Review of the Wisner 4x5 Technical Field Camera
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Prior to the Linhof Technikardan, my 4x5 camera was a Wisner 4x5 Technical Field. It's a great camera. Like some of the other folks, I've used both a Zone VI and my Wisner, and in my opinion, the Wisner wins hands down. There's just no comparison - the Wisner is simply better built.
Beautifully made and finished, with a lovely red leather bellows, the Wisner 4x5 Technical Field is a thing of
beauty and a joy forever.
If you're looking for a camera for landscape work, the Wisner is an excellent choice for several reasons:
- plenty of bellows draw
- interchangable bellows
- exceptional quality
- Robustness
Now, I'd like to tell you the shortcomings of the camera. I think it's important to share these, but I want to make it clear that I don't think that they're large issues, unless you think that they'd severely impact *you*. Most importantly, I don't want folks getting the impression that I don't like my Wisner (I love it!) - it just (like any other camera) has shortcomings that you should consider before buying one.
First, and I think most seriously, the Technical Field is not a great camera for short lens work. Running the front standard back and the back standard all the way forward, I'd estimate that you can get the flange to film plane distance to about 10 cm. So, for lenses shorter than 100mm, you're going to need to use front base tilt *backwards* to move the lens closer to the film plane, and then a bit of front rise and front axis tilt to re-align the lens and film planes. This isn't a major hassle, but it slows things down. I have a 135mm lens, and I'd say that's absolutely the shortest lens you can use without the bag bellows.
Second, I think that when extended for long lens work, the camera is a bit on the floppy side. I want to qualify this by saying that several others disagree on this point, and they're people whose opinions I've come to hold in very high regard. I'm pretty clear that my Linhof TK is more rigid at 18" of bellows than my Wisner. This might mean that it's just *my* Wisner that's floppy, or it could mean that it's an issue where reasonable people disagree. In any case, a camera with the bellows out 18-20" is like a sail, so working in wind is problematic, so this may be a minor point.
In my view, if you don't expect to do lots of short focal length work, and you know that you'd exceed the 12" of bellows on the current crop of single extension cameras (Wista, etc.) then I think the Wisner is an altogether excellent choice. Given the price, it's hard to beat in terms of price/performance. Nota bene - since I bought my Wisner Technical Field, Ron Wisner has introduced several improvements to the Wisner camera line, including the much lighter Expedition, the Pocket Expedition, et al. Some of these include fancier movements, many of them are lighter than the Technical Field. I haven't used them, and thus am reluctant to comment on them. But they sure are pretty...