From everything I have looked at, this seems to be the best all round camera for me... but I hate that rosewood handgrip. Partly it's aesthetics (looks like something Fred Flintstone made) and partly it takes up unnecessary space. I fly a lot, so space & weight are critical.

As far as I can see, it's held on with a couple of allen key bolts and serves no real purpose, so should be easy to remove.

So: have any users permanently removed the handle?

I've removed the wooden grip. It's easy, as you said. Just remember to hold the camera tightly! There's really no other place to hold, so I'm thinking of putting in a small metal bar where the handle used to be.



Cheers,
Kumar

Cambo has made a few aluminum hand grips in the same red color as the other accents on the camera. Contact Calumet or Cambo directly. It does not have the thread-through hole for the cable release or the tripod thread. This tripod thread is useful only if you like to stitch images together and make VERTICAL panoramas. You'd mount the camera on the handle side (90 degrees from normal) and use shift in the rear of the camera to act as rise/fall, thereby leaving the lens still to make the stitch easier.

I've just received the Cambo Compact with the Rosewood handle and offer the following:
1. Rosewood is not hot to the touch in the summer sun, or freezing to the touch in the winter like the metal would be.
2. In reality, the rosewood looks a lot better in person than the images on their web site would indicate.
3. Rosewood has an organic feel to it when handling the camera that I like.

Jack

Hi Jack,

I thought about the compact but as I understood it, it has less movement than the normal DS- is that right?

Just to say, I really like the handle! It looks and feels groovy.

The miniwide has zero movements. Not so useful really.

The Compact has NO movement where the WDS has rise, fall and shift. But the Compact is lighter so I purchased it to have for:
1. Walking around a city scene to capture quick shots without the weight.
2. Days when I'm going on a difficult hike and just don't feel I'll need the movements, as compared to the value of carrying the extra weight.

Also purchased the viewfinder with the respective masks. Should help with the City Scene shots.

Jack