Modular Monorail for 35mm dslr and more..?

[piksi]

Hello,

I'm trying to keep this as simple and as clear as possible:

My shooting gear includes 10D, 5D + pile of L glass which are my main workhorses currently. The style of photography I get paid for has changed dramatically in the recent months from ordinary studio shoots into architectural and product shoots and I've found my current gear completely inadequate. In other words, I'm missing the freedom of a view camera. I can't afford the time and money to shoot on film, so I'm hoping for an option to combine my current gear with some kind of slr-view camera monorail.

There are 3 options I've found so far:

1) http://www.komamura.co.jp/press/LD.jpg Horseman LD - I don't know the health of this company (some claim it's dying), but at least they've introduced this very promising piece of gear allowing mounting of canon slrs with good monorail and large format glass (I'm planning on using rodenstock apo sironars).

2) http://www.cambo.com/Html/Images/UL35-C1ds.jpg Cambo ultima 35 - This one seems like an appropriate choice too, though the price tag is imho a bit steep (although i love the robustness and fine tuning).

3) Sinar modular M-system - the price tag is darn big, but as a long term investment it would give me a modular view camera and slr in one package. Currently not a realistic choice.


My requirements for the gear are following:

1) as little limitations in terms of focusing (must be able to do macros and focus to infinity on as many lf-glasses as possible), as I'm going to use it for landscape,architectural and product work.

2) I'd love to have the possibility to convert the monorail into a view camera in the future, so modularity is a big plus. As many film and digibacks should be compatible with the monorail as possible.

3) compatibility with as many lenses as possible. I'm going to invest into the rodenstock lenses as I have a good experience of them beforehand, but I need to be sure that they are compatible with the system. Horseman LD stated that only LF lenses from 90mm and up are compatible. Does this mean that i'm unable to do any wide angle photos at all with it?

4) I need to know if using the monorail with a 1,6x crop camera is pure hell or possible. If i'm correct - it shouldn't matter if i use 5D or 10D, the only difference is that i need to take more photos when stitching with 10D (as the shift area is smaller with 10D). Am i correct or are there some other limitations i'm unaware of?


I dont want to invest into T/S lenses as I've found them to be far away from my needs and very expensive compared to what they give me.

Any suggestions about the gear are welcome. :-)

[Jack Flesher]

How about a Sinar P with the Studiotool EOS to Sinar adapter?   You get a rigid 4x5 studio camera, convertable to 5x7 and 8x10, as well as a great platform for a Betterlight scanning back and with the Studiotool adapter, a camera you can mount your Canon DSLR to.

(FWIW, I owned a Cambo Ultima for about 30 days before I sold it.  For whatever reason, as good as it looks, it is really not that precise. For example, when you lock down focus, the focus changed -- at least on mine. )

[BernardLanguillier]

1) http://www.komamura.co.jp/press/LD.jpg Horseman LD - I don't know the health of this company (some claim it's dying), but at least they've introduced this very promising piece of gear allowing mounting of canon slrs with good monorail and large format glass (I'm planning on using rodenstock apo sironars).

My requirements for the gear are following:

3) compatibility with as many lenses as possible. I'm going to invest into the rodenstock lenses as I have a good experience of them beforehand, but I need to be sure that they are compatible with the system. Horseman LD stated that only LF lenses from 90mm and up are compatible. Does this mean that i'm unable to do any wide angle photos at all with it?

4) I need to know if using the monorail with a 1,6x crop camera is pure hell or possible. If i'm correct - it shouldn't matter if i use 5D or 10D, the only difference is that i need to take more photos when stitching with 10D (as the shift area is smaller with 10D). Am i correct or are there some other limitations i'm unaware of?
I dont want to invest into T/S lenses as I've found them to be far away from my needs and very expensive compared to what they give me.

Any suggestions about the gear are welcome. :-)
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I happen to own an LD, but I have had very few opportunities to use it since I purchased it a few months back.

The limitation with LF lenses appear to be real, and it does definitely compromise wide angle shooting.

The good news is that you can also use MF lenses, if I recall from Mamiya and Hassy using Horseman recessed lens boards with the right mount.

I have bought the Mamiya adapter and a cheap wide angle Mamiya 645 lens, and that is what I intended to use the LD with.

I'll try to spend a day in Kamakura one of these coming weekends to test the beast so as to be able to provide more useful feedback.

By the way, I intend to use it with a D2x, and have already found it pretty tricky to get critical focus. The viewfinder of the D2x, especially with a magnifiying eyepiece, is basically as good as the 5D, but it is still pretty hard...

My current doubt is whether it is really possible to get on a regular basis stitched images that contain more actual information than a perfectly sharp one shot D2x image...

For now, my honnest feeling is that spherical stitching with a RRS head and PTgui has more potential than flat stitching with either of the currently avaiable solutions... both in terms of portability and resulting image quality.

Cheers,
Bernard

[piksi]

How about a Sinar P with the Studiotool EOS to Sinar adapter?   You get a rigid 4x5 studio camera, convertable to 5x7 and 8x10, as well as a great platform for a Betterlight scanning back and with the Studiotool adapter, a camera you can mount your Canon DSLR to.

This sounds very interesting and tempting: as I understand I'm able to both mount my EOS dslrs, the sinar M body and digital backs with groundglass switcher.

Thanks for Bernard for answering too, after investigating more and asking some questions from the LD provider I got to know that it isn't the right system for me due to the limitations... The price tag is still so low compared to sinar products, though ;-)

The only question which I can now think of is - does the Sinar P2/P3+studiotool combination come close enough to the CMOS in order to use wide angle LF glasses such as Rodenstock Apo sironar 35mm....? The horseman LD stopped at 70mm IIRC and prevented from using wider than 90mm and that's really not enough :-\

Thanks,

--Piksi

[Jack Flesher]

The price tag is still so low compared to sinar products, though ;-)

The fact is that the Sinar P is virtually bullet-proof, so used is probably not a problem...  If you peruse eBay, you will find several used P cameras available and the prices used are bargains now -- like under $1000 for an entire outfit with optional accessories, rails, bellows, etc.  

As for using shorter lenses with your 1Ds2 -- You will need a retrofocus design for anything shorter than about 65mm as the mirror box in the 1Ds2 is about 50mm deep on its own.  

Cheers,

[piksi]

The fact is that the Sinar P is virtually bullet-proof, so used is probably not a problem...  If you peruse eBay, you will find several used P cameras available and the prices used are bargains now -- like under $1000 for an entire outfit with optional accessories, rails, bellows, etc. 

While browsin the old LL-articles, I just learned that Arca was making a very small and compact Swiss f-metric
(http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/digital-view.shtml) which seems very temptating especially in terms of size and weight (which matter a lot to me as I intent to do outdoor shooting a lot). I've browsed through the internet for hours but found no evidence that an EOS adapter exists for the f-metric (mounting a slr should be possible structurally though?)

Thanks for any help so far!

[tived]

piksi,

I have the Sinar P and the StudioTool kit, and can confirm it will do as what Jack says. I have just not had enough opportunity to use mine, though it was fun to try and use it and gave me the opportunity to work with the movements, but I just haven't been able to bring it to enough use, so it will be send to the auction soon.

Kindest regards


Henrik
the canon to sinar P adaptor
www.studiotools.com

PS: I use a 1Ds

[Peter Jon White]

I dont want to invest into T/S lenses as I've found them to be far away from my needs and very expensive compared to what they give me.

Any suggestions about the gear are welcome. :-)
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Have you tried the TS-E lenses or are you just going by what you've heard or read?