All Rights Reserved. Summary The Sinar A1 is Sinar's introductory or beginner's 4x5. The A1 is, in fact, the SInar F1 in all but name, rail, and rail attachments, as far as I can tell. The film back is not rotatable in the Toyo sense, but is easily taken out and put back vertically or horizontally without much fuss.
Minimum extension is a function of lens rear element size when using the wide angle bellows.
Sinar provide a few pricey accesories like binocular reflex viewing hoods, etc, but third party accesories like the Calumet roll film back, filter holders, lens shades, etc. Bogen 3036 tripod and 3029 head. The rented items were from Gasser's in San Francisco. The A1 is light, strong, has adequate movements, is easy to use, and produces good results. I have only minor criticisms, all of which are covered in a later paragraph.