Ellis, great post. thanks!
couple questions.
why is a monorail more technical?
Axis tilt, cambo, Toyo, I thought all LF is tilt and shift no? Sinar does not do tilt/ shift?
for Sinar, "make sure it has the rear standard designed to support 8x10 backs"
What does that mean? Don't all back have a place for the holders?
You like Nikon lenses over Schneider? I hear both opinions. I'm going to dive in and just choose one brand of lens. Do you see a real differences in the prints
A monorail view camera like the Sinar P/P2/P2 or F/F2. Arca-Swiss M or F /FC, and Horseman, Toyo and Linhof monorails are considered tthe most complex and abest suited for still life work. These cameras have rise, fall ,shift, tilt, and swing movements on the both the front (lens) and rear ( film or digital sensor) standards, along with interchangable bellows and monorails that that can be lengthened by adding additional rail segments - sometimes to the point of needing intermediate standards and additional bellows along with a second tripod. My favorite studio only cameras were the Sinar P and P2 because of their adaptability and ease of use - the latter a an explanation of I'll get to in a moment.
There are three ways of designing movements for a view camera. The most prevalent in a monorail camera is the on axis tilt design. This means that the lens and film plane tilt around horizontal line running across the middle of the standards. Most Axis tilt cameras alos have the rise/fall movement i nthe fiilm and lens plane. this happened because once you start doing complex movements - ones involving tilt, with rise or fall and possibly swing on both the front and rear standards you end up often needing to go through multiple iterations of "correcting your corrections " to achieve the effect you want. of yaw where the front and rear standard planes can get can form a geometry where the two planes intersect in a point and not a line.
For cameras designed to be used on location the popular designs - wooden folders and the Canham metal cameras, the Japanese made Ebonys, the Linhof TK45s (not available in 8x10), and the Arca-Swiss F/FC monorail cameras are base tilt movements. Almost as the name implies filed cameras are meant primarily for use on location but do excellent work as portrait as well as landscape cameras. With base tilts the tilt axis is at or just below the bottom of the film holder and lens holder. This has certain advantages over on-axis tilts but if you have learned view camera movements on an on axis tilt camera the process can be a bit strange.
A "technical camera would be like the "lunchbox" Horseman, Toyo and Linhof designs where the rail bed is the "lid' of the lunch box and folds down allowing the front standard to move forward to focus. Movements and bellows length on these cameras tend to be limited.
My favorite cameras for both studio and field work are the Canham metal cameras and the Arca-Swiss FC series. As they have the precision and range of movement required for still life work and the portability needed for field work.
The Sinar P series of cameras use neither an on-axis or base tilt design. instead they used a patented off axis tilt and swing design where the tilt and swing movements rotate around lines in the film and lens planes but closer to to the edges than the center. One of the things this allowed Sinar to do was to build in a calculator based on the actual degree of movements to help you determine what was the best (i.e., most wide open aperture) you cold use to achieve the depth of focus you wanted for a photo if you were using. The Sinar and the Arca-Swiss M and FC cameras were also yaw-free designs which really speeds up the process of determining how to best set the tilt, swing rise and fall movements.
As to my preference of Nikon lenses. one of the beauties of working with a view camera is that you are not limited to a single maker of really terrific, very sharp, high resolution lenses lenses. I did most of my LF work with a mix of Rodenstock Sironars (normal focal lengths) and Grandagons (wide angle designs) and Nikkor SW, W, M and T lenses for both wide angle, normal and telephoto work. there was just something in the way these lenses made my chromes look that appealed to me a little more than the look of Schneider glass.
I apologize for any typos. This has been a very long post and I'm tired.
