I am thinking of buying a Linhof MT 2000 for travel and landscape work. I understand this camera will accept lenses from 47mm to 300mm without special accessories.

I am looking for a well made, rigid, precise, fairly light weight, fairly compact field camera. I only want to do this once, so your opinions would be appreciated. I do not do studio work but do travel internationally.

Thanks

Bill

-- Bill Johnson (bj87@aol.com), October 10, 2000

Answers

This camera is certainly one of the best suited for that use. It takes even longer lenses: 360 or 500 tele. You can't go wrong with the Tech, it has all the qualities you are looking for. As an alternative, I think the Ebony could have been a contender, if your work did require more movements.

-- Paul Schilliger (pschilliger@smile.ch), October 10, 2000.

Linhof makes fabulous cameras, and the Tech is justifiably their best- known line. I have an earlier one (Super V), and love it to distraction. Certainly, it cannot be beat among field cameras for rigidity and precision, and movements are fine for landscape. As to lightweight, everything is relative (a Tech is lighter than, for example, the space shuttle), but I would not list this as being among their prime virtues. Let's say 6-7 lb for a Master, probably 8 oz less for the MT 2000 because of the lack of the rangefinder. They are also very compact. This would certainly be my choice if I were to be buying a new 4 X 5 system for field use exclusively.

Nathan

-- Nathan Congdon (ncongdon@jhmi.edu), October 10, 2000.

35mm lenses and up on the 2000.

-- Bob Salomon (bobsalomon@mindspring.com), October 10, 2000.

Don't dis my space shuttle. It only weighs 4 million pounds.

(And I wish they'd get the thing off the ground - I'm getting tired of hauling the Toyo 45A and Minolta Maxxum 9 around the space center!)

-- John H. Henderson (jhende03@harris.com), October 11, 2000.