First Impressions of the Cambo WRS-1000.

Thanks to Lance at Capture Integration and Rene Rook at Cambo who were kind enough to get me a WRS-1000 to evaluate. I currently shoot with a Cambo WDS, the big brother of the WRS. I have used this camera for 2.5 years with the following lenses, all Schneider. 24XL digitar, 35XL digitar, 47XL digitar, 58XL, 72XL, 90 f6.3, the latter 3 being film designs. I use a Phase One P45+.

So now the WRS comes along and offers a design made just for digital backs. The WDS shoots digital perfectly well, but the camera was designed for shooting 4x5 film. This is a great feature if you need to shoot both formats. I have not shot film for 3.5 years so I was looking for a smaller and lighter solution.

The box arrives at my door and looks very small for a camera to be contained inside. I open the box and find a smaller box within. Opening that box reveals an 8”x8”x4.5” soft case that contains the camera. Wow this thing is small! An averaged sized hand can easily ‘palm’ the camera very securely. Even though it’s small it still has a nice heft to it. Made entirely of aluminum this camera feels very solid and well made. It’s no lightweight when it comes to design though.

The camera has a tripod block or spacer that is required depending on your tripod head. If you have a large tripod plate, the camera may not reach its full vertical shift before it hits the tripod plate. Without it the camera is ¾” shorter.

The design is very simple and well conceived. All of the movements are done in the rear of the camera leaving the lens fixed in place, which is great for stitching either a vertical or horizontal panoramic or a 4 quadrant stitch. Shifting is done vertically by rolling the shift barrel with your right thumb while holding the grip, and a similar barrel is used for the horizontal shift where you can use your right thumb again. Both movements have no play in them at all and both are self-arresting meaning there are no locks to do or undo. You cannot move the back at all without using the barrel to turn the gear so no accidental movements are possible.

Lens offerings are from 24mm to 120mm. This camera has the word WIDE in it’s name so if you need really long lenses it may not be the way to go.

There are 4 bubble levels on the body. 2 on top for the usual leveling and then 2 others so you can level the camera either pointing straight up or flopped on its side.

You can use the same viewfinder from the WDS. It fits well, however it does block your view of the horizontal shift scale located on top of the body. And you cannot remove the viewfinder if the rear of the camera is shifted upward at all. This may not matter if you leave the viewfinder on all of the time.

The hand grips are smallish but work well enough. You can thread the cable release through the grips on either side in order to use the camera easily handheld. I hear there are wood grips becoming available soon. They do not appear to be user changeable though.

Lens mounting is done with 2 flip-up levers that grab the corners of the lens boards. It’s quick and secure, but I would remove the lens bull-bars if I were using this camera daily. They seem to get in the way of lens mounting and also if you remove the tripod block they could hit your tripod plate and prevent mounting the camera. They can be removed easily and they are outside the light-trap so there is no problem is removing them. I would keep one in the case and stick it in place when needed because I clip black-wrap to it with a clothes pin for a lens shade. My low tech solution.

Mounting the digital back is simple. An interface plate attaches to the body with 2 sliding clamps that should be familiar to anyone who has used a view camera. These clamps are secure and easy to use. Turning the backs orientation requires removing the back and plate together and flipping it 90 degrees and remounting it.

There are 2 shift scales that are measured out in mm. One for each displacement. I think they could make them easier to read by using an orange or red index mark. Vertical displacement is 25mm up (the back moves down in the rear to make a shift up in the composition) and 15mm down. Horizontal is 18mm each way. The gear drives have detents every 5mm which is nice, and they are just the right tension. They do not over grab and its easy to get even a 1/2mm out of the detent without it wanting to slip back in.

There are 2 other shift scales on the rear of the camera that are engraved into the body. There are not as clear to read since they are not painted with index marks. It would be helpful to have these painted or easier to read so that you could make all of your movements from the behind the camera especially while stitching where you need to hit a certain mark each time.

