The Wista metal field camera
A quick review by Alvin Chia-Hua Shih for largeformatphotography.info
Likes:
- Interchangeable bellows. I believe it's the only field camera that
can boast of that.
- Reasonably solid (being metal).
- Extension track can be displaced back for shorter lenses. I was
using it with a 90, but looked as though it could take a 75 on
the track.
- Geared front rise and tilt.
- Thoughtful little clip for keeping the film holder in.
(But didn't help for Polaroid 545.)
Dislikes
- No zero detents for rise and tilt. (I don't know why I found this
particularly irritating, but I did.)
- Fresnel and hood not sufficient for good viewing on sunny days.
(Still need a dark cloth.)
- Fresnel blacks out when viewed from off-axis.
- No friction lock for front swing.
- Changing bellows in the field is pretty fiddly.
- Rotating back. There's no friction lock on it, and the 90-degree
detents still allow a bit of play. So I was never confident
that putting the film back in didn't rotate the back by .5 degree.
- Rangefinder (on Wista RF only) got in the way of putting in the
Polaroid back. I had to stuff the holder in from the bottom.
- Recessed Linhof lensboards holding Copal 1 shutters can pose problems
for attaching cable releases.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the SP has the rear swing controlled by
knobs, right? I played with that one in the store and didn't like it.
If I cranked the swing control all the way and then cranked it back,
something would catch on the other side causing "swing" (extension,
actually) in the other direction. But perhaps it responds better for
moderate movements?