I am confused by these technical cameras without bellows. I have been looking at getting a 6x9 view camera with bellows to attach a Credo 60 to in the hope I can work out the movements and get sharper images with view camera lenses. These technical cameras are more compact than view cameras with bellows but can they do tilts at both the back and lens planes? I understand some technical cameras have lens boards with tilt facilities but wouldn't I be better off getting a "normal" view camera with bellows?
Would these technical cameras give me anything more than what I can get from my BendyBlad—a Flexbody modified to give sideways shift and tilt as well as vertical tilt and shift?
I want a package I can take into the bush for landscapes.
Any guidance would be appreciated!
Roger
The "pancake" cameras have quite limited movements. It can be hard to figure out exactly which movements there are as tilt can be available through adapters or special tilt mounts available in a limited set of focal lengths. The orientation of tilt can also be limited. What you gain compared to a traditional monorail view camera is small size, high precision focusing together with a laser distance meter (no need for ground glass for critical focusing, some don't even use it for composition) and better parallelism which can be important for wide angle photography. For table top photography a studio view camera like the Linhof M679 or Sinar P3 provides way more flexibility.
The advantage compared to the "Bendyblad" would be the distance scale focusing and better precision (parallelism) which the shaprer Digitar and Digaron lenses might require for best performance. What is the widest lens you can use with the Bendyblad? I'd guess wide angle options and performance is likely to be a lot better, while there will be a smaller difference for longer lenses. Concerning movements there's likely little to gain, possibly even lose some depending on which package you choose.
If you want something "in-between" you can look into Arca-Swiss MF-two or Linhof Techno. I'm myself using a Linhof Techno for landscape photography. The Techno is best appreciated if you use tilt often and have many lenses including longer ones (where the lower lens mount cost and weight becomes significant).
When you evaluate these systems look into which focal lengths you will be using, both at first and in the future and check out which options there are and which movements you get. An Arca-Swiss RM3Di has built-in tilt in the body, but it's fixed so you can't tilt diagonally, and the +/-5 degrees will be limiting on longer lenses / closeup. Cambo has not built-in tilt but has it on special lens mounts, more expensive and not available on all lenses, but the advantage that the mount can be turned so you can tilt diagonally if you wish. ALPA has a tilt adapter.