Arca
Swiss 4x5 and 6x9 cameras
 Arca
Swiss makes a wide variety of cameras for 6x9 photography, such as the
Arca Swiss F Line, F-Compact Monorail, Orbix, and so on.
But the
CCD sensors on large format digital scanning backs such as BetterLight
Super6000, PhaseOne PowerPhase, JOBO, Anagramm PictureGate 8000, and
Kigamo measure slightly more than 7 x 9 cm. So none of the Linhof
M679 or Rollei
X-Act 1 or Rollei X-Act 2 cameras will allow you to get the full
size.
One of
many advantages of an Arca-Swiss camera system is that most of its parts
are interchangeable. So you can get a 6x9 front and a 4x5 back (to hold
your scanning back). Just be sure to have the proper lens board adapter
and bellows. Arca-Swiss has a tapered bellows for the 6x9 to 4x5 hybrid.
You would also want a proper wide angle bellows.
We
also recommend a reflex viewer.
A large
format scanning back is very heavy. So for example, my Linhof Technikardan
is not adequate support. Plus its movements are too sloppy (throw the
focus of the digital scanning back out of focus just by tightening the
knobs). Therefore be sure to select a model which will handle the lopsided
weight of a digital scan back, plus the pull of the heavy SCSI cables.
Arca-Swiss
did not have a web site the last time I looked. With all the favorable
reviews, they figure they can save the cost of a web site and invest
that same amount of money into building their sturdy cameras. But they
do evidently have an e-mail, arca-swiss@swissonline.ch.
The official
Arca-Swiss distributor is sometimes hard to find. An address I have
is 442 West Belden, Chicago, IL 60614-3816, tel (773) 248 2513 fax:
(773)248 2774.
The Arca
Swiss European home office is now in Besancon, France. Try this ARCA-SWISS,
Martin VOGT, 29, Quartier de l' Europe, Espace Valentin, 25048 Besançon
FRANCE. Tel (+33) 3 81 85 40 60 Fax : (+33) 3 81 85 40 69.
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you notice a bad link, missing photos, misspellings, please report to
the webmaster
first
posted August 12, 200 Design updated 9/4/2001
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