I AM INTERESTED TO BUY A 4X5 AND USING IT MOSTLY IN LOCATION FOR PORTRAITS AND LANDSCAPE. I TRAVEL A LOT AND I LIVE IN A TROPICAL AREA . I SAW THE WISNER POCKET EXP. AND THE LINHOF MASTER TECHNICA,BUT I DON'T KNOW FROM MY EXPERIENCE IF METAL IT'S BETTER THAN WOOD. I DON'T KNOW IF THERE IS OTHERS BRANDS OR MODELS ON THE MARKET FOR A VERY DURABLE AND VERSATILE CAMERA.

COULD I HAVE ANY TIPS FROM MORE EXPERIENCED LF USERS?

-- mark (bda@infonet.ifo), October 28, 1998

Answers

Check the various threads and comments about the Canham DLC.

-- Ellis (evphoto@insync.net), October 28, 1998.

Hi! How about ABS and stainless steel instead of metal or wood? Check out the Walker Titan 45 one of the best cameras around which provides great answers at reasonable cost. Wideangle capabilities and long bellows extention are a real surprise for such a camera! Regards

-- andrea (milandro@multiweb.nl), October 29, 1998.

I live in Ft. Lauderdale, FL and do occasionally worry about the humidities effect on my equipment. There are much damper places than even here and you don't say where you live.

My concerns have been unfounded however. The AX is seemingly impervious to the conditions but, to tell you the truth, I didn't have any problems with the Tachihara either. If I lived in a rain forest, I'd probably stay with metal or investigate the finishes on the woods, selecting the one(s) with a marine varnish.

I do take precautions with everything. Lenses get filters when I'm in the vicinity of salt water spray, cameras get wiped off frequently with a damp cloth - same with lens barrels and shutters. Tripod gets disassembled frequently, wiped off and a coat of protective oil applied.

We see a lot of corrosion down here on aircraft, which are built with aluminum (any coastal area has such problems with corrosion). Invariably, it is the care that the owner takes which makes the difference between an aircraft with corrosion and one that is clean and corrosion free. Same applies to

-- Mike Long (mlafly@aol.com), October 29, 1998.

Per your landscape/portrait requirement, you might consider getting a 6X7 or 6X9 roll film back. For portrait your 150-210mm normal lens on 4X5 would be a good 6X7 portrait lens. Seldom are portraits printed larger than 8X10-11X14, a good working size for roll film. The roll film can be nice for macro work as well where often image scale is limited most by depth of field (ie. you don't need 4X5 film size to get max resolution) save on film as well. Anyway, just some thoughts on what to use my 6X9 back for...

-- Gary Frost (gfrost@nospamhome.com), October 30, 1998.