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The Lotus View camera Made in Austria – Best European Quality & Tradition
Another wooden camera – in the raging age of digital imaging? Or is this a historic camera taken out of a museum? Something for photo-dinosaurs?
Looking for photographs taken with the LOTUS VIEW camera? See them HERE
Did you realize that I used the term “digital imaging” and not digital photography? I do not like to call the technology, which uses electronics “photography” because it is not photography – it is digital imaging. In that very same sense of purism I would not call the (very attractive and sensational) Canon Eos 1DS Mk II or Nikon D2X a photographic camera, for me these are outstanding digital imaging systems but not photographic cameras. Why am I so picky about the wording – because there is a difference between digital imaging and photography. Digital imaging is using electronics to acquire an image, store it, process it and finally either display or print it. Photography is using conventional AgX film to acquire an image, chemistry to develop the latent image and again AgX material to print the image by means of optics and again chemistry to develop the final print. The hybrid technology involves the photographic first part and then electronics takes over after the film was processed by scanning the film and then most likely digitally printing the image either on AgX material or with one of the many digital printing technologies like inkjet, thermo-transfer or others. Photography will always involve photographic cameras. Cameras, which are producing a latent image on some kind of photographic film. And here comes as one of the few still handcrafted and even partially handmade wooden cameras into play, the LOTUS VIEW. I am not claiming that the LOTUS is the world champion, the most precise and best possible and most exclusive wooden camera ever made in camera history, I am only stating that this camera is a masterpiece in wood and to use and own it is a real pleasure. I am basing my review on the 5x7 LOTUS VIEW field camera, which I got some time ago and picked it up in Austria at the manufacturer’s production site in Ernsting, a very small village not too far away from Salzburg. That first photo shows how you probably will receive the camera – folded up and without lens mounted:
My first impression was – oh, how light in weight for a folding 5x7 inch view camera! Well, my other 5x7inch camera is a Linhof Technika, a rather old one, but still fully functional. What a difference in weight! For me, a passionate landscape photographer, quite a pleasant difference. Then I started playing with the camera – it unfolds and folds very easily and is very easy and fast to set up again. This is especially interesting if you do not want to spend much time to mount your camera on a tripod, shoot and pack up again. Here you see how the camera unfolds – a surprisingly quick and easy process:
What else did I realize within short – well, the camera feels nicely when touching it with your hands – no rough corners, no rough surfaces, everything is rounded and smooth. Every movement is smooth and you do not need force at all to fasten any moving part of the camera. The knobs as not round, they are star-like with four rounded edges, which allow a very fine rotation of them – you can feel the difference immediately during focusing – very smooth handling.
This brings me to the choice of wood used for that camera – it is cherry, American Cherry. Yes, maybe the use of a very exotic wood like ebony or mahogany would make it even more exclusive but I like it that the manufacturer uses a sustainable raw material and not anything else. That cherry wood also gives the camera a certain flair – it looks different and people immediately stop and take a look at it. The finished surface is not shiny but matt – they wax the surface and do not lacquer it. This makes the surface resistant to the grease and humidity coming from the fingers during operation. I would like now to go into detail and show a few of them – all details shown have been taken from a normal 5x7 inch field camera.
The Front Panel
You can see here the swing, tilt and shift mechanics of the front panel. The two knobs left and right tighten the guidance mechanism with a vertical zero position for the front panel. The other two horizontal knobs are for the horizontal swing and the lever in the middle is for the left/right movement of the panel. In the following picture, you can see the shifted (front lateral shift = +/- 50mm), swing and horizontally displaced front panel. That all knobs are not round is for the first few minutes of operation a bit strange, but later it feels pretty comfortable and ensures a very good and well defined grip position for fine adjustments.
The next image shows how one can tilt the lens panel itself. It can be tilted in both directions – 23 degrees forward and 90 degrees back which is more than plenty. The upward and downward movement of the front panel (90mm total) can be adjusted easily by hand with the knobs on each side – the middle position is marked with a thin line. The panel itself accepts standard Linhof Master Technika size lens panels, which is nice. No special lens panels are needed.
This view of the side of the front panel shows the up/down fixing mechanism of the lens panel and the adjustable fine tilting knob for the vertical positioning of the camera lens. This mechanism, one knob on each side, enables the user to make very fine adjustments to the position of the camera lens perpendicular to the optical axis because the knobs do fixate the panel well but leave some room for careful fine movement – try it out, you will see what I mean, it is a nice feature!
The topside of the front panel contains an embedded spirit level for precise vertical alignment of the lens panel and the two mechanisms for mounting the lens panel and the exchangeable bellows. On the topside of the bellows there is also a little gadget, which allows to link the middle of the bellow to either the front panel frame or the back film frame to make sure that at extra-long extension, the bellow does not interfere with the image path.