One cool thing I almost forgot. They include an LED light in a metal sleeve that attaches just under the bridge where the viewfinder sits. This light will illuminate the lens’ distance scales or exposure settings when working in dim light. It’s a magnetic attachment and is easy to install or remove. The light will stay on for 4 seconds with one click or you can set it to stay on longer. A neat feature!

I shot some test images which were all fine. Edge sharpness was right on. I did not post any images since it’s the lenses and back that make the image. As long as the camera can deliver the image to the back in a square and perpendicular way, its job is done. You can see dozens of WDS/Phase images at my website. www.jeffreytotaro.com

The Cambo Wide RS-1000 is a well design and beautifully made camera. It’s a nice addition to Cambo line and is a great move if you currently own a Wide DS and want a smaller camera or if you are considering medium format technical camera for the first time.

Many thanks to Lance at Capture Integration and Rene Rook at Cambo for getting this great camera in my hands!

Thanks for taking the time to do this - the images are much appreciated too.

how is the P45+ on such cameras woken up - special cable/ whatever - or is this a non issue?

Same as on any technical camera. You need to use a wake-up cable that syncs to the lens.

can the digital back be put on vertically as well as horizontally?

thanks

here you can see vertical mount:
http://www.cambo.com/Html/products_photo/s...t/Item6819.html

oops... no you can not... sorry!

narikin,

Yes.

Based on images shown on the Cambo website, the square design of each WRS Interface plate allows its attached MFDB to be mounted on the camera body in the horizontal or vertical position.

Jeff's excellent review above also mentions this capability:

"Turning the backs orientation requires removing the back and plate together and flipping it 90 degrees and remounting it."

Joe Bossuyt

Thanks for the excellent post.
Would love to see some shooting results with tilt and shift possibilities....
if possible
cheers
m*

Marc,
NO TILT!
Sinar arTec will do that.
Groetjes,
WR

How do focus this type of camera? Is there a ground glass plate as on a 4x5?

Thanks
Paul C

Seems so: http://www.cambo.com/Html/products_photo/s...t/Item6849.html
But for Wide angle you probably always set the lens to infinity.
Otherweise a Leica Distometer or something similar works very well.
http://gemilangcomm.net/index.php/leica-distometer

focus is done with helical lens mounts and guesstimates with a distance scale on the lens. I think there is a ground glass available too

Yes. But as focusing with a digital back is tricky a distometer may be very helpful in close distance shots and when you don't want to stop down too much. I did that with the small Horseman and P45 with a 35mm lens and the distance to the subject was about 1 meter. Worked much better as expected. Too, I am quite untalented guessing the right distance except of infinity :-)

tho_mas,

"The WDS-619 Groundglass Frame mounts instead of any SLW-mount in Portrait or Landscape mode." per the Cambo website. This is a big improvement over the Wide DS camera in which a ground glass option is only available for the WDS Rearframe with the Hasselblad H1 interface.

With this "universal" Groundglass option for the Wide RS camera, you will be able to test/correct/adjust for the exact focus distance settings compared with the helical mount factory markings for each focal length lens' as you may require in short order.

Your use of a Leica Distometer (or any of the new small laser rangefinders) is also a great calibration tool that you can continue to employ for everyday use with the camera and each lens as well.

Don't you just love new and improved technology!

Anything that assists my eyesight is a gift from above!

Joe Bossuyt

Absolutely agree! Especially as my P45 has Contax mount.
I didn't want to state that a distometer will replace such a good accessory, not at all!
It was just a hint for people who are as bad as me in guessing distance...
Me personally I'm just about to ad a small (!) light (!) technical camera to my Contax System. And the WRS seems to be very close to what I am looking for (fixed lens and back shift up to 20mm; Schneider lenses). There's a german manufacturer selling a simliar camera (Gottschalt RD20) and the built quality must be extraordinary. I will have a look at it at least at Photokina. I have time to try and decide. But I will probably use it without exception for wide angle architecture with 47mm and maybe 35mm... so the lens will always be set to infinity ;-) For closer shots with longer focal lenght and less DOF I have a good range of Contax lenses.
But nevertheless... it's always good to know (and above all a good feeling!) that you purchase a part of a system that offers smart and useful ad ons.

Thomas