currently i am using a canon 5d with the tse lenses for my food photography. my main lens it the 90mm, rarely i use the 45. i'd love to have a 65 to 75mm tse, but of course there is none.

i am considering moving back to medium format, but this time digital. i am leaning to phase one, but i am currently testing. i can't imagine working without tilts anymore so i am looking for options, none very satisfying yet. no need for AF, typical working distance is 50-200cm.

A SMALL VIEW CAMERA. not really an option, too slow, more movements than i need, changing or sliding the back is not really what suit my style of working. then i 'd like to be able to use it handheld from time to time. which brings me to:

HASSELBLAD FLEXBODY WITH 120 MM MACRO. of course not a handheld option, but with an 501 body as the handheld camera by the side it might work.

CONTAX 645 OR MAMIYA 645 WITH HARTBLEI LENSES, but i think it is only 45mm available

SAME CAMERAS WITH NOVOFLEX TILT/SHIFT BELLOWS AND SCHNEIDER COMPONON LENSES. sounds good, have never handled them.

any other options?

stefan

Search for the Contax "645 Auto Bellows" which is a part of their macro system. you can see it on p.22 of THIS PDF

Yair

Find a Fuji GX680III or two on e-bay.
I did, best thing I ever did. They have full movements on the front standard. Are only slightly bigger than a Mamiya RZ (can be hand held), but lighter, huge range of lenses, which can still be found new. And they work brilliantly with digital.
Really I can't recommend them highly enough. Not at the studio today (Sunday here) but if you e-mail me tomorrow I can send you some examples shot with the Fuji Glass which is outstanding, equal to or better than the current "Blad" lenses, have heard them compared on these forums favourably to Rollie, I can't say personally as I haven't owned Rollie, but I have no reason to doubt the person who made the post, based on my experience.

As I said, best camera I have ever bought, and I have a 5D too, also great, just different.

Cheers
Jason Berge

THe bellows only works for macro shooting. I had one when i had a contax 645 setup. Mark

the 680 was already on my mind, when did they discontinue it? any comment from fuji on how long they will be serviced? i think it is a very uncommon camera, so getting stuff for it will be much harder in a while than for the contax, where there seems to be a bit of hope that they revive the sytem.

what back mount do i need?

On the 680 you can use any type of back i.e V-Series, Mamiya AFD, Contax or H via a KG adapter.

It is a bit clunky with all these cables and the control box looks like it was made in the 70's, but it works very well!!!

Yair

I had no trouble finding stuff on e-bay. There are about 80 items on at the moment, and there are a lot of dealers in Asia that have new stock. I don't know how common they are other than I know three other guys in town who have one. But hey. It is what it is. I like it. your milage may vary as they say.

Jason Berge.

I mainly shoot architectural, for external work I usually use a Linhof M679cs with a P25 back, but for internal work where space is often restricted I'll often use a Canon DSLR with their T&S range or a Hasselblad Flexbody with the P25 back. My favourite is the Flexbody mainly because of the quality of the Acute-Matte D focusing screen. I imagine for food photography the extreme tilt range together with the basic shift capability of the Flexbody would be useful.

I use the Flexbody as well. I am very happy with it. Maybe someday when we have live video on the back screens we won't have to swap ground glass with back anymore.

Sofar I have not run into the limitations of the Flexbody.

Good thing is that I can use my lenses both for the flexbody as well as the 503CW.

The Flexbody is extremely light-weight.

so how difficult is it to change from viewfinder to back with the flexbody? how long does it take?

I shoot with a flexbody and hated taking the back off to check focus or make slight adjustments. You have to unplug all your cords to set the back aside. As you know, you need to work fast with food and taking the back off was not working well at all. I almost gave up my flexbody for another solution, than I got the liquid crystal shutter for my Sinar 54m back that gives me a great live preview with a fine focus. Now the work flow is manageable. Before I had to take great care putting the back on not to bump the body or lens when focus was critical. Now with a click of the mouse the live preview shuts off and I release the lens shutter. What a difference!

The flexbody is an inexpensive solution compared to a view camera but has it's limits. The tilting motion controls the rear standard not the lens so you need to adjust the camera level to get the desired effect. Winding the shutter manually with the flexbody gets old if you have a long day as well. I would have prefered a view camera but that meant new lenses that I didn't have. If you already have a V system, the flexbody is a great solution, but the Sinar live-preview is the only way to go.

Dan

It is not difficult and with my Leaf it is only the sync cable you have to take of but it is a nuisance.

There is an Australian guy that can turn your Flexbody into a so-called bendyblad. I have been told that that will set you back around 1500USD. Than you can have movements just like a view camera.

Maybe I will get the Leaf LV eventually.

you can tilt a couple of rz lenses with an adaptor. i think it only works with the short barrel lenses.

paul

Speaking of the flexbody...Does anyboy already had a look at the new Silvestri Flexbody clone with sliding back?
Can it be ordered already? Any reviews?
I really wish Hasselblad would offer us a sliding back for the Flexbody...

tom

not sure if this will help but, have you checked the Zörk Multi Focus System?
afaik you can tilt virtually any lens (and even shift, if you add in there their shifting module)

yes, the zörk thing works beautifull on 35mm or mf camera. best combinations are with enlarger lenses (apo rodagon...).

I actually went to Mr. Zörk two years ago, which was a nice experience, he is this one man company in a fabulous workshop surrounded by hundreds of dismanteled cameras manufacturing his gadgets. what i didn't like was the roughness of his multi-focus thing, i'd like to have geared movements for finer control, but i guess it is a real option.

What is the name of the tilt adapter for RZ? I used to shoot with RB/RZ . great System, though hefty in size and weight.