The Back, the Film Panel All movements described before, are incorporated here as well. What you can see on this photograph is the side view of the back panel and the three knobs – one for coarse front/back movement, one for fine adjustment of the axial movement and the upper one for fixating the vertical position of the film panel in its 90degrees position. The data for the back panel are: 90 degrees forward and 60 degrees back tilt, +/- 20degrees back swing, 70mm overall rise/fall and +/- 110mm(!) back lateral shift. I think that’s plenty as well and should be sufficient for even most difficult perspective adjustments.
The next photograph shows the ability of the back, film panel to rotate with a central movement:
Additional to this rotation, a left/right sliding mechanism is incorporated as well, which allows a very substantial and smooth movement within dovetail gliding bed:
As you can see as well on these photos, the back panel got two spirit levels incorporated in the screen holder, which allows the accurate horizontal or vertical positioning of the film plane.
The screen can be rotated from horizontal to vertical and is tightened by two sets of spring-loaded holders on each side – simple but effective.
Here you see the screen mounted vertically – switching from one position to the other is a matter of a few seconds
There is something else, which I like very much on this camera – if something comes loose, you do not need a repair shop – a screw driver, a few little screws, a bit of common understanding and the camera is repaired – not that I had to do it already, but if you take a close look – what can happen? Not much, as I said, take a screwdriver as service tool, that’s most likely all you need, if at all. That camera was designed by a person who understood also that it has to be practical – look at its bottom – do you see the four simple rubber feet? They are so practical if you like to just stand the camera somewhere! And the bottom itself was designed to save weight but still be sturdy and solid enough. The tripod mount is metal and the camera stand well balanced on a tripod, even a long bellow extensions.
This leads me to another point – the bellow. The bellow is not made of leather but of a special impregnated fabric – very solid but still flexible. The standard bellow allows extensions, which are gigantic (75mm to 600mm) – see the photo:
If you need a wide-angle bellow, it can be exchanged within seconds from standard to wide-angle and back. But already the standard bellow features a draw from 75mm to 600mm! The wide-angle bellow would then enable a minimum draw of 47mm, which is more than plenty. And what is the weight of this 5x7 inch camera – 2.7kg, which is less than 6 lbs! In the meanwhile, I have dragged the camera around Colorado in very cold and dry weather – temperature down to minus 15 degrees Fahrenheit and in snow and ice. It worked without a flaw, set up in a couple of minutes and as there was no electronics (of course..) no problems at such low temperatures. Any metal camera would be freezing cold when touched, but as you know, wood is pleasant to feel even at sub-zero temperatures. A word regarding stability – the design is stable and when mounted on a proper tripod (do not use $29.95 tripods from Best-Buy), you can use it without problems even with longer long focus lenses. At most, if you use a heavy tele-lens, exceeding 500-600mm (long-focus lenses are fine), use a lens support, which is available as accessory. I did not experience any vibration problems, but I am using a Berlebach wooden tripod and a pretty long cable release. Lotus View Cameras is a small Austrian, family owned, manufacturer, who makes cameras on order – you order a camera, it is made for you. The cameras can be made in all formats for which one can buy film – from 4x5inch to 20x24inch. They are handcrafted, tested individually and hand-finished, traditional workman’s work, best Austrian quality. This also means, that you won’t find the usual mass manufacturing problems like overlooked production flaws, sloppy workmanship, missing parts like screws etc – as I mentioned before, every single made camera is inspected to 100% before delivery to the user or dealer. Here a few photographs of cameras with other formats – starting with the standard 4x5inch field camera:
Or the same front but with the 4x10inch back:
Another example is the 8x10inch camera:
Another version of this camera got the 8x20inch back:
And finally the largest camera of their production, the 20x24inch on its support carrier:
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That camera forces me to take less pictures but to compose them better - it is not the usual digital approach - just shoot and then, later, select what is good and what not - you need to think before you take a picture and you need to compose it properly. But is this not real photography? Isn't photography more than shooting hundreds of digital images within a couple of minutes to make sure that you have got that very special fraction of a second which is the one and only good shot? Well, I would not take that camera to a football match, but it makes a very powerful companion for a landscape photography trip - reliable, flexible, independent and versatile. Where can you buy that camera - well first of all from Lotus View Camera in Austria (http://www.lotusviewcamera.at) or from one of the representations of the manufacturer - contact me and I'll shortcut you with the nearest source for that unique wooden handcrafted camera! Looking for photographs taken with the LOTUS VIEW camera? See them HERE
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