Cambo Wide vs Cambo Wide DS

[anyone]

Hi there,

I am currently looking into a portable tech cam setup to take with me on hikes for landscape photography.

What I would like to do with it:
- mainly shoot 6x12cm
- sometimes shoot 4x5"
- also possibly mount my Hasselblad V digital back. But this is of secondary concern right now.

Now I wonder about the differences between the older Cambo Wide and newer Cambo Wide DS. For me, at a first glance, they look rather similar. But since here are so many Cambo users, I'd like to ask about the differences in practice?

Also, as a sidenote, did anyone ever try to 3D print the lens plates? I have a couple of Copal focussing mounts which I could mount to a lens plate, so I imagine that it should be rather easy to design the plate itself?

Thank you very much for your insights!

 

[Audii-Dudii]

Hi there,

I am currently looking into a portable tech cam setup to take with me on hikes for landscape photography.

What I would like to do with it:
- mainly shoot 6x12cm
- sometimes shoot 4x5"
- also possibly mount my Hasselblad V digital back. But this is of secondary concern right now.

Now I wonder about the differences between the older Cambo Wide and newer Cambo Wide DS. For me, at a first glance, they look rather similar. But since here are so many Cambo users, I'd like to ask about the differences in practice?

Although I own a WDS that I modified to use with a Sony A7R body and various 35 mm and medium-format lenses, I have no experience with the older, film-focused version, so I can't answer this question ... sorry!

Also, as a sidenote, did anyone ever try to 3D print the lens plates? I have a couple of Copal focussing mounts which I could mount to a lens plate, so I imagine that it should be rather easy to design the plate itself?

However, because of my experience with my project, I can answer this question!

Assuming you can don't need to take every step possible to reduce the overall thickness of the camera to accommodate lenses having short FFDs, as I did with my project (which resulted in me making a replacement sliding lens panel from a sheet of .060" titanium, which is a major PITA to cut and shape with the minimal resources I have available to me ... ugh!) -- the easy solution is to buy a Cambo WRS-1092 Front Body Cover and drill a center mounting hole in it (photo borrowed from Capture Integration):

NOTE: I just clicked on the link I had bookmarked to this product on Cambo's web site and see that it appears to have been changed to a different, much thicker design -- https://www.cambo.com/en/wide-rs-series/wrs-1600/wrs-1092/ -- which may or may not be as useful as the original front body cover. As such, it's probably best to check before you place an order for it.

That said, if it has been discontinued, it will be a relatively easy matter to make an equivalent one yourself using a piece of aluminum or carbon fiber sheet, then screw it onto the OEM lens panel using existing the holes for the lens panel mounting brackets, so no permanent modification is required:

As you can see, I used thumbscrews to hold it in place, making it easy to change panels in the field.

Lastly, here are a couple of links I bookmarked that you might find useful:

https://static.cambo.com/Files/WDS_2005.pdf

https://static.cambo.com/Files/Wide-DS_instructions.pdf

Good luck with your project!

P.S.: The reason I rotated the camera 90 degrees and mounted it the way I did is because this has the effect of swapping the movements between the front and back sides of the camera. Setup this way, it now has a rear rise / fall movement instead of a rear shift movement, which is much more useful for the type of architectural-related photography I do.

 

[mkphotomedia]

That's quite the modification you did there! Pretty much turning your WDS into an overgrown Actus.

To answer the original question: the big /functional/ difference between the Cambo Wide and the DS is that the DS has double shift and the Wide doesn't. The Wide will give you rise/fall *or* shift, but not both. The Wide DS will give you rise/fall *and* shift--technically speaking, you get front rise/fall and rear shift (or, if you mount the camera at 90 degrees, front shift and back rise/fall). The RS, for the record, has both rise/fall and shift all on the back, which enables parallax-free stitching on both axes. Since you're a mostly film shooter, this is of entirely academic interest to you at best. ;-)

Other big difference: the lensboard and accessory format changed from the Wide to the DS/RS series. If you want to put a Hassy V back on a Wide, you do it via a Graflok adapter. On a DS, you either have a backplate adapter, or an adapting backplate that then takes a V mount. If you're on the adapting backplate, you get the advantage of being able to put the backplate in at 90 degrees, saving you from having to rotate the camera quite as much.

Wide accessories seem to be fairly prevalent on eBay, but new accessories are harder to get. DS/RS accessories are also pretty commonly available used, but since the RS is current, things like adapter plates, viewfinders, etc. can also be gotten new through Cambo dealers or online. Not sure about the lensboard situation; I know Cambo at least used to (and probably still does) offer lens remounting onto DS/RS lensboards. I was considering having it done when I moved from 4x5, but it turned out that none of my 4x5 lenses had sufficient resolution for my then-new Phase P45.

If you're looking to buy a tech cam and eventually go more heavily digital, it's worth noting that since the lensboards and accessories are mostly similar/identical between the DS and RS, if you end up moving later to an RS, you can use all your DS-mounted lenses. I just made that move a year ago, which is why I happen to have a DS for sale over here (https://www.getdpi.com/forum/gear-f...back-adapter-plate.html?highlight=#post797348) if you're interested. You'd probably want to get the rotating groundglass/viewfinder adapter for it as well as a Hassy V to WRS plate.

 

[anyone]

Thank you for the input! It looks like I do want to get a Wide DS instead of the normal Wide due to the shifting option, pick up a relatively cheap SK 47XL and mount it on the cover. Same time, I still have the option to add the Hasselblad V lenses + digital back later.