Last weekend I did a quick road trip up to Rotorua… The motivation was.. camera gear lol! Someone listed a huge seriously heavy Linhof tripod, so heavy they refused to ship it. They only wanted $100 for it, so I hit BUY NOW and figured I’d write the petrol off as part of the purchase price. But it intrigued me that maybe there were other Linhof tripods out there so I searched FB Marketplace and there was another for sale for $100 in Foxton, which was on the route of my road trip.
I picked it up first:

Its solid AF, and max height is about 6 foot… But the best was yet to come. The tripod in Tauranga looked like this in its listing:

From the photos you can’t really detect that absolutely crucial difference… So I was running on faith. I know Linhof make excellent cameras & gear…

I drove to Rotorua & stayed an excellent Air BnB about 10 minutes out of the city.

Sunday I drove an hour to Tauranga, met the owner & we chatted about film etc for an hour or more! I got back to my Air BnB and got both tripods out to have a play, and find out what I had bought.

So this shows how high both tripods can go, but the crucial aspect of the big one is hidden in plain sight IF you read German, which I dont…

Schiansky is the brand name – only the head is actually made by Linhof.
But KURBEL-EINSATZ apparently means “Crank Insert”

So with the slightly smaller tripod, you would mount your camera on the head, frame your shot & then carefully raise the camera. I say carefully as the centre rod can freely rotate, so if you were not very careful you could easily change the direction of the camera, and your shot.

The larger tripod has a crank handle – so you mount your camera on the head, frame your shot. And then you use the crank handle to raise the centre column, which CANNOT rotate at all, due to the crank-drive mechanism.
Brilliant design!! You may not appreciate why it matters but eg shooting my Linhof Technorama 617 camera I only get 4 shots per roll of 120 film. Four shots per roll! So having reliable, rock solid support for the camera is crucial. But I’ve also always loved how Ansel Adams put his cameras at raised heights:

While its an ingenious method, the more important question is WHY?
Why go to the trouble of raising your camera like that?
Well, if you’ve ever flown a drone you will know that while a drone can capture amazing perspectives from all heights, you actually only need to go up about 2+ metres to get a super-human view! Whether looking over a fence, or other humans, or uninteresting foreground, this tripod is a perfect match for my Linhof Technorama… and my XPAN will enjoy some time with it too!

To justify the trip I checked out what else the seller had listed and bought an awesome macro rig! But only because I’d become interested in an infamous macro lens.

This 90mm F2.5 macro lens was made by Tokina, and became famous with a nickname of Bokina due to the beautiful bokeh it produces. I had been fairly happy with my Canon EF100 F2.4 macro lens but.. like most modern Canon lens it is plastic and lightweight. It works well & has autofocus, but I’ve used my Zeiss prime lenses so much I know what a serious prime lens feels like, and its not plastic.
The Tokina macro lens were made for only a few formats – Nikon and Contax/Yashica format. But a quick search revealed you can easily fit a cheap adaptor from C/Y format to Canon EF. So I bought the lens above and ordered a couple of the adaptors. They all arrived and OMG its a beautiful lens! Its heavy, metal construction and the focus mechanism is so subtle & gentle. Its like driving a beautifully engineered European car versus a cheap Japanese import from the 90s. Buying a mint copy for NZ$300 just seems outrageous!!

So when I saw this macro setup listed by the big Linhof tripod eprson, for Contax/Yashica format, I did not hesitate. Check it out:

Its basically new – full macro bellows rig with a dedicated macro lens which has no focus control – cos that’s what the bellow are for… The manual shows some wild examples of use too:

I’ve said it many times but there are two truisms attached to this mission.
First is that, a lot of OG film photographers are aging out. Had such a great chat with the guy who sold me the big tripod & macro set, about his history & his Dads, who owned the tripod for use with a big View camera.

The second is that knowledge is king! I paid about 4x as much for a plastic macro lens new, because I did not know about the Tokina lens or adapting it to EF. Same for the tripod.

Many people might wonder why you would drive 6 hours for a $100 tripod. Thats because I equate its value and level of quality with that of a $2000 tripod.
And I have a use for it!

KNOWLEDGE IS KING!

also, had excellent sushi at Sachi
OMG those scallops were incredible!
I eat take out sushi once a week or more,
so it was a great reminder of how good sushi can be!