 and Caltar-N II 90mm/6.8 (redabged Rodenstock Grandagon-N II).
In general, satisfied with the camera, the are few things to wish about though:
even though it is advertised to work with 90mm lenses with regular bellows (and it does as a matter of fact - allows focusing on infinity) - I found infinity focusing is quite stiff due to the bellows, and once fine focusing is necessary - sometimes drove me nuts. The solution was quite simple yet requiring some additional investment - a wide angle bellows, just like many other 4x5 LF field cameras require for lenses 90mm of wider. With their wide angle bellows - day and noght difference.
Also, on my example, back sliding movements (focusing with back) were a bit sticky - had to disassambly back from the reels, found a traces of jags on metal parts inside (not sure whether these were indeed distrurbing), let them out, put a very small drop of WD40 and now it works smooth.
Otherwise I found working with it is pleasure.
If you intend to use heavy lenses though - that might be somethign your may want to consider with the camera. I would suspect heavy lenses atatched at the fron may comprimise mcaera stability during usage, for fine focusing in particular. (Heavy I mean heavy indeed, such as long, fast aperture beasts for instance...)
 
Just thought I would add that my "negatives" concur exactly with Alex's --- I had been forewarned that a bag bellows would be a near necessity for 90mm (haven't bought one..YET), one nice thing is that the Shen-Hao bag bellows is not exorbitantly expensive and the swap is supposed to be easy.

And hey-- I hadn't thought to pull it apart back from the reels-- I also found back sliding movements a bit tough, I will have to try this.

I view the Shen Hao like I do my M3, as the Shen is my "intro" to 4x5 (and hey maybe someday I'll go to an Ebony...) my M3 is my intro to Leica and I have my eye on an MP as a future promotion gift!

JT

Hah- just realized that the price differentials on my proposed step-ups are almost identical!
 
Xmm, JT, in my eyes Shen would be also a solid entry into portable LF but also consider it as a good long-term, affordable LF machine to serve an average amateur needs that do not require pushing the abilities to their end...
I once also considered Shen as my entry point all the way towards Ebony (or few comparable independent makers), however considering my limited available time resources for LF "campaigns" I cannot find a justification to spend 4-5 time of Shen for another LF camera.

On the other hand, my personal few doesn't consider M3 as an entry into Leica - aside of metering it appears to be as capable as any other classic Leica, many would even consider it more robust in design then even contemporary models.
BTW, aside of owing Shen, our similarities are also in that I also cosnidered M3 (but as a second to my current M6) mostly for my 90mm Elmarit due to M3's easier handling of longer lenses, what keeps me hesitating yet is that I value M6's in-camera metering which I find useful in many situations...
 
Hi all! Thanks for the kind words!
As far as Compact 4x5s the Busch pressman isn't bad at all! I managed to stuff my Leica M4-2, Rolleiflex 3.5 and the Pressman plus some film for all the formats into my little Domke F6 Bag (it did weigh about 6kg though).
I got this camera with a Schneider Angulon 90mm for less than $200 US on Ebay, It was a little tatty so I did strip it down and rebuild it though.
This is what a pressman looks like closed;
busch8.jpg

For scanning I used an old Epson 1240U with Lightbox, using Epson Twain, This setup does the Job (although not as well as i'd like)
 
shadowfox said:
A couple of basic questions, feeling a tad lazy to google today

1. Is there a portable 4x5 camera that uses RF as focusing mechanism?

2. Is 4x5 the only *viable* (read:easy) jump from MF (6x6 up to 6x9 ??) ?
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You might have a look at the Fotoman: www.fotomancamera.com There have been very good reports about them, and the owners are responsive to their customers.
 
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