[LargeFormat] Shooting Down from the Studio Ceiling

[Clive Warren]

At 15:20 18/01/2003 +0800, rstein wrote:
>      I need to shoot straight down with my 4 x 5 Linhof E monorail from up
>near the ceiling of my studio - the models will be sprawled out on the floor
>under the camera.
>
>     I need to suspend the E adequately - and stop vibration as it works -
>and adequately view the focussing and framing as we move the models about. I
>do have a rightangle finder for the E that will let me get my eye up there
>but how do I get my eye up there whilst suspended over the model?
>
>     The ceiling is only 10-11 feet high.

Dear Uncle Dick,

A couple of thoughts...... There are side booms available from your 
favorite pro equipment suppliers that will do the job of holding the 
camera. You will need to drill a few holes in the wall though.

As for looking through the ground glass, presumably this will be only for 
composition as you will have the focus all worked out, although you will 
still need to get up there to insert holders and pull slides etc. The 
solution that immediately springs to mind is to use one of the current crop 
of cheap miniature cameras pointed at the GG (could be a radio job) and a 
monitor screen placed somewhere comfortable so that you can swing the boom 
around and/or adjust the rotation of the camera on the boom until the 
composition is as you like it on the screen. You could use a camcorder but 
that may be a little too much hassle to rig up due to the weight. A small 
camera with a wide (plastic) lens could be held in position with some tape 
and they have humongous depth of field........

Cheers,
            Clive