My experience with Cambo goes back to my days at the turn of the millennium working for SinarBron Imaging, the USA Importer for Sinar cameras at the time. Most of the studio 4×5 shooters that I came into contact with were using a Sinar or a Cambo (occasionally a Toyo…). If they used a Cambo they were spending only 50% – 70% the price of the Sinar. That is how Cambo was initially imprinted into my psyche, as the “value” brand. But in recent years, Cambo’s place in my compendium universe has changed from “value brand” to “premium brand”. Or, considering their price points, maybe premium just doesn’t sound right, so then I’m back to “value brand”, which doesn’t seem to match the amazing quality of their products, especially of late, where they have literally outdone themselves, so I am left with “frigging bargain brand”. I don’t know, we’ll let the marketing folks figure that out. In the meantime, after having spent a few weeks in July with a prototype model of a new product, we have now received the first shipping version of this product from Cambo called the Actus. Cambo has had a busy year – with things both large and small. Large news arrived earlier this year with the arrival of the world’s first technical camera that includes a built in geared sliding back, the Cambo WRS600. But now with the big news past, time for some really, really small news with the Cambo Actus. For reference, the Cambo Actus derives some lineage from the Cambo X2 Pro. The X2 Pro is a fantastic camera with built-in tilt/shift movements that allows one to mount digital cameras like Canons, Nikons, even Mamiya 645 medium format cameras with digital backs attached, and pair those with a variety of lenses from Hasselblad, Mamiya, Schneider, Rodenstock, etc. One caveat to the X2 Pro was size and a rather unconventional footprint, so portability was a challenge, but most were using it in the studio anyway. Included among the many pluses for the X2 Pro was the ability to apply shift/tilt/swing movements to the above mentioned lenses with a variety of cameras. However, due to the size of the addendum camera, and the distance this presented between the imaging plane and the rear optic, most view camera lenses wider than 70mm were a no go for infinity focusing. Oh, now I see – it’s a Cambo Actus. Is that a Hasselblad lens?Some years later, enter the Cambo Actus. Think – a very miniaturized version of an X2 Pro, with a more conventional view camera shape but an incredibly tiny footprint. Literally more like a very tiny little view camera. What in the world was Cambo thinking? They were thinking big thoughts….about small things. View cameras are not supposed to be this small! They really aren’t. First off, what can be cooler than rolling out one of those ginormous 11 x 14 view cameras? And part of what the ample size of these creatures brings forth is room to fit in all types of advanced gearing and self arresting mechanisms. You can’t really do that professionally with a little camera that is only about 3 inches wide. Or can you? To some degree, Cambo has indeed performed this trick. While they have not included self arresting movements, they have engineered an ample amount of movement with fine gearing and ease of use in a product that’s barely the size of a Coke can! So let’s see potentially how much we can get away with. As we’ve seen with Apple, making small, precise things that work simply and look nice is incredibly difficult. But somehow, the Actus combines all of that in one go. Now, the quick specs that matter: Weight is approximately 1000 grams (2 lbs, 3 ounces for non-metricals) Horizontal rear shift of 20mm/20mm Vertical rear shift (rise/fall) of 12mm/15mm Front swing of 360 degrees (that could look interesting) Front tilt of 22 degrees, (12/10 degrees) Arca Swiss compatible base rail Let’s now take a very close look at what Cambo has delivered. As you can see, Cambo’s fine machining is at play here as we look at some of the individual components. Note that there will be 2 different color options. The standard version is black anodized, but optionally there is the Titanium version (I shall capitalize that), which is a sort of lustrous silver/gold. Honestly, don’t you have enough black cameras? Another question – can they be mixed and matched when ordering? Really? really? Don’t…. just don’t.  Movement, I got movement! All right then, so let’s talk about these movements and how you, well…..do them. East/west horizontal shift is 20mm in each direction. These are not geared movements, but the action of freely sliding the rear standard left to right and vice versa is smooth and controlled. And as an added bonus, there are detents at the 0 and 10mm positions. I love detents! For those who are wondering what a detent is, it means you can place the position of the shift with your eyes closed, as you feel a concrete dip at the detented positions, and you know where you are. It’s just very easy – and I feel like I’m going to use the word “easy” many many times in this article. The rise/fall control has no scale, but there are 3 detents at 10mm/0/12mm (bottom, middle, top). Your swing control is 360 degrees. So, perhaps you could play around with shooting through the front optic of your lens! Or not… At any rate, both the swing and tilt movements are geared, scaled and work easily. The tilt movement is considered an axis tilt, which doesn’t mean it is evil (far from it!), it simply means that the tilt axis occurs centrally in the middle portion of the lens, which minimizes the need for additional focus adjustments. Besides all these movement possibilities, one must also remember that your Sony/Canon/Nikon camera isn’t going to be doing the focusing, the Cambo Actus … Continue reading First Look – Cambo Actus: a small miracle