Pictured somewhere in this blog post (I've been having a ton of problems with Blogger's formatting) is my new camera for architectural and interior shooting. Understandably this looks less like a camera than it does an abstract sculpture of sorts. The reason I guess I am posting about this is to share an idea with those shooting similar cameras. On top of the Cambo WRS1000 body you can see a C shaped clamp mounted to the hot shoe. I used this to mount my iphone 4 on top of the camera to use as a viewfinder (I'm using the Alpa settings on the Viewfinder Pro app.)
Anyways, Alpa is basically Cambo's main competitor in the realm of medium format digital specific plate cameras, which are usually used for high end landscape, architecture, and some product shooting. This year at Photokina Alpa released an iphone mount for their system for only £425.00 (roughly $567 CAN)!!! This product can be seen here. Not only does this product not exist (yet?) for the Cambo line, but it is so overpriced for something that does not technically interact with the camera itself. I've concocted a financially friendly alternative with a few parts from eBay.
One can find the two parts here:
http://cgi.ebay.ca/Universal-BRACKET-ADAPTER-MOUNT-Tripod-iPhone-4-3G-/170556453314?pt=PDA_Accessories&hash=item27b5f4f1c2
http://cgi.ebay.ca/1-4-20-Tripod-screw-Flash-Hot-Shoe-Mount-Adapter-/330378229087?pt=Camera_Flash_Accessories&hash=item4cec13b55f
The only potential downfalls of this compared to the Alpa mount are that the homemade mount is not completely level due to threading of the tripod mount and that the holder itself is plastic. I would rebut these arguments with the fact that one wouldn't expect the viewfinder to be perfectly level anyways because tethering is the only true way to perfect focusing on these plate style cameras. I also prefer plastic for decreased weight. You can't beat the price of this. Should the links go out of service, I will note that in the end I spent roughly $10 CAN, shipping included, compared to the branded $567 alternative.

1 comments:
Justin - very cool and worth a punt on my Alpa too until the real deal arrives!
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