A bit more info:
There are more details in the hand copied text somewhere in the middle of this thread. That text has gone on a worldwide tour on blogs it seems.
To add a bit more detail, I tried to estimate the outer dimensions. Not only for the price you will need deep pockets, it will be approximately 170 mm wide, 105 mm high and 58 mm deep when folded. The lugs and eye cup not measured. None of my 6x6 and 6x9 folders are as deep and wide as this 6x7 is. It is as high as the Iskra which is necessary with a viewfinder window that big. I wonder how deep the Bessa II is of which it borrowed the arched folder lid, less in my estimation.
Ernst Dinkla
weighs 862g without a battery 😉
On the one I tried -- a prototype Bessa III rescued from under glass -- yes, the frame width was significantly different; I'd guess 56x56 + 56x68 to 70, but I didn't measure it (sorry!). It might easily have been the Linhof 56x72mm size.
The 'bulgy' front and thumb-grip shaping on the back makes it look and feel quite a bit bigger than some traditional folders, but realistically this is only a matter of a few millimetres. It's more comfortable to hold than an old 'boxy' square-edge folder, without quite the feeling of solidity and cold metal -- which is what you'd expect, 50-80 years on with the advantage of new covering materials. The bellows are NOT self-erecting -- it's pull and click -- and this should aid both durability and rigidity: it seemed well rigid to me.
The thing is, I'm not a great folder addict, and I had to go over a lot of show, so I spent only a few minutes with it (again, sorry!).
Cheers,
R.
In terms of portability, that is a little on the heavy side for me. 🙁
Shoots a large negative in comparison to say a screw mount leica weighing just over 600g and only getting a fraction of the negative size.
In fact, the 6x7 negative is a bit over 4.5 times the area of 35mm. Or, put the other way... the 35mm neg is about 20% the size of 6X7.
I will pack a bit more weight around for those results.
ditto that..it really isnt much weight for the size of the negs, I'm happy to carry it around.
in fact i prefer a camera that weighs a little more even within its own class just for a solid feel and build
In terms of portability, that is a little on the heavy side for me. 🙁