Did Horseman make a rangefinder 4x5?

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I'm currently using a 6x9 Century Graphic and would like to move up to 4x5. The Graflex's are great but a little too limiting in the movements. The Linhof's are beautiful and have all the movements - but along with their prohibitive cost, they are just too heavy for 'street photography,' which is one of the many things I would like to do with the 4x5. Didn't Horseman make a 4x5 with coupled rangefinder? I'm only finding info on the 6x9's.

Thanks, DL

-- Dennis Lee (Captdennislee@earthlink.net), November 08, 2000

Answers

Dennis I don't think Horseman produced a 4x5 coupled rangefinder. However for 4x5 street photography you may like to consider the Cambo Wide, I know its not a rangefinder but with its wide angle lens range and viewfinder it lends itself well to this type of largeformat photography. Its light too and they do pop-up on the secondhand market from time to time.

Regards,

-- Trevor Crone (tcrone@gm.dreamcast.com), November 09, 2000.


Dennis, Horseman did make a 4x5 adapter for their medium format rangefinder cameras. I would question whether they will work with cams cut for the 6x9 format. It might be worth some investigation. I've seen used Technica IV's on the market for as little as $1000. I don't think you will get a Horseman with a 4x5 adapter for that little. Plus, you will have more bellows draw which will allow you to use longer lenses at infinity.

-- Robert A. Zeichner (info@razeichner.com), November 09, 2000.

Wista makes a 4x5 rangefinder - the RF model. Check B&H Photo for specs and details. Check Robert White for price. I haven't actually seen this model, but it looks a lot like the Horseman VHR (6x9), which is a very nice camera.

-- ebwhite (erothman@hotmail.com), November 09, 2000.

I do not think that it matters what make of viewfinder you use on which camera. Actually, studying the position that the a VF such as the Linhof takes on the Linhof MTK, you can determine what position this VF should have on your camera (on the horizontal plane) and use the Linhof VF instead. The height of your camera frame may be different then the Linhof MTK and cause some parallax but after all, you always have the ground glass for exact positioning. I use the Linhof VF all the time to asess prospective subjects -landscapes, and to determine the ideal focal length I need, rather than for positioning the camera on the subject, which I could do also. The Linhof VF gives you a fairly good idea of the perspective that you will get with various focal lengths, unlike dumb frames. To me this is a vary useful feature. For use I place the finder on a shoe -as used for flash units, and screw a tool handle -as used on some drills, onto the shoe. This converts the VF to a hand-holdable device. Alone it is unwieldy and yes, too expensive to drop.

-- Julio Fernandez (gluemax@ora.auracom.com), November 10, 2000.

Sorry Dennis, mistook rangefinder for viewfinder.

-- Julio Fernandez (gluemax@ora.auracom.com), November 10, 2000.


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