The wonders of *bay !

[gari]

Do you have a TFC then Dave? if so what do you think?

Gari

[SteveH]

I never found the MPP to be too heavy, but then I'm a big bloke.

Steve

[dave_whatever]

Do you have a TFC then Dave? if so what do you think?

Gari

Well its the best 4x5 camera i've ever used, but then again its the only 4x5 camera i've ever used, or even handled....so I'm not amazingly qualified to comment on it compared to anything else.

Basically its decently made, and a good design. Although light it is of course a bit bulkier to transport cos its a non-folder, but then you get a quick setup time for that tradeoff. Costs what, one fifth of the ebony model its "inspired" by (SW45?). I dare say its not as "refined" or "smooth" like and ebony or linhof, but I can live with it given the extra grand sitting in my wallet.

Mine doesn't have a detent on the front tilt, which means to square it up I added a spirit level to the front standard too (on the plus point the detent doesn't interfere or restrict you on small amounts of tilt). The only other minor annoyance is the front tilt and the front rise knobs don't unlock independantly - by this i mean that you have to unscrew the tilt knobs as well as the rise knobs to use rise. But you [can tilt by just using the tilt knobs. In practice I seldom use rise unless there's a castle in the background, but when in northumberland it means that you set your rise first, lock it down, then set your tilt. There's always back rise too if you need to tweak your verticals after tilting. I have no idea if this is the same as the similarly designed ebonies or not. The front swing does have a detent although I've never used front swing (or at least not intentionally... ), although the front shift has been handy once or twice to tweak a shot rather than move the tripod.

I can't comment on the bag bellows cos mine has normal bellows, which I might add I use with a 65mm lens without problems - unless you've got a 58mm or 47mm lens with a ton of coverage I doubt the bag bellows are actually necessary. I almost wish shen hao would bring out their interpretation of an RSW45, i.e. even cheaper and lighter than the TFC. If you want to know anything more specific give us a shout.

[gari]

Thanks for the info Dave, So you use a 180 past infinity you say? I have a symmar 180 too, if that can go a little past infinity then my 240T will also, it actually focusses a little shorter than my 180!

I have often looked at the front standard and wondered why it is so far back, if it is how they deal with getting it to focus so wide, do you think it would be possible to remount it a little closer to the end as it were? giving a little more reach.
I have thought about making an extension a la Ebony's for the rsw/sw, having seen one it is literally just an open ended box!
Springs for the back OK are they?
Finally, where did you get yours?

Thanks
Gari

[dave_whatever]

My longest lens is a 150mm (focusses down to a couple of feet on a flat panel), but the full bellows is 190mm so mathematically you shouldn't have a problem with a 180mm. Depending on the model of symmar your flange distance will be 170-178mm, so you should be laughing. Its probably not going to win any stability awards with a heavy 180mm or tele on the camera at full poke, but then again cheggers can't be boozers.

I bought mine from rob whites a while back, it was the last one they had. Springs seem fine as far as I can tell. You don't get a fresnel with it though, just a straight gridded glass

I don't know why they mount the standards where they do - probably to keep the whole camera within the width of the baseplate when collapsed, protects in in trasit a bit. The design is the same as the ebony models in this respect - I'm guessing ebony did it for a good reason. I'm sure you could remount them at the extremities if you're cocksure with a drill and a screwdriver.

Doesn't the ebony extension back have some kind of bellows built-in? I agree though, you should be able to build a simple extension back out of plywood.

[dave_whatever]

I noticed on FADU Gari it looks like you went for the TFC model - how are you finding it?

[dustypixie]

I think the main culprit for flooding ebay with grossly overpriced LF buy-it-now items is this guy.

My favourite "you must be having a laugh" items are this, this, and this.

I've been in contact with that guy- I asked him a question about something. He's so rude :/ Mad prices. I miss the days of bargains aplenty on evilbay.

[IanG]

It's important to make sure others are aware of this sellers highly dubious practices, when reputable dealers are often a third of his prices.

Ian

[Patrick Dixon]

I dunno - It seems to me that listing things at silly high prices is just a recipe for not selling anything. It's really up to buyers to shop around. I assume he just doesn't know what prices LF stuff should be, since he seems to sell other stuff OK.

[IanG]

I dunno - It seems to me that listing things at silly high prices is just a recipe for not selling anything. It's really up to buyers to shop around. I assume he just doesn't know what prices LF stuff should be, since he seems to sell other stuff OK.

While I partly agree there's another side of the issue because of the sheer volume of items listed by this seller, at times over 2,000, and then compare his prices to highly reputable dealers, on LF equipment his prices are often 2-3 times the norm (in the UK).

MW Classic lists on Eba yas well as his own site often with no reserve/Buy it Now price on Ebay, that allows true market forces to determine the price, but swamping Ebay with the same equipment at grossly inflated prices is a cynical attempt to deceive the newcomers to LF looking to get started.

Ian

[dustypixie]

I dunno - It seems to me that listing things at silly high prices is just a recipe for not selling anything. It's really up to buyers to shop around. I assume he just doesn't know what prices LF stuff should be, since he seems to sell other stuff OK.

While I partly agree there's another side of the issue because of the sheer volume of items listed by this seller, at times over 2,000, and then compare his prices to highly reputable dealers, on LF equipment his prices are often 2-3 times the norm (in the UK).

MW Classic lists on Eba yas well as his own site often with no reserve/Buy it Now price on Ebay, that allows true market forces to determine the price, but swamping Ebay with the same equipment at grossly inflated prices is a cynical attempt to deceive the newcomers to LF looking to get started.

Ian

I agree completely- as a newcomer to large format I made him a fair starter offer on one of his cameras a while ago- I'd seen a similar one go for a bit less on evilbay. At the time I would have made a higher offer but as he was very rude in reply he talked himself out of a sale. Good thing too because now I realise it wasn't worth as much as he wanted anyway (and I found a more versatile camera )

Hopefully others will keep on listing LF gear so comparisons can be made.

Lizzie.