Hello Everyone, 

 

Last week I finally received my A7rII with my Cambo Actus. 

If anyone would like to ask anything about the system I gladly answer.

 

A quick sample of the image quality: https://www.flickr.com/photos/thomannde/21627382375/

 

First time I hear about this thing. Very interesting! And the photos look fantastic. I particularly like the one of the "Thomann Custom Line ALB Gray Satin". How much of the photo quality is from the cambo/lens and how much is from the carefully controlled lighting? I would be interested in hearing more about your lighting techniques.

The image quality comes mainly from the Schneider lens. The large format lenses are crazy sharp on full frame. Here are some real world examples (these were shot with a d800e and not with Sony):

 

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B1EiK7jaR1pBWW8yZmlpaUhOazQ&usp=sharing

 

The lighting is an important factor as well ofc For these shots I usually start with a lightly diffused top light (profoto d1 500 without any lightformers attached shot trough a 80cm round reflector), and two 2x3´ softboxes 45 degrees in front and slightly above of the subject. Then I add 1-2 gridded hard lights to pop the texture and basically this is it.

Another A7RII and Cambo Actus user here.

I'm interested in a couple of lenses for my setup, particularly Rodenstock Digaron-W lenses, either the 40mm 50mm or 90mm.

If anyone can post some image samples with these lenses and the A7RII I would appreciate it.

I have asked Cambo about some lenses and they strongly suggested to use Schneider (I have the apo digitar 90 and the apo digitar 120 both of them are excellent and the 60mm is underway). If you go below 60mm you might not be able to shift and also some lenses have serious color cast when shifted.

In theory you can still focus to infinity with a 35 but then the lens is almost touching the sensor so you cant use any technical movement.

I have asked Cambo about some lenses and they strongly suggested to use Schneider (I have the apo digitar 90 and the apo digitar 120 both of them are excellent and the 60mm is underway). If you go below 60mm you might not be able to shift and also some lenses have serious color cast when shifted.

In theory you can still focus to infinity with a 35 but then the lens is almost touching the sensor so you cant use any technical movement.

I'm currently using the Schneider Apo-digitar 90mm f4.5 which is a great lens but I need another lens a bit on the wider end somewhere in the 40-50mm range. The 60mm digitar is a great lens from what people say but it's not quite wide enough for my needs. The Rodenstock 50 and 40 lenses supposedly have the same FFD and will still allow shifting at infinity, but I can't find a local place to rent one before I buy to be certain.

You can search Flickr for photos with particular gear. I found a few with Cambo Actus + Rodenstock here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/kimyeesan/

https://captureintegration.com/first-look-cambo-actus/

Here you can read about some rodenstock lenses

The image quality comes mainly from the Schneider

lens. The large format lenses are crazy sharp on

full frame. .........

If your large format lenses are sharper than your

miniature format lenses, there's something wrong

with your mini format lenses. Simple Physics 101.

 

`

Wow I can't believe I ran across this thread. Wonderful setup, Ill have to investigate further for my camera.  

Hi Thomann

 

I have the A7r and the Actus but haven't fully utilised the set up for my purposes(macro and table top studio work). I used it with a decent Rodenstock enlarger lens but was disappointed with it (it will work for flat work better).

My questions are as follows-

 

1)Has anyone used the Actus/Sony with the Schneider Digitar lenses for macro and if so which lens?

 

2)Has anyone compared the A7r/Sony lenses vs Sony/Actus/Schneider(of other LF lenses)

 

3)What are the limitations in terms of shift/tilt using 35mm lenses (say the sony lenses) vs using LF lenses-I know the smaller image circle changes things and I am aware of the theory/physics behind it but does anybody have real world experience using this combo?

 

Normally I would rent a lens and test but it is difficult to rent decent modern LF lenses from where I am now(Hong Kong)  and then of course the lens mounts…

 

Many thanks for any info you have.

If your large format lenses are sharper than your

miniature format lenses, there's something wrong

with your mini format lenses. Simple Physics 101.

 

`

Not if they're diffraction limited. Just depends on aperture. A lot of large format is shot at f22, so of course, the small format lenses lose out!

 

PS I'm a physicist.

Hello,

 

are there any problems with the adapter between Sony and Actus?

Arca Swiss has large problems to build adapters with the required quality for its F-Universalis, so I'm curious if Cambo does a netter job.

 

Thank you!