I received my Hobo few weeks ago. I use it with a 121 Super Angulon and it's great fun to shoot 8x10 without a tripod ! Does anyone use it too ? Thanks, Guillaume Zuili

-- guillaume zuili (gzuili@cybercable.fr), July 11, 2000

Answers

What is your impression of the quality of the camera body? I think the HOBO concept has excellent potential, especially in the 4x5 format with the Schneider 47XL.

-- Bruce Gavin (doc@compudox.com), July 11, 2000.

Yes, body is very solid and well made.They have annouced a 5x7 but I don't know if a 4x5 is on project. It should be. Anyway it's a very cheap way to do 8x10,and more important, a completely new way to shoot !

-- guillaume zuili (gzuili@cybercable.fr), July 12, 2000.

Didn't Bill Brandt use something simmilar to a Hobo for his perspectives on nudes? - Now there's an idea you could try doing something like that, definately be different from cheesey glamour many models have been hired to do at some stage. In fact if I remember correctly Brandt's camera was an old police scenes of crime camera with a lens providing a 110 degree angle of view on (I think) 8x6 film, could have been Kodak Plus-x stock but I'm not sure. Anyway it just goes to show that you can take great photos with such a cheap camera.

-- David Kirk (David_J_Kirk@hotmail.com), July 12, 2000.

A few HOBO cameras were provided during this years Mammoth Camera Workshop in Sandy, Utah, put on by Tillman Crane and the Waterford Institute. They were put to a lot of use, with more than 150 sheets of 8x10 run through both the 120mm and the 90mm lenses mounted on them. Fun, easy to use and very different in mental concept for shooting than with the 8x10 on a tripod. Mixed with 400 speed film, they sure provided a lot of options hand held, or with a monopod.

-- Dan Smith (shooter@brigham.net), July 12, 2000.

One of my pet (back-burner) projects is to convert a wrecked Crown Graphic body into a HOBO for use with the 47XL lens. Fixing the focus at 4.4 feet will provide the hyperfocal point for f/11. Stopped down to f/32, sharpenss is from 1 foot to infinity.

Using the Graphic would let me mount the 47XL on a Crown lens board, then use it with my Crown-to-Sinar adapter, should the need arise to use the 47XL on the Sinar for movements.

My only concern about the HOBO is the back they use. It is unclear to me if it is a real back and ground glass focusing panel, or just a film holder.

-- Bruce Gavin (doc@compudox.com), July 13, 2000.

It looks like just the film holder.

-- sheldon_hambrick (sheldon_hambrick@hotmail.com), July 13, 2000.

You have a ground glass focusing panel, you need to remove it to put the film holder. The ground glass is useless unless you want to shoot at f;8

-- guillaume zuili (gzuili@cybercable.fr), July 14, 2000.