A Comparison of Technical Cameras

[thomas]

An other "must have" for all users of a technical camera (any brand) .

great. I suspect now the DB makers will get a lot of service inquiries due to misaligned sensors
The price is a joke... and I wonder how many landscape shooters really want to add another 3kg to their kit (2.5kg for the head and 500g for the battery; 3.5kg is the load capacity, which is cleary too weak...)

 

[JGR]

Arca Swiss RM3D...

What use will this focus accuracy be when using tilt?

Example: I focus at infinity, then apply tilt to bring foreground in focus, now unless the tilt is Asymmetrical (and even if it was) surely the tilt movement has now knocked the focus out again. To my mind isn't the focus accuracy now useless?

I'm just exploring my options before pulling the trigger on a Linhof Techno, which I hear is also difficult to gain accurate focus, is this true? Are there any experienced Linhof Techno users out there?

I know Joe Cornish now uses this camera and is producing tack sharp images!

Being an SLR user for the last few years, I have no idea why/what helicoid/helicon focus is needed for, but I am learning fast through the use of this forum.

When I used my Nikon D3x with the 24mm Tilt/Shift lens I can't tell you how easy it was to gain accurate focus, it basically went like this...

1) focus at infinity on live view screen at 10x
2) tilt to bring foreground in focus using live view at 10x
3) double check the infinity again, making minor tweak (usually only needed when using large tilt movments)
4) double check foreground again
5) take image
6) review at 10x on screen, finished!

The results were amazing, perfectly focused, tack sharp images. The system, however, can't match that of the technical camera/lenses when coupled with a high resolution digital back for large prints.

Happy to discuss and learn, so please add anything that may help me make the correct decision

 

[thomas]

re helical focus mount vs. view camera...

Being an SLR user for the last few years, I have no idea why/what helicoid/helicon focus is needed for, but I am learning fast through the use of this forum.

As an SLR user you know very well what a helical focus mount is as it is basically what you have been using for years: it's a geared focus ring on the lens with a distance indication.

I'm just exploring my options before pulling the trigger on a Linhof Techno, which I hear is also difficult to gain accurate focus, is this true?

on a view camera you don't have any distance indication on the lens nor on the rail (though you could engrave some indications for some lenses in the rail if you'd like to...). So you have to focus on the groundglass with a loupe.
The difficulty to achieve focus here depends on...
- the lighting conditions (in low light it's hard to focus on the groundglass)
- the distance of the subject (the wider the distance the smaller the magnification of the subject on the groundglass)
- the shape of the subject (if the subject in question has no texture or doesn't show contrast it's hard to hit focus)
The toughest challenge with a view camera is to hit perfect focus at infinity with a wide angle lens... whereas with a lens in helical focus mount you simply set the lens to infinity (assumed lens and film/sensor plane are accurately adjusted for infinity).

The results were amazing, perfectly focused, tack sharp images. The system, however, can't match that of the technical camera/lenses when coupled with a high resolution digital back for large prints.

the system easily matches that of a tech camera if the capture of the tech camera is not focused accurately

as to tilt on a digital tech camera (untethered) someone else should elaborate as I am still in a learning process.